1992 F1 World Champion Nigel Mansell believes he now realizes, why his teammates weren’t fond of him.
Nigel Mansell achieved the biggest glory in Formula 1 in 1992. The Briton conquered the pinnacle of motorsports – the only championship of his career.
Mansell explained that in the 1991 and 1992 seasons, he was the number one driver. However, it was not the case before – the Briton was a number 2 driver prior to that.
Well, his “number 1” teammates were far from unproven. He was racing with the likes of Alain Prost, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, and Mario Andretti. So, bagging the number 1 seat was difficult for Mansell as all were proven race winners and world champions.
All these served as a great experience for Mansell before his title-winning charge in 1992.
When Mansell was still driving, he couldn’t understand why his teammates didn’t like him. He felt many teammates didn’t like him (especially mentioning Piquet). He feels, he now understands the reason behind it.
Mansell feels the reason was that he was able to defeat them in a number 2 car.
“I was privileged when I first got in Formula One, there were seven, eight world champions racing together,”
said Mansell in an interview.
“But, to beat the likes of Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, Michael Schumacher, and this to name but a few, there was a lot of incredible great drivers at that time.”
“And to do it when you’re sort of, okay, ’91, ’92 I was outright number one driver. That’s why I was competing for the championship, but people forget that when I was driving for the teams up until ’91, ’92, I was the number two driver, driving with four different world champions.”
“And it’s amazing when I look back on my career, I understand far more now than I did then, because I never realised why they didn’t like me too much.“
“But when you’re a world champion, or multi–world champion, and then you’re beating them in a number two car like I was with Nelson Piquet with Williams, he wasn’t my best friend was he?!”
Chances of winning a race increase by “30%” if you are a number one driver – Mansell
Modern F1 cars in a team are now largely matched in terms of performance, reliability, and pace. However, Nigel Mansell reveals it was not the case in the 80s and 90s.
The Briton explained that a number 2 car was much more unreliable than the number 1 car. So, you had less chance of finishing a race while driving a number 2 car.
“I retired at the end of 1990 at Silverstone,” Mansell recalled. And the reason I retired was because I’d seen a lot of people, a lot of friends had died who I knew really well, and I was never getting the support to get the job done.”
“I signed as number one for Ferrari for ’89, ’90, and then Ferrari bought the number one status back so that Alain [Prost] could come to the team in Ferrari.”
“And the reliability of the cars back then was very, very crucial. If you don’t finish a race, you can’t get the points. You don’t accumulate the points, you don’t become world champion.”
“If you’re the outright number one driver back in the 80s and 90s. You had a 30% better chance of finishing a race. If you’re a number two driver you could be as quick, but your car is not as good as the number one car from a reliability point of view.”
“So, I decided at Silverstone, in fact, that enough was enough. I was never going to get the support that I actually needed to get across the line.”
Mansell eventually became the World Champion while driving for the Williams team in 1992.
For more updates, follow us on Twitter.
