Nigel Mansell only won one world driver's championship during his time in Formula 1, but his speed and ability means he is remembered even today.
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The 80s and early 90s in the sport of Formula 1 is fondly looked back upon by fans of a certain generation. It is easy to understand why – seven different drivers won the world championship from 1980-94. All would go on to establish themselves as legends of the sport. The likes of Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet captivated fans with their speed and daredevillery. But among the driver’s line-ups at that point was a British driver who could count himself unlucky to only win one championshiop. Yes of course, we are talking of Nigel Mansell.
The fiery Brit, renowned as much for his devil-may-care attitude as well as his twirly moustache, certainly had the numbers to be counted among the greats.
187 starts. 31 wins. 59 podiums. One championship. And the man with the unique honour of being the last driver personally signed to Ferrari by the late great Enzo Ferrari.
As the man who drove the “Red 5” turns 68, we look back at his 1992 world championship win.
Before 1992, Mansell missed out on winning the driver’s championship on not one, not two, but three seperate occasions.
The first came in 1986, which saw an epic three-way battle for the title. Going into the final race in Australia it was Prost, Piquet and Mansell who all stood a chance to finish on top.
The equation was simple: Prost and Piquet both needed a win while also hoping Mansell didn’t finish higher than fourth. In the end it didn’t matter as Mansell suffered a left-rear tyre puncture with 19 laps to go.
And while it was Prost who denied him the title then, it was Piquet who did the same a year later. This time it was more straightforward, as Mansell missed the last two races due to suffering a spinal concussion in Japan after an accident.
The third of those came during the first year of his comeback to Williams in 1991. He again took a number of wins but suffered one too many retirements. As a result, he finished second again – this time behind Senna.
Having been stung thrice, he was not to be denied a year later.
Nigel Mansell was not normally known for his consistency in driving. However, he showed remarkable consistency at the beginning of the season.
With a Williams-Renault that was the fastest car on the grid, Mansell took wins in the first five races. This is a record that still stands and has only been matched once – by Michael Schumacher in 2004.
Mansell would have won a sixth but for a loose wheel nut at the 1992 Monaco GP. He needed to pit with 7 laps remaining and came out behind Senna.
He reduced the gap between them but could not find a way past on a street circuit notoriously hard to overtake on. Still, he was on quite the roll.
He would go on to win four more races that year – a hat-trick of successive wins at France, England and Germany and one at Portugal.
His title win saw him break a number of records. He took the fewest races to win the title since the 16-race format to the season began. He also took 14 poles – the most in a season and a record broken only by Sebastian Vettel in 2011.
Mansell also had the most race starts before being crowned champion (180). This record was broken by Nico Rosberg in 2016, who started 206 races before winning the title.
To top things off, he would go on to win the CART IndyCar World Series championship a year later after leaving Williams due to a dispute that involved Prost being signed to the team.
