Nigel Mansell

Personally, I'd be very keen to know what people here think of Nigel Mansell - who had a very similar record in some ways to Button.... Autosport ran a very interesting article a few weeks about some of Nige's stats - did you know that Mansell only outqualified his team-mate 87-83 over his entire career? Yes Mansell did win 3 times as many races as Button has during his career, but you have to just compare their careers - Mansell won in his 6th season of F1, Button his 7th, but whilst Mansell then had the best car on the grid the following year, Button had just about the worst!

Mind (And I know this is off topic) - Mansell regularly gets tarnished for his time at Ferrari as team-mate to Prost - but did you know that the qualifying record was 8-8 between the two of them - and that was even given the fact that Mansell was never the greatest qualifier out there!

 

[RasputinLives]

you mean this:

this:

and this

Completely agree:

Although I'd chuck in this for our Nige too

 

[VanChallis]

Thanks Rasputin for making up for my lack of time/laziness! A gentleman and a scholar

 

[VanChallis]

Ahh, picking up Senna on the in-lap. A beautiful moment! I love how the crowd just go insane when it happens too. It's funny, but the British press seemed to back off of Senna after this

 

[KekeTheKing]

Just came across this clip of Mansell in a review of the 1991 season. (Note - Nigel uses some colorful language here)

 

[FB]

That's unusual "Our" Nige, moaning.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Here's Senna moaning about Mansell.

 

[KekeTheKing]

And a humble moment of reflection for Nige after the 1991 campaign.

 

[Dario Resta]

I love Nigel Mansell. One of my top 5 all time favourite drivers. Maybe not the most naturally talented, but amazingly brave, and one of the few men who gave as good as he got with Senna, especially in the later years. Some of the battles they had are ingrained in my F1 memory bank. 3 moments that define Mansell for me are;
Him and Senna wheel to wheel at Catalunya 90/91 (can't remember which)
Him and Senna at Monaco '92. Mansell would have won that race if anyone else was in the lead on those last laps
Him flying round the outside of someone (Berger I think) at the Peralta in Mexico in the Ferrari. One of the bravest (or potentially stupid ) moves I've ever seen

Oh, and his 3 'taches deserve respect. (including eyebrows here) What does he feed those things?

I can't stand Nigel, mainly because he probably complained to his Mrs that the dinner wasn't quite right, or the angle of the telly was wrong. Nigel Whinged for England, or the Isle Of Man or somewhere. The rest of the quote above I totally agree with (apart from the 'tache).

 

[Il_leone]

You either loved or hated Mansell.

You love him because he knew how to overtake and it was spectacular as well and you know it involves a Murray Walker moment to go with it

You hate him because he did whinge a bit even when he had the superior Williams in 1992

Mansell captured the crowd in a different way to Senna and was probably more popular than Prost because you had to love his never say die spirit...Mark Webber / Juan Montoya are pale comparisons to him

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

...Mark Webber / Juan Montoya are pale comparisons to him...

You think that the two of them having about 25 Grand Prix victories less than him might have anything to do with it?

 

[Slyboogy]

As much as an eeeedeeeeot Montoya was before he left the sport and "broke" his head, he was much better than Webber, and if he stayed i think that he would be a good comparison compared to Mansell, plus he was quite likeable due to being an eeedeeeot!

 

[Il_leone]

You think that the two of them having about 25 Grand Prix victories less than him might have anything to do with it?

Webber seems to make comparisons of himself to Mansell being a late developer into winning races but he does not have the race craft of Mansell

Neither did Montoya because he was such a hot head and was prone to some stupid mistake but he was a joy to watch at Williams when kept overtaking Schumacher

 

[Incubus]

Mansell had his detractors, and that's understandable because there were times when he didn't do himself any favours to say the least.
But at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the action on the track, not the blah-blah-blah from drivers whoever they are. And when it comes to the action on the track, Mansell was one of the top drivers in what in my opinion must be seen as a generation of drivers of exceptionally high calibre.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Yes, Mansell was as balsy and as hard and as brave as anyone in an extremely tough driver era.

Juan Pablo, in comparison, drove in a cheap era which was the post-Hakkinen / pre-Hamilton/Vettel gap.

There was only Schumacher and Alonso and Raikkonen...and he got his ass handed to him by Kimi who was only in F1 for the money...and Alonso is finding out just how tough it is to beat the likes of Hamilton/Vettel. Schumacher had huge advantages and has been dismantled without them.

 

[Vortex]

Yes, Mansell was as balsy and as hard and as brave as anyone in an extremely tough driver era.

Juan Pablo, in comparison, drove in a cheap era which was the post-Hakkinen / pre-Hamilton/Vettel gap.

There was only Schumacher and Alonso and Raikkonen...and he got his ass handed to him by Kimi who was only in F1 for the money...and Alonso is finding out just how tough it is to beat the likes of Hamilton/Vettel. Schumacher had huge advantages and has been dismantled without them.

Don’t talk wet! even in a Mansell thread you need to have a dig at Schumacher, I think you’re obsessed with him!

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Don’t talk wet!

Back at ya!

We were discussing the toughness of the Mansell era which included Senna, Prost, Piquet, Rosberg, Lauda and even Schumacher himself.

They were giants.

Schumacher won titles after Mansell, Prost and Senna were gone and before Vettel and Hamilton arrived.

Ralf, Montoya, DC, JV, Hill, Massa, Barrichello, Irvine, Webber, Heidfeld, Alesi ... they were all Number 2s or eratic and inconsistent number 1s...but not even the best of them were in the Mansell-Senna-Prost-Piquet-Rosberg-Lauda class. Not a single one!

Hakkinen was the only Number 1 on the grid until Alonso and Raikkonen got cars to drive. Once Alonso/Raikkonen got into competitive cars, Schumacher got real competition again...and not just from one guy (chiefly Hakkinen before his bad accident in Australia in 2001).

The driver era mid-May, 1994 - end of 2002 was a cheap era. It only had two proper Aces (MSC, HAK). Any Grand Prix great will tell you that.

 

[Vortex]

Any Grand Prix great will tell you that.

Including yourself right? lol

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Stewart, Moss, Surtees.

You seriously going to compare JV-Hill-DC-Alesi-Berger-Montoya-Fisichella-Webber-Button-Hakkinen to the likes of Senna-Prost-Mansell-Piquet-Rosberg-Lauda?

Seriously?

 

[Vortex]

Umm, where did I say anything of the sort? lol

 

[Vortex]

I agree!