Fan of Formula 1 history and Alain Prost

Happy Birthday Nige here’s some notes and pictures of each F1 era

His karting and Formula Ford days.

Unipart 1979 and Nigels first time in an f1 car with the Lotus 79 in the October of 1979.

TEAM LOTUS 1980 - 1984

Nigels first race with the Lotus team Nigels first podium (1981 Belgian GP) Nigel saw Colin Chapman as a father and was devastated when Colin passed in December of 1982. Mansell kept to Colin’s contract, despite troubles with the higher ups. Nigel and Elio were great friends and were up to all sorts of adventures together, they became closer after Nigel left Lotus, and became closer over the struggles with Peter Warr(who became head of the team after Chapmans death) just like Colin, Elios death was a shock Mansell was there during Elio’s accident and tried to pull him out of the car "I remember sitting on the kerbing in the pit lane after Elio had been taken to the hospital and i knew he was dead. i was stunned, shocked, tearful. We’d been teammates for a long time. One of my best friends in the paddock was dead." Mansell had spoken about Elio de Angelis accident in 1986 changed his perspective on driving greatly.

WILLIAMS 1985 - 1988

Nigels first win (1985 European GP) Nigels Championship Hopes, 1986 Australian GP, the last race of the season unfortunately ended with a DNF. A tire exploded on lap 64 which ended his championship hopes for 1986, if he binned it into the wall there would’ve been a red flag and the championship would’ve been given to him, which he didn’t and i think that shows his character well. Nigel was placed 2nd (70pts) while Mclarens Alain Prost won the title with 72 points 1987 another championship title out of his hands, there was a serious qualifying accident at Suzuka that injured his back again (a spinal concussion) and handed the title to his hated Williams-Honda team mate Nelson Piquet (who called Mansell "an uneducated blockhead" and took verbal shots at Nigels wife Rosanne) The highlight of 1987 was his clever late race charge to beat his least favourite Brazilian at Silverstone. Mansell was simply unstoppable setting lap records 11 times in the final moments as he reeled in the other Williams. On his victory lap, as thousands of patriotic fans in the feverish grip of 'Mansellmania' flooded onto the track, their hero stopped to kiss the tarmac at the spot where he'd overtaken Piquet at 180mph.

His 'me against the world' mentality caused conflict. At Williams, Patrick Head said "he thinks everybody is trying to shaft him at all times" and Frank Williams called him "a pain in the arse". The media also tired of Mansell's chronic complaining. But the fans loved him for the pure, aggression with which he raced. Even that wasn't enough to overcome the deficiencies of the Judd-engined Williams cars in 1988 and when an opportunity arose at Ferrari to finally be the number 1 driver Mansell grabbed onto it with both hands. (Nigel was the last driver to be signed by Enzo Ferrari himself and Mansell was proud of that)

FERRARI 1989 - 1990

His 1989 debut with Ferrari began with a win in Rio and throughout the season he flogged his Ferrari for all it was worth, endearing himself to the passionate Italian tifosi who called their moustachioed British hero 'Il Leone' (The Lion) At the Hungaroring, where overtaking is supposed to be impossible and where he had qualified a seemingly hopeless 12th, Mansell stormed through the field, scraped past Senna's McLaren in a breathtaking manoeuvre and won the race. In 1990 Mansell was not impressed when Prost became his team mate the frenchman outmanoeuvred Nigel politically turning the Ferrari teams attention to Prost slowly making him the number one. At Silverstone the 'British Bulldog' theatrically threw his gloves into the adoring crowd and announced he was retiring at the end of the season. A few months later he made a U-turn and announced he was returning to Williams.

WILLIAMS 1991 - 1992

In 1991 he won five times in the Williams-Renault but lost out on reliability (which he was working on perfecting with Williams for ‘92) to McLaren's Senna, who took the title. Despite breaking his foot at the end of 91, Mansell dominated, winning 9 of the 16 races in his Williams-Renault FW14B, but shortly after he was declared the 1992 World Champion he again announced his retirement. His grievances with Williams included a dispute over money and anger that the despised Prost might be his 1993 team mate. Williams offered a last-minute incentive of whatever conditions he wanted but Mansell stalked off to IndyCar racing in America, where he immediately dominated, even on the unfamiliar high speed ovals, and became the 1993 IndyCar champion with Newman/Haas Racing, and remains the only driver to have simultaneously held both the World Drivers' Championship and the American open-wheel National Championship.

WILLIAMS 1994

Mansell returned to F1 with Williams in 1994 following Senna’s death, making a 4 appearances that included a pole-sitting, race-winning run at the Adelaide finale. However, despite that win, Williams opted to give youngster David Coulthard a shot alongside Hill for 1995.

Which last minute opened up the Mclaren deal again for Nigel (he previously didn’t think about it because of money issues) If 1995 went well the possible extension to the ‘96 season for his contract looked promising

Nigel was excited

Mansell added: "The motivation is there like never before. I believe the team will be a force to be reckoned with."

He said: "It is the first time I have had a chance to look at it and if it goes as quick as it looks everyone else had better watch out." McLaren boss Ron Dennis said the car, with a revolutionary central wing positioned immediately behind the driver's head, was right on the limit, but legal. "We wanted it to be like this, to be as close to the limit as we could go," he said.

MCLAREN 1995

Where was Rene Arnoux during the race? Not in the Renault pits, regretting not having qualified, but languishing in nearby Belgian gaol.

The previous evening, an unhappy Arnoux had left the circuit without any prospects for the following day. Rain had meant that he hadn’t qualified. A long queue of traffic waited at the exit gate, but Arnoux was in no mood to wait. He pulled past a number of cars, and slotted into a gap further up the line.

The car behind flashed his lights. “The fellow behind has recognised me,” thought Rene. No sir. The flashing light was in anger, and the driver promptly jumped out of his car and jumped on Rene’s Renault 5 bonnet.

“Get off”, shouted Rene, but the guy didn’t move. So Rene set off with the man still clinging to the windscreen wipers. At the exit to the circuit, Rene stopped. “What do you want? I told you to get off.” No reaction. If this was a joke, Rene was ready to go along with it, and was going to get his own back. He drove back to the hotel at about 40 mph, the man still clinging to the windscreen wipers.

“At least it proves that our wipers are strong,” said the ever-practical Renault PR lady, Marie-Claude Beaumont, salvaging something positive from a rather embarrassing situation.

Once back at the hotel, a further two or three miles on, Rene got out, and his passenger disappeared without even thanking the Grand Prix driver for the lift. He phoned the police instead.

Seeing the police arrive at the hotel, Alain Prost advised his teammate “to go and hide, they’re looking for you.”

Rene disappeared into the kitchens.

“Which of you is Rene Arnoux?” asked the man in the uniform. “You?” “Oh no, I’m Jacques Laffite,” replied Jacques in a silly voice. Jacques wasn’t so happy a moment later when Prost said “go on Rene, don’t be stupid, they’ve got you.”

Nigel Mansell and his wife Roseanne at Brands Hatch, 1985

The giant man who was difficult not to notice from afar in the pit lane and his cat three-time world champion

And then after having little to no control over your career for three to five years you're just left on your own again, sometimes after being pushed the brink of mental health problems (if not further) because you're 16 and under pressure to perform because your family and you and your wonderful wonderful supportive junior team have given up so much to make this dream a success but that's not quite enough for said wonderful wonderful supportive junior team.

And I'm not saying it's a problem that almost every single driver with very limited exceptions has to do this to get to F1 these days.

On the left, Eugenio Castellotti takes part in the friendly boat race between Ferrari drivers, held on occasion of the 1956 Syracuse GP.

On the right, Castellotti and Juan Manuel Fangio walk through the city.

The model that I based my Master's dissertation in which I examined Senna's Brand featured appearance as a key factor. I felt that I could not objectively say whether or not social media posts were trying to use this factor (does every post of a driver count as using appearance? Does it only count if less than 50% of skin is covered? Is it just the face that matters?)

Anyway, the rest of my analysis lined up almost perfectly with the model and on this bases I can only assume appearance does too.

On the basis of Senna having the most successful brand, I believe this means the results to this poll are false. (That or the Schumacher brand sucks in every other area)

Nigel Mansell and his wife Roseanne during the 1992 Hungarian GP press conference Nigel getting emotional over winning the drivers title