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About Nigel Mansell - |
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Nigel Mansell was born on 8th of August 1953 in Upton-on-Severn. His first racing experience into motor sport started at the age of 15 when he took a part-time job as an engineer. However, he never lost his ambition to drive and in the mid-70's he began to compete in the British Formula-Ford 1600 competition. Subscribe to our free RSS Feed and get all the latest Formula 1 information. |
In 1976 he experienced his first ever race-victory at Mellory Park. With the win behind him Nigel Mansell had a desire to succeed within the sport. This was ever so apparent when one year later he clinched his first championship, winning 32 of the 42 races he contested. This victory was more impressive as returned to racing against medical advice as he had broken his back as a result of a racing accident. Despite winning the British Formula-Ford 1600 championship Nigel struggled to make his way. Therefore, in 1979 Rosanne, Nigel's Wife and he sold their house to pay for a couple of Formula 3-races with the March-team. Although the March was anything, but competitive, the efforts of Nigel were unbelievable and soon attracted the attention of Lotus-Formula 1 boss Colin Chapman. Nigel Mansell later got invited to have a test in the Lotus. Unfortunately just before that test, Nigel received a crushed vertebra in the neck after he had collided with Italian Andrea de Cesaris in a Formula 3 race. This put doubt in Chapman's mind on whether he would be fit enough for a Formula 1 test, but in the now loved spirit of Nigel he answered, "Don't worry, I'll be there!" 1980 saw Nigel sign as a test-driver with Lotus; however in August 1980 he was given two races to prove his talent in a 3rd Lotus car at the Osterreichring and Zandvoort circuits. Unfortunately for both the races he was stopped by mechanical failures. Despite these setbacks the first appearances were nonetheless very promising. In 1981 he was given a full time contract and he scored his first podium finish at Zolder in Belgium. During this time Nigel became formed a very good relation with the team and a close friendship with Chapman who died in 1982. Although Nigel gained significant results in 1982, the Lotus car was anything but a title contending car. As a result his spectacular spins, accidents and unbelievable bad luck made him butt for jokes of other people. This would soon to change when Frank Williams gave him the second seat alongside Keke Rosberg in 1985. The season of 1985 began very badly for Nigel. Nevertheless, he achieved a very emotional first ever GP-victory with a home victory at Brands-Hatch, which was then followed by a second triumph at Kyalami only 2 weeks later. 1986 saw Nelson Piquet replacing Keke Rosberg. Piquet expected Nigel to be a "classic Number 2", however Nigel had other ideas by winning in Belgium, Canada, France, UK and Portugal. These wins meant that he marginally led the Driver's Championship going into the last race. In dramatic circumstances, Nigel's championship-hopes blew up with his rear tyre as he kissed the wall which gave him a puncture. Alain Prost snatched away the title. 1987 saw Nigel Mansell win six times, but again like the year before he narrowly missed out of becoming World Champion as an accident in practice at Suzuka caused him to sustain am injured neck. This gave Nelson Piquet the chance to use Nigel's retirement in the last races to win the title despite only taking 3 race victories. After the season, Frank Williams lost the excellent Honda-Engine to Ron Dennis and the year 1988 turned to disaster, with the underpowered Judd-engines. Nigel only finished 2 races in the entire season as retirement was a common occurrence. In 1989 Nigel joined Ferrari. Nigel's Ferrari era started well as he won the first Grand Prix of the 1989 campaign, and then adding a second memorable win at the Hungaroring, where he stormed up the field from 12th position of the grid. He rated the race himself as "Definitely the best drive of my career." The 1990 season saw Ferrari strengthen the team by signing Triple-World Champion Alain Prost. Despite a good rapport between the drivers an encouraging winter testing the start of the season was quite disappointing. Luck however returned when Nigel won the Portuguese Grand-Prix at Estoril. This victory lifted him to become the most successful British F1 driver equal to Stirling Moss with 16 victories at that point. Nigel finished the 1990 season in 5th. To the fans shock, Nigel announced at the British Grand-Prix that he was going to retire from Formula 1. This started a massive wave of public support for staying in the competition. Due to both the support and Frank's belief that he was the only driver, who was able to bring his team back to the leading position, Nigel returned to the Williams team. From hindsight it is clear that 1992 turned into Mansell's-Year. He set an incredible number of 14 out of 16 pole-positions. He won 9 of 16 races. And he clinched the championship after already 11 races at Hungaroring. In Monza he announced, that he had signed a PPG Indycar World Series-contract with Newman-Haas after failing to agree the terms for a new contract with Frank Williams. The Indycar-season began, like the Formula 1 season ended, glorious. Nigel Mansell took both pole and the victory at the very first Indycar-race at Surfers-Paradise, Australia. Both spectators and people within the paddock were surprised of his achievement. He was the first ever Indycar-rookie to achieve both pole and victory in the debut-race. In the next race at Phoenix, his first ever oval appearance he had to learn the difference between street- and oval tracks. He lost control of his Lola-Ford and crashed heavily into the wall. In spite of this set back and a back-injury, he returned at Long Beach where h finished third and thus allowing him to retake the championship-lead. Now everybody was expecting him to be scared by oval tracks after the Phoenix disaster, but on the contrary. Except Phoenix and Indianapolis, Nigel Mansell won all oval races at Milwaukee, Michigan, New Hampshire and Nazareth. And even in Indianapolis he was close to win, leading most laps, but with a few laps to go he touched the wall which slightly damaged his front suspension. After his win at Nazareth it was clear, that his advantage on Emerson Fittipaldi would suffice to make him Indycar-Champion as rookie. He was not only the first rookie to manage that, but the first back-to-back champion in Formula 1 and Indycar. The second year with Newman-Haas was very disappointing, because all teams were outgunned by the dominant Al Unser Jr. After the death of Ayrton Senna at San Marino, Nigel made four guest appearances with Williams-Renault, winning the heartbeat-final at Adelaide, where Michael Schumacher took out Damon Hill to win his first World Championship Title. Since 1994, Nigel Mansell has taken part in the 24 hours of Chamonix race, the British Turing Car Championship and more recently the GP Masters series where in his own style he won from pole on his debut. |
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