The best driver in the history of F1

You need to do a far more extensive search on the subject then because I guarantee you that his reputation as a whinger came about long before FerraiChat.com ever existed!

Here's what Nigel Roebuck had to say about Mansell (From: Roebuck's legends: Mansell in the media - F1 History - Motor Sport Magazine ) :

"Mansell is an extreme case, however, and whatever one may think of the man he became, while he was around there was always something to talk about; no one was indifferent. Wherever he was in the world, he had fresh problems flown in daily; even when he won, he came across like Shylock selling wholesale."


How about the Guardian? (From: From the Vault: Formula one: Heartbreak for Nigel Mansell in 1986 Australian grand prix | Sport | theguardian.com ) :

"Mansell has a bit of a reputation as a whinger, but he was gracious in defeat. "I'm very, very pleased for Alain, but I'm disappointed for Nelson, and for Frank Williams, and the team. I think they acted in a very responsible way today."

Try reading this: The Spokesman-Review - Google News Archive Search


How about this (from: Nigel Mansell: Formula One's raring Lion - Senore.com ) :

"Where both the media and Mansell’s colleagues at Williams despaired of the Englishman’s incessant whining, fans adored the Englishman for his intensely passionate racing. With his title hopes frustrated by the shortcomings of the Williams machine throughout the 1988 season, Mansell leapt to fill the void at Ferrari when the opening emerged in 1989."

And there's loads more about if you do a proper search!

 

Ask Ron Dennis about Fred and his crying that would be epic

 

Subjective to say the least.

 

Sports columnists are nothing but fans that get paid. They are NOT actors in the show, they are not principle's. I could care less what they surmize. I want facts from his peers. He probably ignored a lot of those guys.







This recently fimed visit to the Williams Collection Hall many years after Williams and Mansell have done business, so there is no need to be nice. Frank Williams' son Jonny say's of Nigel

"How technically involved and precise he was in his racing cars"


"He took 4 seconds off the FW13b's best time ever at Paul Ricard .... it took Nigel's touch to bring us back in line"


If you have an open mind and want to learn watch @4:00
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqCPFM8d9ww]Williams Collection Part 3 - the Honda turbo era - YouTube[/ame]

 

Then explain this!

Quite a crowd and reaction for a test session on a tuesday at Brands in 1994. Williams 2nd time bringing Nigel back, this time out of retirement. This REALITY is in complete opposition to what you posted above. HA, remember the crowd reaction when he won the 1987 British GP at Silverstone, he could here them above the sounds of the engines and they stormed the track.




[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVFG7gYPK_g]1994 nigel mansell 1st test on his come back to formula 1 brands hatch PART 2 - YouTube[/ame]


from the yt site - "In 1994 Mansell made a Formula One comeback. After the untimely death of Ayrton Senna, he returned to Formula One with Williams replacing rookie David Coulthard for the French Grand Prix and the last three races of the season. Mansell was paid approximately £900,000 per race, compared to Williams' lead driver at the time, Damon Hill being paid £300,000 for the entire season.[15] "

 

Mike came to a Ferrari team in 96 that couldn't win a race and he immediately started winning some races in his first season. He knew how to develop the car something none of the drivers before and after could do. Mike won when the Ferrari was not the best car in the field and was easily seen because his partners rarely finished 2nd. The Mercedes is now the best car because Mike worked with it for 3 years. Any driver in todays field can win in that car because it is head and heels the best car by a long shot. If Mike has stuck around and not gone skiing last Dec. he would now be winning again. If Alonso knew a little about how to improve the car instead of just having it put in front of him, then he too could win a ton.

 

correct - Schumacher was a real driver of the team - he was integral in Ferrari getting their act back on track.


not until 2002 did Schumacher have a dominant car - thats when it was almost a forgone conclusion to each race.

 

The comments about Mansell are mostly right - he was a complainer and he psychology was that everyone was working against him... he had a real inferiority complex... however there is no question he is a great driver. he could have won the championship several other times - 86&87...

he got a screwing at Ferrari - but what to expect when up against Prost he was a master at being at the top. and mansell was not even close.

on a personal basis - I've met him severa times over the years and he;s always been super approachable and engaging.

in 89 at Montreal he was in a scrum of reporters after qualifying - my friend and his 10 year old son were just listening and watching - Mansell reaches over grabs my friends son's hat and gives him his hat and says "hey lets trade" then proceeded to autograph his hat and the one he borrowed.... then gave him a tour of the Ferrari garage.

 

Probably why he is not satisfied with that record either! ; )

 

+1, yes others keep forgetting how inferior Ferrari was when MS arrived. The car was not the best until 2002. MS has the amazing ability of developing the car and surrounding himself with great people. MS and Senna are the best ever, in a class of their own. Everyone else is good or maybe great, but not exceptional like MS and Senna. Now since I did not watch Senna growing up, I can't say IMO he was better then MS, so I put them as equal.

 

Frame the question this way

Your life is on the line. You have to pick one driver to have one golden lap--he has to set the fastest lap or you die.

Who would you pick--consistency, greatness, reliability, responsibility.
'
There is only one answer. Michael Schumacher.

(And Mika Hakkinen is my favorite driver.)

 

No contradition with what I wrote there.



Mansell never drove in F1 full time after his exit from William.
His temporary return in 94 for a few races, was to boost TV audience and satisfy Williams’ sponsor after Senna’s death. It was only on a race-by-race basis, hence the high fees he could command. Some claim Ecclestone pay for them.
At the end, Williams didn’t offer Mansell a contract for 1995.
Mansell’s 95 season at McLaren was short-lived. At first, Mansell claimed he couldn’t fit in the car, and then that the car didn’t suit his style. Ron Dennis lost patience and terminated the contract.

Mansell complained about all the teams he raced for. At Lotus, Peter Warr didn’t like him, then he fell out with Frank Williams for contractual reasons (I have a story on that too), and finally Ron Dennis couldn’t suffer his constant moaning.

 

Frank doesn't pay anyone and in the end he will not get any money for his team Ron the same way with a his taxi drivers so a team owner is not a judge of drivers .

 

if you ask any of the great drivers today, they all agree best is Senna (even schumi says so)....I would say Senna is the best modern era driver...it's really hard to compare drivers from different eras....guys like clark and before like fangio and nuvolari literally were prepared to die every time they went out...but at the same time there were only a few races a year back then...

best current drivers are vettel, alonso and hamilton in no particular order

 

Disagree-Alain Prost

And Senna is my favorite driver

 

I think what makes a driver "one of the greatest" is what he does with an inferior team / car, and still wins. So with that in mind it would have to be Schumacher, Alonso, Senna.
While Fangio is one of the greats, he always went to a team that had the best car.
Schumacher went to Ferrari when they were crap and built them up. Same with Alonso.
Senna was already feeling the pressure from Schumacher. Nouvolari would also fall into this category.

 

It's impossible to take you seriously at this point. You have the info in front of you and choose not to watch it. Mansell broke his back twice in his career, yet still continued to race. And yet you continue to call him a whiner.

That is preposterous.

He would have won the 87 championship, like Mulehead says, if it had not been for this huge accident, watch Mansell's head at the end. This was the 2nd time he broke his back from the compression. If you had watched the interview I already posted, you would know this. Yet you continue to post BS about the guy. In this context, your opinions are worthless.


[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHuaO3M_3_g]Formula 1 - 1987 - Japan - Nigel Mansell - YouTube[/ame]

 

Schumi said good thing about senna because micheal is a class act what was he going to say senna was a ego maniac ass bag and slow on top of that He'll even Alan says good thing about him after he's passing

 

Sorry but whether you like it or not, Nigel Mansell did have a reputation as being a whinger! - And it did not start on ferrariChat.com!

The journalists who have covered F1 over the years have merely reported on the people in front of them, and when it came to Mansell, the consensus of opinion was that towards the end of his career, he had a terrible habit of complaining about everything, even when he was winning!

This wasn't some sort of conspiracy against him or some sort of preplanned character assassination, this was just the reality of how Mansell was! You can't accept that? - in the words of Vettel: "Tough luck!", because it's not something that's been made up after his career was finished, it what was being reported about him at the height of his career!

As for his peers, pretty much all of them rate him incredibly highly as a racing driver, but by the same token, a large number of them found him to be a boring, miserable, moaning, pain in the arse outside of the car!

As for Me keeping an open mind and watching clips of Mansell? - No thanks!, I had enough of him the first time round!

He got My full support when he went to Ferrari - And instantly lost it the moment he started crying about retiring because things were getting a bit too hard for him at the Scuderia!: "If I can't win then I'm not racing anymore!" - And they say Vettel acts like a petulant child! - Mansell wasn't playing anymore and he was taking his ball home with him too, so there!

I got fed up with all his amateur dramatics, collapsing after races because of all the effort he'd put in to racing! - It seemed strange to Me that the other drivers put in the same effort but they didn't collapse everywhere! (probably because they made sure they were fit!).

Ah! - So I'm no Mansell fan! - That must mean that I'm making things up about him being a whinger! - Sorry but no!

The fact of the matter is, Mansell's reputation as being a whinger does not come from Me, it does not come from the motorsport journalists over the years and it most definitely doesn't come from FerrariChat.com!

Mansell's reputation as a whinger comes from one source and one source only: From one Nigel Ernest James Mansell, CBE himself!

 

This thread began 19 days too late.

 

Jacques Villeneuve.......obviously.

 

whatever

 

wrong on you, Mansell was never second to Piquet....Piquet did sign for first driver with Frank williamas but than frank had his accident and he never was....in fact, mansell wa svery much protected inside the team..one example was the active suspension, Piquet was keen on it but mansell didn't want to test the bloody thing...Piquet than said he would do all the testing and would run the car with it during the races untill it was reliable but in the condition that mansell with not benefit from his work....head agreed but when the sistem eas fully operational and mansell discovered just how fast it was they didn´'t gave it to him...but removed it from piquets car!!!
I'm no fan of Piquet but loved his badmouthing, one of his classics came shortly after he won the 87 title when he was interviewd by one of Nigel's biggest fans..none other than Murray Walker:
MW: Nelson, do you think there is a big diference between you and Nigel?
NP: Of course there is, there are 3 big diferences.
MW: wich are?
NP: first i like tenis and likes golf
second i like pretty women and he likes ugly women
third i won 3 titles and he lost 3....

 

If you asked any driver from Gilles era they all said he was the best....Prost, Lauda, Arnoux, lafitte, Jones, Sheckter, Pironi.....oh, and when someone asked Senna about hes favourite driver he said he had no heros but there was one guy he really admired...Gilles Villeneuve.

 

Here's a tale for you:

I ripped a hole in My hand open once at work, trying to stop a large casting falling off a bench.

I quickly wrapped My bleeding hand up and then went with the theory that if I didn't look at it - it hadn't happened!

Strangely enough, this theory didn't work! - The hand got more painful and kept bleeding and so I had to go to hospital for stitches!

The moral of this tale?: Just because you yourself can't see something - doesn't mean it didn't happen!