Nigel Mansell - Mansell - My Autobiography

COPYRIGHT

Harper

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in paperback in 1996

Published in hardback in 1995 by CollinsWillow

Copyright © Nigel Mansell 1996

Nigel Mansell accepts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780002187039

Ebook Edition © JUNE 2016 ISBN: 9780008193362

Version: 2016-05-18

DEDICATION

To Rosanne, Chloe, Leo and Greg

for giving me the love, understanding and support

which is so necessary to achieve so much.

Without you, none of this would have been possible.

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Preface

Why race?

PART ONE: THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

1. My philosophy of racing

2. The best of rivals

3. The people’s champion

4. Family values

PART TWO: THE GREASY POLE

5. Learning the basics

6. The hungry years

7. Rosanne

8. The big break

9. Colin Chapman

10. Taking the rough with the smooth

11. The wilderness years

12. ‘I’m sorry, I was quite wrong about you’

PART THREE: WINNING

13. Making it count

14. Keeping a sense of perspective

15. Bad luck comes in threes

16. Honda

17. Forza Ferrari!

18. The impossible win

19. Problems with Prost

20. Building up for the big one

21. For all the right reasons

22. World Champion at last!

23. Driven out

24. Saying goodbye to Formula 1

25. The American adventure

26. The concrete wall club gets a new member

27. ‘You’re completely mad, but very quick for an old man’

28. The stand down from McLaren

29. Fresh Perspectives

Faces in the paddock

My top ten races

Career highlights

Glossary

Index

About the Author

About the Publisher

This is a story about beating the odds through sheer determination and self-belief. It is a story about starting with nothing, taking risks and defeating the best racing drivers in the world to rewrite the record books of this most dangerous and glamorous sport.

It is about overcoming the dejection of being injured, having no money and no immediate prospects for the future. And it is about the sheer exhilaration of standing on top of the world and knowing that whatever happens next, no-one can take away from you what you have just achieved.

Nigel Mansell

Woodbury Park, Devon

NIGEL’S THANKS

To the late, great Colin Chapman and his wife Hazel for giving me the first opportunity, and to Enzo Ferrari for giving me the most historic drive in motor racing and two years of wonderful memories. To Ginny and Frank Williams and to Patrick Head for the twenty-eight Grand Prix wins and the World Championship in 1992; for six years and four races it was an awful lot of fun. To Paul Newman and Carl Haas for the 1993 IndyCar World Series; and to Honda, Renault and Ford for giving me the power to win …

Without all these people and without the manufacturers and associated sponsors, none of the racing achievements in this book would have been possible. Rosanne and I and our family would like to thank you all for your support. A very big thank you.

PREFACE

Nigel Mansell’s life is a wonderful example of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. He has overcome enormous hurdles throughout his career thanks to an indomitable will, total self-belief and a burning desire to succeed.

All top Grand Prix drivers are heroes, you just have to stand by the side of the track during a race weekend to see that. But Nigel stands out from the crowd for his commitment, his determination and his natural showmanship. His force of will is apparent in everything he does. I once played against him in a soccer match for journalists, photographers and drivers on the eve of the Spanish Grand Prix in 1991, a week after the pit stop fiasco in Portugal, where Nigel’s hopes of beating the great Ayrton Senna to the World Championship had followed his errant rear wheel down the pit lane.

Most of the players were there for fun, either a bit long in the tooth or too fond of their beer to be fully competitive, but Nigel played as if his life depended on it, crashing into every tackle and chasing every ball. His day ended in a twisted ankle, which swelled up like a grapefruit. He won the race that weekend of course. His injury was not play-acting, but a perfect illustration of how accident-prone the man is.

The chronicling of Nigel Mansell’s career has always been uneven. A mismatch of personalities between him and many of my colleagues in the world of journalism has led him in for some heavy criticism, some of it justified, some of it no more than blind insults. I have always been sceptical about the criticism that Nigel has come in for and fascinated to know what really makes him tick. It struck me that, although a huge public feels it can identify with him, there are very few people in the sport who actually understand what he is all about.

Nigel and I spent over 16 months devising, developing and refining this book in order to make it the definitive text on his life and racing career. In these pages Nigel explains for the first time what lies behind his philosophy of life and his psychological approach to the sport he loves. A great deal of archive research was undertaken and over 30 hours of interviews carried out with people close to Nigel. Time after time fascinating revelations from them prompted equally fascinating reflections from Nigel. We have included some of the more revealing comments, where appropriate, as notes at the end of each chapter.

Sifting through all the evidence, I believe that the starting point for understanding Nigel Mansell lies in two comments made by Williams’ director Patrick Head and Formula 1 promoter Bernie Ecclestone, when interviewed for this book. Bernie, who knows and understands Nigel better than most in the Formula 1 pit lane, said that he is ‘a very simple, complex person’ while Patrick described Nigel as ‘not a driver who takes well to not-winning’. The veracity of these two statements is there for all to see in Nigel’s own words in this book.

He is a great champion who has not been fully appreciated in his own time and perhaps it will only be in history, provided it is objectively written, that the full achievement of Nigel Mansell will come to be recognised.

I am greatly indebted to Nigel’s many friends and colleagues who gave me information and insights and who pointed me towards the right areas to probe.

I would like to thank Murray Walker, Bernie Ecclestone, Gerald Donaldson, David Price, John Thornburn, Chris Hampshire, Sue Membery, Grant Bovey, Sally Blower, Anthony Marsh, Creighton Brown, Patrick Mackie, Mike Blanchet, Nigel Stroud, Frank Williams, Patrick Head, David Brown, Cesare Fiorio, Carl Haas, Paul Newman, Peter Gibbons, Bill Yeager, Derek Daly, Gerhard Berger, Keke Rosberg and Niki Lauda.