Nigel Mansell: ‘Red 5’ Turns 71 Years Young

Formula One was always the goal for Nigel Mansell, but it certainly did not come to him on a silver platter. The rough and ready Brummy had to fight for every opportunity heading up the motorsport ladder. The debut in F1 came at a great cost: Selling everything he owned and remortgaging his house, unannounced to his wife at the time, was what it took for him to get his start within Formula One.

Nigel Mansell, Goodwood Festival of Speed 2022.

Early Career​

Mansell started his motorsport career fairly late in life compared to other drivers of the time. After considerable success in national kart racing, Mansell took the next step into Formula Ford at the age of 15.

After success in Formula Ford, Formula Three beckoned the young Brit. In 1977, Mansell won a staggering 33 races to become the 1977 British Formula Ford champion. Despite the success, it was a highly important year for Mansell’s health. He broke his neck in a qualifying session at Brands Hatch, after which doctors told him he had been mere inches away from becoming quadriplegic.

Mansell was told he would never drive again and he may well lose the ability to move his limbs over time. But instead of accepting that his career would be over, Mansell discharged himself from the hospital and returned to racing just a few weeks later. Three weeks before the accident, he had resigned from his job as an aerospace engineer.

Mansell’s 1978 March Triumph F3 car. Image: Pahazzard on Wikimedia Commons for free distribution CC BY-SA 3.0

Mansell’s determination and obvious raw talent were picked up by the March Racing Team for 1978 after his first convincing starts in a Lola T570 Formula 3 car in 1977. Mansell would contest both the British and the European F3 championships with the Unipart Team in 1979, followed by a 1980 campaign in British F3 with March and Formula Two with Ralt.

This foray into Formula Three was when Lotus team principal Colin Chapman first heard about and got to admire. Mansell’s now iconic and aggressive driving style.

What followed was a hard-fought Formula One test that Mansell had to drug himself up on painkillers to get through due to the pain in his previously broken neck. He performed well enough during the test at the Paul Ricard circuit to be selected to become the test driver for the then Norfolk-based Lotus Formula One team in 1979. The full-time seat would eventually go to Italian driver Elio de Angelis.

Mansell’s Lotus 91, 1982. Image: Andrew & Alan Frost on Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0

After appearing at three Grands Prix in a Lotus 81B (and not seeing the checkered flag in any of them), the Englishman’s first full season followed in 1981. Mansell would finish 14th in the overall standings, the same as in 1982. A 13th and a 10th overall at season’s end followed in 1983 and 1984 – and then, an iconic combination took shape.

Williams​

For the 1985 season, Mansell would join Frank Williams’ outfit behind the wheel of the Williams FW10. Keke Rosberg would be the Briton’s teammate. It was this era of Mansell’s first stint at Williams that coined the nickname ‘Red5’, as Mansell had a red-coloured number instead of the normal white car number as found on Rosberg’s FW10 to help distinguish between the two Williams cars.

This car would ultimately not be front-running material until the mid-season break, however, this did not stop Mansell from breaking the record for the highest-speed crash in Formula One history (at the time) in practice for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard.

Mansell went off at the fast Courbe de Signes at over 200 mph. Remarkably, he only suffered a concussion by some miracle, however, it would stop him from competing in Sunday’s race in which his teammate would finish second.

Williams FW10. Image: Jerry Lee-Lewis on Wikimedia Commons for free distribution CC BY-SA 2.0.

His first win would come at his home Grand Prix at Brands Hatch late in the season, which Mansell would then follow up with another fantastic win in South Africa at the Kyalami circuit. It was now obvious that this driver could hang with the front-runners of the time.

1986 was a very hard for Williams despite Mansell’s five wins. Team principal Frank Williams was involved in a horrific road traffic accident following a testing session at Paul Ricard, confining him to a wheelchair. The team would begin to implode mid-season without the authority figure in the garage, and through snuck McLaren’s Alain Prost to claim the 1986 driver’s world title in a dramatic finale at Adelaide. Does Murray Walker’s “and collossaly, that’s Mansell!” call ring a bell?

1987 was a similar story, with six more wins for Mansell. This year, however, the Williams car was fast from the start. Mansell would suffer a serious back injury at a crash in Japan that would ultimately lose him the championship to his teammate Nelson Piquet in what turned into a rather unpleasant and bitter rivalry between the two drivers. Piquet called his win over Mansell “a win of intelligence over stupidity”.

1988 saw Williams run a naturally-aspirated Judd V8 engine in anticipation of the turbo ban that was coming in 1989, so the team was behind the turbo teams in the pecking order. Incredibly, Mansell would only finish two races, taking second place in Silverstone and Jerez, respectively. For 1989, he would move on to another iconic team.

Ferrari and the Tifosi​

Mansell at Ferrari. Stuart Seeger on Wikimedia Commons for free distribution CC BY-SA 2.0.

Mansell’s Ferrari career was written in the stars before a wheel had touched the tarmac. The honour of being a Ferrari driver was not lost upon Mansell, and what made it even more special was that he was the last driver to be hand-picked by Il Commendatore himself, Enzo Ferrari.

A 1989 Ferrari F40 was Enzo Ferrari’s signing gift to Mansell. To the Tifosi, Mansell became known as “il leone”n which means The Lion. The 1989 season was one of change in the sport, with the banning of turbo engines and the introduction of the controversial electronically controlled semi-automatic transmission by Ferrari. You can drive Mansell’s 1988 car within the original rFactor, by the way, as a mod is available in our download section.

Mansell famously booked an early flight home from the season-opening Brazillian Grand Prix that was due to leave halfway through the race due to the knowledge that the brand new and mostly untested gearbox would likely pack it in in the heat of Rio. However, he instead took a very unexpected win on his rival’s home soil, Nelson Piquet.

Mansell was the first driver to ever win a race with a semi-automatic gearbox and would also be the last driver to win on debut for the Scuderia until Kimi Räikkönen won the 2007 Australian Grand Prix.

Nigel Mansell, Belgium 1989. Image: madagascarica on Wikimedia Commons for free distribution CC BY-SA 2.0.

Finishing fourth alongside teammate Gerhard Berger in 1989, Mansell again would score just one win in the 1990 World Championship, winning the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril. Following that, Mansell would announce his retirement from the sport… But not for long.

The plans of the then 37-year-old were thrown in the bin when Frank Williams offered him a return drive with his team. Mansell’s return to Williams was not as lovey-dovey as some might have expected, however, as he would only agree to return only if a list of demands were met.

These demands included undisputed number-one status over Italian teammate Riccardo Patrese, 100% support in a wide variety of areas with each guarantee in writing, and assurances from suppliers Renault and Elf that they would do everything in their power to aid him in his quest to win.

Nigel Mansell’s maiden British Grand Prix victory.

This return to form, also aided by a certain Adrian Newey joining the team, would grant Mansell the prize that he had been chasing since his days in karting, a World Driver’s Championship. After a hotly contested 1991 season that ultimately went the way of Ayrton Senna and McLaren, Mansell threw everything he had at the 1992 campaign and finally got dealt a hand he could work with.

With five victories in the first five rounds, it was clear that Mansell wanted this more than ever. Monaco, forever a sticking point for the Brit, was yet again causing problems. A loose wheel nut meant that Mansell had to pit from the lead, ultimately costing him the race win to Brazil’s Senna.

In the end, there was no stopping the combination of the technologically-advanced Williams FW14B and Mansell. Making the most of systems like active suspension and traction control, the Briton had wrapped up the title by the Hungarian Grand Prix – with five races still to go.

Come the end of the season, Mansell held the undesirable record for the most races entered before becoming a Drivers World Champion at 180 starts. This record was painstakingly broken by Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg in 2016 with 206 races.

Mansell would retire as champion in 1992 and pursue a career across the pond in IndyCar, Formula One’s main sporting rival at the time.

CART IndyCar World Series​

Mansell signed with top team Newman/Haas Racing to pair with Mario Andretti. This duo was tipped to be the ones to watch with all eyes on how the reigning World Champion would do in CART machinery. The doubters were swiftly stifled when Mansell became the first debutant of the series to score a pole position and win the race.

He would go on to score five wins in the 1993 IndyCar season, which, with more high-placed finishes, was good enough to earn him the championship. This made Mansell the only driver in history to hold both the Formula One and CART championships at the same time, as Alain Prost and Williams had not yet wrapped up the F1 title at the time Mansell could not lose the IndyCar title anymore over in the US.

Make sure you check out the awesome mod for these incredible cars on the original rFactor. They can be downloaded here on OverTake.gg.

1994 was a disastrous year for Mansell, the Newman/Haas-fielded and Ford-powered Lola was unreliable and caused plenty of issues. The relationship with Mario Andretti also soured, and Mansell turned back to the international competition of Formula One when race dates did not clash.

The return of the 1992 World Champion came in tragic circumstances, however, as Mansell took over the car Senna was supposed to drive. His old rival had died at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, and David Coulthard first stood in in Spain, contesting most of the season in the Williams with the number 2.

Whilst the Williams return was short-lived, Mansell was able to take his final Grand Prix victory in Adelaide that year. Mansell out-qualified the two title contenders at the time, Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher.

Meanwhile, he had agreed on a new contract to drive for Williams again for the 1995 World Championship season, but later claimed that the contract had been rescinded by Williams. Frank’s outfit ultimately went for youth over experience and hired Coulthard full-time for the 1995 season.

His F1 career was not quite over, however, as Mansell joined forces with long-time rivals McLaren. Or so it was intended. Infamously, Nigel did not fit in the McLaren MP4/10’s cockpit, so the team had to widen it. This was done in time for the San Marino Grand Prix – that and the following Spanish GP would be Mansell’s only starts for McLaren. The 1992 World Champion left after those two outings, seeing that the car would not be competitive.

The British Touring Car Championship​

There was more racing to be done, though. And that does not mean the talks with Jordan for a possible comeback in 1997, although Nigel even tested the 1996 car.

Instead, it was about tin tops. Mansell had already competed in the 1993 TOCA shootout, where another huge accident led to him being knocked unconscious. However, he would return later on in the decade in 1998 at the wheel of the West Surrey Racing Ford Mondeo.

Nigel Mansell, Brands Hatch 1998. Image: tonylanciabeta on Wikimedia Commons for free distribution CC BY-SA 2.0.

During his first event at Donington Park, Mansell retired just three laps into the sprint race. This would normally mean that the feature race was going to be a boring affair stuck at the back of the pack. However, as the conditions changed and the track became wetter, Mansell found himself leading the race for several laps after some of the best touring car racing the world has ever seen. The feature race at Donington Park in 1998, is regarded by many fans as one of the greatest in touring car history.

Appreciation for a Legend​

Despite the controversies and whether you loved him or hated him, Nigel Mansell has one of the most interesting and unbelievable journies to the top of the motorsport ladder. He has driven for all of the top teams of the time, and come out with some form of success in each of them. From F1 and IndyCar to the BTCC and Formula Ford. Nigel Mansell is a legend of our sport.

Happy birthday Nigel Mansell, may your legacy live long in the memory of all motorsport fans!

What is your favourite Nigel Mansell memory or moment? Let us know down in the comments below!