If you look at it objectively, there were two Nigel Mansells. One belonged
to sections of the motor racing press, who saw him as the whingeing,
ungracious 'chip-on-the-shoulder Brit' who courted success and disaster in
equal measure but was actually a brilliant racing driver, good for endless
column inches and therefore a lucrative source of income. The second Mansell
belonged to the 'man in the street', who didn't give a damn about the
scribblings of the journalists, but was content merely to revel in the many
scintillating displays served up by one of the most brave, committed and
entertaining drivers of his age, a man who still retained the common touch
even if he was a superstar. In truth, of course, Mansell was perhaps a
mixture of all these things, it really just depends on your perspective. I
prefer to concentrate on the latter persona, for his remarkable deeds in a
racing car are of primary concern in a book of this nature.

Mansell's story is well chronicled, but his dogged refusal to give up when
the early part of his career seemed to be leading nowhere marked him down as
a potential champion, even if his results in Formula 3 at the time indicated
otherwise. The man most responsible for helping Nigel's career over that
crucial first hurdle was none other than Colin Chapman, who knew a 'good
'un' when he saw one and placed him in the Lotus team as a test driver. When
given his Grand Prix debut in Austria, Mansell endured acute discomfort from
petrol that leaked into his cockpit to tough it out until the engine failed,
and this was the stuff that Lotus needed as they slipped from their pedestal
in the early eighties.

Certainly there were still rough edges, and Mansell made plenty of mistakes,
but there were virtues. He absolutely gave his all, in contrast to team-mate
de Angelis who could lose heart when his car was not performing. When
Chapman died of a sudden heart attack in December 1982, it was a crushing
blow to Nigel, not least because he had lost his greatest believer. His
level of competitiveness was raised when the team received their new Renault
turbo-powered, Gérard Ducarouge-designed car midway through the following
season, as he demonstrated in the European GP at Brands Hatch, but he
endured a generally unhappy time in 1984. A probable win in the rain at
Monaco was thrown away when he slithered into the Armco and there were many
at that stage who doubted if he would ever win a Grand Prix.

His move to Williams in 1985 changed everything. Soon coming to terms with
Keke Rosberg, Nigel broke his duck at last, and continued his new-found form
into the 1986 season, putting new team-mate Nelson Piquet in the shade with
a series of brilliant drives to take five Grand Prix wins. The championship
seemed to be there for the taking but a gaffe in the penultimate round in
Mexico when he failed to put the car into gear on the grid was to cost him
dear. Now under pressure at the final race in Adelaide, poor Nigel had the
race covered and the championship within his grasp until a tyre failure sent
him crashing out. Undaunted, he predictably bounced back in 1987, this time
clocking up six wins in the Williams-Honda, but a practice crash at Suzuka
handed the title to team-mate Piquet. The Williams team then lost their
Honda engines to McLaren, and Nigel was forced to spend a year in purgatory
with the Judd-powered car, though in the rain at Silverstone he drove quite
brilliantly into second place.

Accepting a massive offer from Maranello, Mansell entered Ferrari folklore
with a first-time-out win in Brazil, and carried the fight to McLaren with
captivating brio. His win in Hungary after a stunning bit of opportunism in
traffic was the highlight of a brilliant season that was soured somewhat
after a skirmish with Senna in Portugal led to his suspension from the
Spanish GP a week later. Greater disenchantment was to follow in 1990, when
Alain Prost joined the Ferrari payroll. The little Frenchman hi-jacked the
team's attentions with four early-season wins, prompting Mansell to announce
his retirement. An offer from Williams to return to Didcot in 1991 was
enough to persuade him to continue, and it was a decision he was not to
regret. Driving as well as ever before, Mansell's slow start to the season
eventually counted against him, for despite a mid-season burst of five wins,
punctuated by a heart-breaking pit-stop fiasco in Portugal, Nigel was unable
to overhaul Senna in the race for the title.

In 1992 Nigel finally got the job done. With what was undeniably the best
car, he fairly scorched away with the championship, taking five straight
wins at the start of the season. Apart from an ill-judged clash with Senna
in Canada, he hardly put a foot wrong and thoroughly earned his World
Championship. Sadly relations with Williams had deteriorated to the point
that an agreement could not be reached for Mansell to continue in 1993 and,
with the parties seemingly unable (or unwilling) to find a compromise, he
headed off to the States and a new life in Indy Car racing with the
Newman-Haas Lola.

Proving all the doubters wrong, Nigel not only won the PPG Cup at his first
attempt but - a crash at Phoenix apart - made light of the black art of
racing on ovals to such effect that he was almost omnipotent. Mansell was
very unlucky to miss out on a first-time win in the Indy 500 at the last
gasp when a full-course yellow saw him outfumbled by the wily Fittipaldi.
Perhaps more importantly, however, Nigel had found a new environment in
which he felt appreciated, and this undoubtedly showed in his contented
demeanour. Sadly it was not to last. Penske wheeled out a new car in 1994
which left everyone else trailing in its wake, and Nigel's motivation, such
a crucial part of his success, appeared to be less than total. The chance to
return to Grand Prix racing in the wake of Senna's death proved irresistible
but, despite an end-of-season win at Adelaide, Williams decided to stick
with Damon Hill and David Coulthard for 1995.

In hindsight, perhaps, a fully charged Mansell may have been a better choice
to challenge Schumacher's dominance. Instead a multi-million-dollar marriage
of convenience was forged with Marlboro McLaren Mercedes that ended in farce
when he first failed to fit properly in the car, and then gave up when the
expensively redesigned machine failed to meet his expectations. This rather
sad postscript to Mansell's Grand Prix career was gleefully pounced upon by
his detractors, while, apart from a handful of over-hyped touring car
appearances for Ford in the BTCC during 1998, his legions of loyal fans were
left to pin their hopes on ill-founded rumours of a comeback.

Mansell's flirtation with motor sport has since continued both behind the
wheel and out of the cockpit. He was the star attraction at Silverstone's
Historic Festival in 2000 and eventually made a typically stunning return to
action in 2005 winning the opening round of the GP Masters event at Kyalami.
Who would of thought that 25 years on, he would be duelling wheel to wheel
with none other than Emerson Fittipaldi, the very man with whom he lined up
alongside for his Grand Prix debut way back in 1980.