Motoring | Features

Formula 1 racer Nigel Mansell

By all accounts, Nigel Mansell was awkward, moody and cold. But on the track, he was hot stuff

By Imran Malik, Sub Editor, wheels
Published: 11:36 August 30, 2012

Image Credit: Supplied picture
1992 Formula One world champion Nigel Mansell.

There have been some truly astonishing moments in Formula 1 history. We’ve seen it all from those legendary tussles between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna (who can forget the race in Japan in 1989 when they collided in the last chicane and both went off the track) to Christian Fittipaldi back flipping his car over the finish line in first place at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix and to Martin Brundle walking away unhurt following a massive crash in Australia three years later. But in my mind, one incident sticks out more than most.

It was way back in 1984 during the Dallas GP when the mustachioed Nigel Mansell crashed into a wall on the last corner of the race. He hopped out of his damaged Lotus 95T and desperately tried to push it over the finish line but collapsed in a heap on the floor due to the extreme heat. I feared the worst thinking he’d died. I guess the eyes can play tricks on you when you are just six or seven years old, as I was at the time.

He’d survived a broken neck during his Formula Ford days so a little hyperthermia wasn’t going to keep him out of action for long. Maybe it was out of sympathy more than anything else but watching him toil with his car was enough to make him my favourite driver.

Drama seemed to follow the Brit on the track — he’d often take on daring overtaking manoeuvres and muscled his cars on circuits all over the world like a man possessed. Taking on the aforementioned greats, Senna and Prost, would require serious skill, grit and determination. Nigel had enough to waste.

Fans loved him for his no-nonsense fighting style and you just knew when he lined up on the grid, the race would be thoroughly exciting. He had a never-say-die attitude, which he demonstrated on his Grand Prix debut.

It was in Austria, 1980, and his Lotus sprung a leak and fuel was entering the cockpit causing him first and second degree burns. But he continued with the race in spite of being in sheer agony and only stopped when his car broke down. With Colin Chapman at the helm, he forged a close relationship with Lotus. But, after Colin’s death in 1982, life with the team became a struggle for the Midlander.

New owner Peter Warr couldn’t stand him citing he had a difficult personality and was rather complex and demanding. But this just added to his persona. He tasted success while with Williams, but having left them for the second time in his glittering career, team boss Frank famously stated that, “We’ll miss him as a driver but not as a bloke.”