Nigel Mansell

1980 and 1981

Mansell's skill as a test driver, including setting the fastest lap around Silverstone in a Lotus car at the time, impressed Chapman enough to give him a trio of starts in F1 in 1980, driving a development version of the Lotus 81 used by the team, the Lotus 81B. In his Formula One debut at the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix, a fuel leak in the cockpit that developed shortly before the start of the race left him with painful first and second degree burns on his buttocks. An engine failure forced him to retire from that race and his second, however an accident at his third event at Imola meant he failed to qualify. Team leader Mario Andretti wrote his car off in a start-line accident during the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, so Mansell had to give up his car for Andretti to compete in for his home race, the final race of the season at Watkins Glen in the United States. Andretti announced he was leaving to move to Alfa Romeo at the end of the season leaving Lotus with a vacant race seat.

Despite Mansell being unpopular with sponsor David Thieme of Essex Petroleum, and much speculation in the press that Jean-Pierre Jarier would fill the vacancy, Chapman announced at the start of the season that the seat would be filled by Mansell.

Mansell's four years as a full-time Lotus driver were a struggle, as the cars were unreliable and he was continually out-performed by teammate Elio de Angelis. Out of 59 race starts with the team, he finished just 24 of them. He managed a best finish of third place, which he achieved five times during the four years, including Lotus's fifth race of the 1981 season, and only the seventh of Mansell's Formula One career. Teammate Elio de Angelis took a surprise win at the 1982 Austrian Grand Prix, and was frequently faster than his less-experienced colleague Mansell.

1982

Mansell's Lotus 91 from 1982 on display

During the 1982 season, Mansell planned to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans sportscar event in order to earn extra money. At the time Mansell was paid £50,000 a year and was offered £10,000 to take part in Le Mans. Chapman believed that by entering the Le Mans race, Mansell was exposing himself to unnecessary risk and paid him £10,000 not to take part in the race. Chapman extended Mansell's contract to the end of the 1984 season in a deal that made him a millionaire.[10]

As a result of the gestures, such as described above, Mansell became very close to Chapman, who made him equal number one in the team with de Angelis, and was devastated by Chapman's sudden death in 1982. In his autobiography Mansell stated that when Chapman died, "The bottom dropped out of my world. Part of me died with him. I had lost a member of my family."[11] Following Chapman's death, relationships at Lotus became strained, as replacement team principal Peter Warr did not have a high regard for him as a driver or person. Warr in his book titled Team Lotus – My View From The Pit Wall stated about the 1982 season:

"After carefully analysing the season just finished, it was completely clear who was the number one. It was Elio. He was faster, he had out-qualified Nigel ten times to three. Elio had seven points scoring finishes to Nigel's two and in addition to Elio's win in Austria, had a tally of more than three times the number of points gained by Nigel. What is more, the margin by which Elio eclipsed his team-mate in qualifying overall was a huge 4.5 per cent. And all this in the year when, as near as can be reasonably achieved, the two drivers were given equal equipment and treatment."

1983

De Angelis was then promoted back to outright number one for the 1983 season. This was demonstrated by the fact that he had exclusive use of the quick but unreliable Renault turbo-charged 93T for the whole season, and Mansell did not get to drive a turbocharged car until the ninth round, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, a race where he climbed from 16th to second and eventually finished fourth in a brand-new, hastily designed 94T. Due to their tumultuous relationship and a lack of decent results, Warr was not keen on honouring the last year of the contract that Mansell had signed with Chapman. However, with encouragement from Lotus's sponsors, John Player Special (who allegedly preferred a British driver), and with the only other remaining top British driver (Derek Warwick, after John Watson's retirement) already confirmed to be joining the factory Renault team, it was announced Mansell would be staying with the team.

1984

Mansell at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix

In 1984, Mansell finished in the championship top 10 for the first time, and took his first career pole position but still finished behind teammate de Angelis, who finished third, in the championship. At the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix Mansell surprised many by overtaking Alain Prost in a wet race for the lead, but soon after retired from the race after losing control on the slippery painted lines on the road surface on the run up the hill on lap 15. Late in the season, Lotus announced the recruitment of Ayrton Senna for the following year, leaving Mansell with no race seat at Lotus. After receiving offers from Arrows and Williams, and first turning down Williams's offer, it was announced before the Dutch Grand Prix that he would indeed be joining Williams.

Mansell was remembered by many that year when he collapsed while pushing his car to the finish line after the transmission failed on the last lap of the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix. The race was one of the hottest on record, and after two hours of driving in 104 °F (about 40 °C) conditions Mansell fainted while pushing his car over the line to salvage a sixth-place finish (and thus one championship point) in a race of which he had led half, having started from pole.[12]

In his autobiography, Mansell claimed that his final race with the Lotus team—the 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix—was heavily compromised by Warr's unwillingness to give Mansell the brake pads he desired for the race. With 18 laps of the race remaining, and with Mansell in second position, the brakes on his car failed. On Mansell's departure, Warr was quoted as saying "He'll never win a Grand Prix as long as I have a hole in my arse".[13]

1985

Mansell during practice for the 1985 European Grand Prix

In 1985 Frank Williams hired Mansell to drive alongside Keke Rosberg as part of the Williams team, Mansell later saying "We have the greatest respect for each other."[14] Mansell was given the number 5 on his car, which initially was white like the 6 on Rosberg car, but was changed to red from the Canadian Grand Prix onwards, probably to help distinguish his car from Rosberg's due to their helmets being similar.[15] That gave birth to the "Red 5", brought to the public's attention mainly through commentator Murray Walker for the BBC, which Mansell kept carrying on subsequent Williams and Newman/Haas cars; even on the 1994 Williams, in which he would race the number 2, it would be red coloured.

Rosberg, the 1982 World Champion who was heading into his fourth season with the team, was initially against Williams signing Mansell based on the clash the pair had at Dallas the previous year (Rosberg won that race and in an interview while on the podium publicly berated Mansell's blocking tactics while leading early in the race, which earned Rosberg a round of boos from the crowd who had appreciated Mansell's courage in trying to push his Lotus to the finish in the extreme heat). Other factors were what Rosberg later said in a 1986 interview was second-hand information about Mansell which ultimately proved to be false. The drivers found they got along well and from early in the pre-season formed a good working and personal relationship.

1985 initially appeared to provide more of the same for Mansell, although he was closer to the pace than before, especially as the Honda engines became more competitive by mid-season.

During practice for the 1985 French Grand Prix, Mansell unwillingly broke the record for the highest speed crash in Formula One history. At the end of the Paul Ricard Circuit's 1.8 km long Mistral Straight he went off at the fast Courbe de Signes at over 322 km/h (200 mph) in his Williams FW10. Mansell suffered a concussion, which kept him out of the race. Teammate Rosberg claimed the pole for the race and finished second behind the Brabham-BMW of Nelson Piquet.

Mansell achieved second place at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, and followed this with his first victory in 72 starts at the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in England. He achieved a second straight victory at the South African Grand Prix in Kyalami. These triumphs helped turn Mansell into a Formula One star.

1986

Going into 1986, the Williams-Honda team had a car, the FW11 which was capable of winning regularly, and Mansell had a new confidence that led to establishing himself as a potential World Championship contender. He also had a new teammate in twice World Champion Nelson Piquet who had joined Williams looking to be a regular winner and contender again after the Brabham-BMWs had become increasingly unreliable and uncompetitive. The Brazilian publicly described Mansell as "an uneducated blockhead" and had also criticised Mansell's wife Roseanne's looks, later retracting these statements following threats of legal action.[16][17]

Mansell won five Grand Prix in 1986 and also played a part in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history, finishing second to Ayrton Senna in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez by a mere 0.014 seconds (Mansell later jokingly said they should give himself and Senna 7½ points each). The 1986 season was led mostly by Mansell in championship points, and it went down to the wire in Adelaide, Australia for the Australian Grand Prix with Prost, Piquet and Mansell all still in contention for the title. The equation was simple, Prost and Piquet needed to win and have Mansell finish no higher than fourth. After aiming for a third-place finish which would guarantee him the title, Mansell would narrowly miss out on winning it after his left-rear tyre exploded in spectacular fashion on the main straight with only 19 laps of the race to go.[18] In a 2012 interview for Sky Sports Legends of F1[19] Mansell revealed that, had he hit the wall rather than wrestling the car safely to a halt in the run-off area at the end of the straight, the stewards would most likely have red flagged the race. As the race was over two thirds distance, he would have kept his position and won his first F1 world title. Instead Mansell ended the season as runner-up to Alain Prost. His efforts in 1986 led to his being voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

1986 proved to be a tough year for both Mansell and the Williams team, off the track at least. After a pre-season test session at the Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France, team owner Frank Williams was involved in a horrific road accident which left him a tetraplegic. Williams would not return to the scene until making a surprise appearance at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch where Mansell and Piquet finished 1–2. Williams's absence from the day-to-day running of the team actually created tension between the team and engine supplier Honda. The Japanese giant regarded dual World Champion Nelson Piquet as the team's number one driver (they were reportedly paying the bulk of Piquet's multimillion-dollar retainer) and were reportedly unhappy that the team's co-owner and Technical Director Patrick Head did not rein in Mansell during races and allowed him to take both points and wins from Piquet. As it was, while Williams dominated the Constructors' Championship, the two drivers took enough points from each other to allow McLaren's Alain Prost to sneak through and win the Drivers' Championship.

Before the season had started Honda had reportedly attempted to persuade Frank Williams to replace Mansell with their own test driver Satoru Nakajima. Williams, who was always more interested in the Constructors' title than the Drivers' as it showed that his team was the best, refused to do this, rightly believing that having two proven F1 winners in Piquet and Mansell would better-serve the team than Nakajima would as an F1 rookie.

1987

Six more wins followed in 1987, including an emotional and hugely popular victory at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in which he came back from 28 seconds behind in 30 laps to beat teammate Piquet, with his car running out of fuel on the slowing down lap.[20] A serious qualifying accident at Suzuka in Japan for the penultimate race of the season severely injured Mansell's back (a spinal concussion). Trying to beat Piquet's lap time, Mansell made a mistake and hit the guardrail.[21][22] As a result of Mansell's absence from the remaining two races, Piquet became champion for the third time. Piquet called his win over Mansell "a win of intelligence over stupidity".[23] The Brazilian also added that he won because he was more consistent than his teammate, racking up points and podiums where Mansell often ran into trouble. Piquet's was a percentage driving policy which worked well in the ultra-competitive Williams-Honda, whereas Mansell was a hard charger who many felt often pushed his luck too far.

1988

Mansell driving a Williams FW12 at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix

In 1988, for the first time in his career, Mansell was a team's first driver, having won more races in the previous two seasons than any other driver. However, Williams lost the turbo power of Honda to McLaren, and had to settle with a naturally aspirated Judd V8 engine in its first season in F1. A dismal season followed, which saw Mansell's Williams team experiment with a terribly unreliable (but extremely innovative) active suspension system (the system had worked well when introduced by the team in 1987 where it could draw on approximately 5% of the reported 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS) produced by the Honda turbo, but struggled with the 600 bhp (447 kW; 608 PS) Judd V8). Mansell would complete only two of the 14 races in which he appeared in 1988, both being podium finishes. One of these was a second place at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone where, overnight, the team had stopped using its active suspension (after months of Patrick Head telling Mansell and teammate Riccardo Patrese that it would take many months of work to do so), and reverted to a passive suspension set-up.

Mansell contracted chickenpox in the summer of 1988 and after a competitive (but ill-advised) drive in the very hot conditions of the 1988 Hungarian Grand Prix the illness became worse, forcing him to miss the next two Grands Prix in Belgium where he was replaced by Martin Brundle, and Italy where he was replaced by Frenchman Jean-Louis Schlesser. By missing the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Mansell missed the traditional welcome by the Tifosi for a newly signed Ferrari driver after he had announced he would be leaving Williams to join the Maranello-based team for 1989.

Nigel Mansell during his time with Scuderia Ferrari

1989

In preparation for the 1989 season, Mansell became the last Ferrari driver to be personally selected by Enzo Ferrari before his death in August 1988, an honour Mansell described as "one of the greatest in my entire career". Enzo Ferrari presented a 1989 Ferrari F40 as a gift to Mansell.[24] In Italy he became known as "il leone" ("the lion") by the tifosi because of his fearless driving style. The season was one of change in the sport, with the banning of turbo engines by the FIA and the introduction of the electronically controlled semi-automatic transmission by Ferrari.

Mansell driving for Ferrari at the 1989 Belgian Grand Prix.

Mansell believed that 1989 would be a development year and that he would be able to challenge for the championship the following season. In his first appearance with the team he scored a very unlikely win in the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet in Rio de Janeiro; his least favourite track, and the home race of his bitter rival Piquet. He later joked that he had booked an early flight home for halfway through the race as he predicted the car's new electronic gearbox would last only a few laps (as it had done throughout pre-season testing and in qualifying for the race).[25] Mansell became the first driver to win a race in a car with a semi-automatic gearbox. The race saw him as the first driver to win in their debut race for the Scuderia since Mario Andretti had won the 1971 South African Grand Prix and he would remain the last man to win on his Ferrari debut until Kimi Räikkönen won the 2007 Australian Grand Prix.

The rest of 1989 was characterised by gearbox and various other problems, including a disqualification at the Canadian Grand Prix and a black-flagged incident at the Portuguese Grand Prix for reversing in the pit lane, which resulted in a ban for the next race in Spain. However, Mansell finished fourth in the Championship with the help of a second win for Ferrari at the tight and twisty Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Early in practice Mansell had seen that trying to qualify the car high on the grid was a pointless exercise and he decided instead to concentrate on a good race set-up. After qualifying 12th (0.681s behind teammate Gerhard Berger in sixth and 2.225s behind pole man Riccardo Patrese in his Williams-Renault) and not even being considered a chance for the race, he charged his way through the field until he pulled off a sensational passing manoeuvre on the McLaren-Honda of World Champion Ayrton Senna on lap 58 to take a lead he would not lose.

1990

A tough 1990 followed with Ferrari, in which his car suffered more reliability problems, forcing him to retire from seven races. He was paired with Alain Prost, (who was also the reigning World Champion), and who took over as the team's lead driver. Mansell recalls one incident where at the 1990 British Grand Prix, the car he drove did not handle the same as in the previous race where he had taken pole position. On confronting the mechanics, it transpired that Prost saw Mansell as having a superior car and as a result, they were swapped without telling Mansell.[26] After retiring from the race, he announced he was retiring from the sport altogether at the end of the season. This, combined with the fact that Frenchman Prost was not only a triple World Champion and the winner of more Grands Prix than anyone in history, but also spoke fluent Italian, whereas Mansell's Italian was only conversational at best, gave Prost greater influence within the Maranello-based team. According to Prost, Mansell only attended two or three mechanical briefings throughout the season, preferring playing golf. One notable highlight of the season was a daring pass on Gerhard Berger around the daunting high speed Peraltada corner that was later renamed in his honour. Approaching the corner for the penultimate time Mansell was bobbing from side to side in Berger's mirrors. Heading into one of the quickest corners on the calendar at the time, where the Ferraris had registered forces of 4.7g during practice, Mansell launched to the outside of Berger and flashed past to take second place.[27]

Mansell scored only a single win, at the 1990 Portuguese Grand Prix, and finished a thrilling second to Nelson Piquet in Australia, and finished fifth in the World Championship. Mansell then announced his retirement from Formula One.[28]

1991

Mansell gives Ayrton Senna a lift after winning the 1991 British Grand Prix.

Mansell's retirement plans were halted when Frank Williams stepped in. Mansell's return to Williams was not straightforward. He would agree to return only if a list of demands were met, including undisputed number one status over Riccardo Patrese (who had remained with the team through 1989 and 1990), guarantees of support in a wide variety of areas with each guarantee in writing, and assurances from suppliers such as Renault and Elf that they would do everything necessary to help him win. Frank Williams said the demands were 'impossible'; Mansell concluded that if that were the case he would be happy to retire. Three weeks later the impossible had happened and Mansell was a Williams driver.[29] Williams signed Mansell on 1 October 1990 after Mansell was assured the contract stated that he would be the focus of the team, having experienced being the 'Number Two' driver at Ferrari. Mansell would be paid £4.6 million a season, a deal which made him the highest paid British sportsman at the time.[30]

His second stint with Williams was even better than the first. Back in the familiar 'Red 5', he won five races in 1991, including the Spanish Grand Prix. In this race he went wheel-to-wheel with Ayrton Senna, with only centimetres to spare, at over 320 km/h (199 mph) on the main straight. Quite a different spectacle was offered following Mansell's victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Senna's car had stopped on the final lap, but, rather than leave his rival stranded out on the circuit (the two had come to blows in the pits following their first lap tangle during the 1987 Belgian Grand Prix and were hardly close friends), Mansell pulled over on his victory lap and allowed Senna to ride on the Williams sidepod back to the pits.

The Williams team's decision to develop their new semi-automatic gearbox by racing with it at the start of the season was at the cost of points in the opening rounds of the championship. Senna was on 40 points with four straight wins to open the season by the time Mansell gained his first finish with a second in Monaco. Mansell then had the next race in Canada practically won when his Williams FW14 stopped half a lap from the finish with what was reported to be transmission failure, though it was claimed by designer Adrian Newey that Mansell had let his engine revs drop too low while he was waving to the crowd in celebration and stalled his engine. This handed Nelson Piquet his 23rd and last F1 race win. Despite a good mid-season, which included a hat-trick of victories, Senna's consistency and Mansell's retirements at key races meant that he finished second in the Championship for the third time in his career, this time behind Senna.

1992

Mansell started the 1992 season with five straight victories (a record not equalled until Michael Schumacher in 2004). At the sixth round of the season in Monaco, he took pole and dominated much of the race. However, with seven laps remaining, Mansell suffered a loose wheel nut and was forced into the pits, emerging behind Ayrton Senna's McLaren-Honda. Mansell, on fresh tyres, set a lap record almost two seconds quicker than Senna's and closed from 5.2 to 1.9 seconds in only two laps. The pair duelled around Monaco for the final four laps but Mansell could find no way past, finishing just 0.2 seconds behind the Brazilian.[31][32] Mansell became the most successful British driver of all time when he won the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, as he surpassed Jackie Stewart's record of 27 wins with his 28th. Mansell was finally crowned Formula One World Champion at the age of 39 early in the season at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the 11th round of that season, where his second-place finish clinched the Drivers' Championship, securing the title in the fewest Grands Prix since the 16-race season format started. Mansell also set the then-record for the most wins in one season (9); both records stood until broken by Schumacher in 2002. He managed 14 pole positions that year, a record only broken by Sebastian Vettel in 2011 in the Brazilian Grand Prix on 26 November. He also held the record for the most races before becoming World Champion with 180 races; this record was broken by Nico Rosberg in 2016 with 206 races.

Other Formula One records set in 1992 that he still holds are the highest percentage of pole positions in a season (88%), most wins from pole position in a season (nine) and most runner-up championship finishes before becoming World Champion (three). Mansell also holds the record for obtaining pole position and scoring the fastest lap and subsequently retiring from the race (1987 German Grand Prix, 1990 British Grand Prix, 1992 Japanese Grand Prix, and 1992 Italian Grand Prix). He is the driver having the most wins (31) without ever winning Monaco.

He won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award again in 1992, one of only four people to have won the award twice.

During this season, Mansell gained a reputation for a psychological competitiveness and mind games. After the announcement by the FIA that the organization would be weighing drivers, Mansell, known for ignoring diet, starved and dehydrated himself the day prior to weigh-ins. This measure led to Mansell weighing less than his teammate Riccardo Patrese by half a kilogram.[33]

In 1994, after the CART season ended, Mansell returned to F1 and re-joined the Williams team. Since he had left it in 1992, the team had undergone some significant changes. Damon Hill had been promoted from test driver and was running full-time in one car. Prost, Mansell's replacement, won the 1993 Drivers' Championship and then retired after the season. This allowed Williams and Ayrton Senna to finally work out an agreement, and the team received a new sponsor in Rothmans International for a season in which they were expected to remain as champions. However, the car proved unreliable and tricky to handle early in the season, leading Senna to retire from the opening rounds despite claiming pole. In the third race at Imola, Senna was killed in a crash on the Tamburello curve.

Williams test driver David Coulthard took over Senna's seat for the majority of 1994 and Williams got permission from Newman/Haas Racing to bring back Mansell at the French Grand Prix and the final three races of 1994 in Europe, Japan and Australia. Mansell was paid approximately £900,000 per race, compared to teammate Damon Hill being paid £300,000 for the entire season.[35] Mansell's return was helped by Bernie Ecclestone helping unravel his contracts in the United States. It was important for F1 to have a world champion driving that season and with worldwide TV viewing figures starting to decline, they needed Mansell. The 41-year-old was not as quick as Hill in race trim but signs that his speeds were coming back were evident in Japan during a battle with the Ferrari of Jean Alesi. Mansell took his final Grand Prix victory in Adelaide, the last race of the season, having out-qualified the two title contenders at the time, Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher, in the process (helped out by the second qualifying session being held on a wet track, with the times from the first session making up the grid). The plan initially was for Mansell to protect Hill from Schumacher, but both drivers passed him at the start and eventually collided (causing the retirement of both), handing Schumacher his first world title.

Mansell purportedly agreed a new contract to drive for Williams again in 1995, but later claimed this was rescinded.[36] Williams ultimately opted for youth over experience and hired Coulthard for the 1995 season.

A McLaren MP4/10B, Mansell's last Grand Prix car

After losing the Williams seat to David Coulthard, Mansell signed to drive for McLaren in 1995.

McLaren's title sponsors Marlboro wanted a world champion, whereas McLaren and their engine suppliers Mercedes wanted a lower-profile driver for what was Mercedes' second year back in Formula One since abandoning it in 1955.[37]

Before the season started, Mansell could not fit into the narrow car and was deputised by Mark Blundell for the opening two rounds in Brazil and Argentina. Mansell's car was completed in 33 days and in time for Imola, where despite being in the top six late in the race, a clash with Eddie Irvine saw him finish 10th and out of the points.[38] The Spanish Grand Prix saw Mansell become frustrated over his car's handling characteristics, he chose to retire after just two races with the team. Mansell cited the decision to retire as his not wanting to make up the numbers and with no hope of the McLaren MP4/10 being competitive. In 2015, Mansell stated that he was wrong to leave McLaren so soon and that in hindsight he should have continued with the team for the season and help improve the car.[39]

A few testing sessions with F1 teams including Jordan suggested another comeback could be on the cards, but it never happened. Reports at the time suggested[40] that the Mansell–Jordan partnership for 1997 was a real possibility with Eddie Jordan's title sponsor willing to pay for the deal.[40] The Jordan team said after the tests in Barcelona in December 1996 that Mansell decided against it.[41]

Mansell has written several autobiographies and books on racing in general:

• In the Driving Seat (1989) (with Derick Allsop)
• Driven to Win (1990)
• Mansell and Williams: Challenge for the Championship (1991)
• Indycar Racing (1993) (with Jeremy Shaw)
• My Story (1995) (with James Allen)
• Staying on Track (2015)

Although teams in motor racing series are generally allocated numbers, Mansell has been associated with the number 5 for many years. This began when he joined Williams in 1985 and was allocated car number 5, as at the time Formula One racing numbers were allocated by constructor and Williams received numbers 5 and 6. For the first four races of the 1985 season, both Williams cars had white numbers, but from a distance the numerals "5" and "6" resembled each other. As a consequence, it was decided to give Mansell's car a red number to make it more distinctive. While this was initially just for recognition, BBC F1 commentator Murray Walker began describing Mansell's car as "Red Five", leading to Mansell retaining the red coloured number throughout his first spell at Williams. On his return to the team in 1991, Williams had retained the number 5 car, allowing Mansell to race as "Red Five" once again. After his departure to CART in 1993 to drive for Newman/Haas, he again retained the red number 5. In addition, "Red Five" fitted well into the livery of his Indy car, as Newman Haas's main sponsors Texaco and Kmart both shared corporate colors of black, white and red. When he returned to Williams for four races in 1994 the team's numbers were 0 and 2 as they had won the Drivers' and Constructors' titles in 1993 but would not run #1 as Alain Prost had retired. Damon Hill drove car #0 while Mansell raced the #2 with the number on the nose of the car painted red (the #2 was white when the car was driven by Ayrton Senna and David Coulthard). So associated with the red 5 is Mansell that, in 2004, he purchased a yacht from Sunseeker, one of his longtime sponsors, which he named Red 5.[77]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

(key; Races in bold indicate pole position – 1-point awarded all races; Races in italics indicate fastest lap; * signifies that driver led feature race for at least one lap – 1-point awarded)

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap.