Did you prefer Mansell or Prost at Ferrari?

We didn't know it at the time but it was indeed a Golden Era - we'll never see the personalities or that type of racing ever again. 'Modern' F1 is a pale imitation in all respects in comparison, the only good thing in comparison probably is the fantastic safety we have nowadays.

Can you please say that 1000 times louder ..... Awesome driver

Steaming red face, irritable, I love him but he was on the sauce big time

@@rnichol22 You mean he's drunk? So would I be when in an interview (I'd smoke a joint, alcohol makes me sick). Otherwise i'd be all nerves.

The man is a character ... no more guys like this in F1.

Emerson Fittipaldi too

Don't forget James Hunt in the 70's. He was bonkers when it came to taking risks in the sport. Nevertheless, his driving was awesome, The duels between him and Niki Lauda were epic.

1971 and in Leeds? Mansell wasn't racing in 1971 and didn't live in Leeds.

@@neilk1116 You're probably correct, because thinking about it, had it really been 'Nigel Mansell F1 driver', he would only have been 17 or 18 years old in 1971. However, the name 'Mansell' on my job sheet wasn't the only reason I'd remembered it. For some reason, the shop manager made specific reference to the job - emphasising 'Mr Mansell', and asking to be informed were I unable to fix the set. Such request was not normal, so that had also placed a memory marker on the event ... I even remember the address 'Newley Lane'. He said he raced at Croft. Oh well, some coincidence though, eh? What wasn't just coincidence though, was speaking to Alan Jones, and Tiff Needell, at Oulton Park in around 1973/4. Although I didn't speak to him, another driver was Ian Ashley ... any others of note, I don't remember. Although, one of the other 'pre-fame' names I can't now recall, had a terrible accident at Brands Hatch, possibly in an F1 race. Tiff Needell was driving Formula Ford, Jones and Ashley were driving in new formula called 'Indilantic' in cars that looked not unlike F1cars. A point of some discussion and hilarity at the time - noted with a photograph in one of the motorsport magazines, was that one of the Indilantic cars was sponsored by 'Durex'. Another chance meeting was later at a special weekend event at Oulton Park that had the then F1 World Champion - James Hunt, as special guest. I just happened to spot him stepping out of a caravan in the paddock, and took the photo. Motorsport was so accessible back then.

Stevie P Smith Key word. Genuine.

He seems to be so relaxed and happy with things these days, which, apart from 1985-6, 1989 and 1991, he didn't seem to be during his career. His charitable work with young children - no praise is too great. Great to see him doing so well.

That's a very far-stretched story. Mansell tested active suspension in the early 1980s with Lotus, when the available technology wasn't anywhere near powerful enough to operate active suspension, hence the car was very dangerous and failed all the time, sending the drivers off the road. Lotus kept developing the system until 1987 when they first ran it. Williams under Frank Dernie also developed an active suspension system and ran it in 1987 with Piquet, who didn't have such bad memories with an active suspension system and just tried it. However those "active suspension" systems weren't entirely active, it was nothing more than a platform control and couldn't really be altered while driving. The system Williams developed for the FW14B worked totally different and had little in common to the system Williams ran in 1987 and 1988.

@@AndyHack10 You dont think Piquet ever had bad memories regarding testing of some innovations ?. You think this is only reserved for Mansell? Piquet in his career tested far more often, from Brabham to Benneton. You think he never had bad experiences. Give me a break, Mansell was looking for an excuse, for his ineptitude and lazyness. Because he did not realize the potential . Dernie worked a long time in active suspension project. Without successful win in Monza 87 and Piquet 's active support , Williams would scrap it, and did scrap the project. This merely shows differences in character. Piquet was a hard working driver, willing to test anything , while Mansell was lazy leeching of work of others.

Yep, loving it

Yer I was shocked how they slow his car on purpose from the pits And he gets told to leave hill and Schumacher alone. Isn’t that match fixing. Imagine what goes on the things they can’t talk about.

Yes, ‘Our Nige’ did great things even in bad cars...Schumacher and Hamilton never really had/have bad equipment, we would all love to see Lewis in the current Renault or Williams to prove his genius is genuine.

@@badgastein2 If hamilton wants to show his true skills, he'd leave mercedes for another team, and let fate do some work too, as all drivers have experienced. Mercedes has had the fastest car for years now.

Paul Freedman .. I am impressed with the current form of Landau Norris...last 2 laps of both Austrian Gran Prix....video of just his engineer on the radio available on You Tube (Sky F1)..

“Our Nige” ... good lord... 😳

Well, he did bury the hatchet with Prost during the winter of 1993 with his phone calls.

Hey thanks for that. Can you train that part of your brain to be more effective when racing. I find it hard to find the limit when I’ve had heaps of late nights trying to get the car ready for the up coming race meet As well as paying bills and work commitments.

miller chassis I doubt it very much as mine where activated within split seconds of the danger appearing and seems to be part of the brains basic fight or flee response I think. Maybe you haven’t experience a situation where danger activates that region of your brain. It only happened to me that one time on track after thousands of laps. I haven’t read about anyone else experiencing what I have, so cannot comment. If you had to think about activating it, it would be far far too late as the crash would have happened by then then, as everything suddenly slows down and you appear to have all the time in the world to decide what to do. Quite an experience to Sarah the least. Kyalami: Sunset Bend: A long sweeping blind right hander, slight downhill and cut into the side of bank with a concrete wall on the right a few feet from the track. Get this corner wrong and you had a 90% chance of writing your car off, either against that wall or rolling off down that slope, as I saw many times during my time as a Flag Marshall at Clubhouse Bend. That concrete wall on the inside seemed to act like a magnet. That wall nearly had me during a Saturday open practice. Coming round flat as usual I either went in a tad too fast/missed apex by inches but that *#%* wall was saying 'Come To Me' as I went into a lurid slide/tank slapped pointing straight towards it! Don't know if it's ever happened to anyone else, but in situations like this everything suddenly seems to slow down as the Amygdala area of the brain kicks, and to this day I remember the whole sequence: "Oh f**k if I don't catch this slide I will have to spin the car to stop me hitting that wall!" arms all crossed up by then of course. During marshalling I saw one driver freeze in the same circumstance and T-bone the wall writing off his lovely Alfa Coupe and another hitting the wall and then roll and end-over-end about six times, so I knew what would happen if I did nothing - one written of car! Well the next thing I remember was the car rocking to a halt facing the wrong way towards the entrance to Sunset, so I obviously caught it but not the return spin The M25: I was in the fast lane of London’s ‘mobile car park’ it’s so busy, and seeing brake lights coming on and off in the distance and then all of a sudden a stationary car in the fast lane maybe 3 car lengths in front. I knew immediately that I had not a hope in stopping in time on the wet road and everything suddenly slowed down once again and I had time to judge distances and noticed there was a gap between the car and the barrier on the inside just wide enough for my car. I braked as hard as I possibly could without locking wheels and headed for the gap, it being just wide enough, and came to a stop with passenger door opposite the stopped car’s rear door. The guy behind shot past me and rear ended the stopped car, he just clipping me as I dived for that gap.

Lol yer that was cool He’s got a point though how easy they have it now.

@@millerchassis6119 Imagine him taking a 2020 F1 car over silverstone or whatever. He'd give the current record holders a run for their money

@@paulmichaelfreedman8334 Ha ha, yes but they'd have to make one specially to withstand the strength of Mansell's biceps! He's always been powerfully built

@@paulmichaelfreedman8334 Even in his peak physical fitness I think he would have been not only too big for the car but also too unfit. The fitness of a modern driver far exceeds that of those who raced in the 80s and 90s. The G Forces these new cars will get is anywhere between 6-7G which is a pretty serious physical effort.

@@NippyMoto Manual gearbox, no power steering, 1500 bhp, rudimentary drink system (if at all), much thicker fireproof suit, very poor insulation between driver and engine... I'd bet they were super unfit dealing with all that

Based on other interviews "his view of history" matches up pretty well with those. Patrick's recent interview and remarks about Mansell seem to mirror his in this interview.

Agreed. A great example being him talking about his debut, where he was attempting to qualify as one of 43 for 26 places in the race. Perhaps it's age, but Mansell was in car #43... but only one of 26 - rather than 43 - who took part in qualifying (no pre-qualifying for this race) for the 24-car grid. He did admirably qualify 24th.

Keke Piket Well said. He is a bizarre character and clearly drunk here. The motorsport press hated him and that hasn’t helped his reputation. But he was an incredible racing driver and unlucky not be be 2-3 times F1 champion.

I think its only a minority that dont like him the press loved him, the fans loved him and so did F1. Yeah he did have a moan at his team but he wanted the best out of the car and in the end he got it.

I think he wasn't liked by the F1 teams, mainly because he didn't play the game - he wasn't political like most of the top drivers and he was - and is - blunt and abrasive. However I lived through every second of his time in F1 and it's obvious that the fans loved him, British and Italians especially for obvious reasons, and certainly he made things happen. You were guaranteed fireworks with Mansell in your team. He was treated unfairly through his career as he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth - remember Piquet's stupid comments about his background and his wife and children - and I think he knew it very well. The chip on his shoulder was well deserved

@@martincosby38 He was political. He played up to the press. He accused each team he was in of sabotaging him. No wonder they didnt like him.

I think he was talking about free practice rather than actual qualifying