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(RHYTHMICAL MUSIC)

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The 1992 season kind of felt like
Nigel's last chance

to win that elusive
world championship.

At 39, it was now or
never for Mansell.

The '92 car, wow.

You look at it and you
just immediately think

that car has to be quick.

Nigel was finally gonna do it.

Red 5 ran through the first five
Grand Prixs of the season,

won every single one,
dominated every single one.

Came to Monaco where pole
position is absolutely essential

and nailed it by
an historic margin.

Track position is
everything in Monaco.

Normally if you get on pole
and get in the lead,

nothing goes wrong,
you should win.

The noise was incredible,
the excitement.

Disappeared into the distance,
built a 30-second lead.

He was way out of front,
leading the race,

looking dominant.

Then he started to hear a vibration
from a rear wheel.

Was it a puncture?
Was it a bearing?

I had to come and make
an unscheduled stop.

OK, we put new boots on,
which gave me grip.

To be honest with you, I dunno
whether he had a puncture or not

or whether it was
a loose wheel nut.

But when he went back out, he was
in second behind Ayrton Senna.

The closeness of the finish
became an epic.

To overtake at Monaco,
you need some luck.

To overtake in Monaco with
Ayrton Senna in front of you,

you need a miracle.

He was so quick there, the way he
was just darting behind Senna.

Defence from Ayrton Senna,

amazing weaving attack
from Nigel Mansell.

We never touched,
we never hit.

With the current rules today,

Ayrton would've got stop-go
penalties for blocking.

It should have been a Nigel victory.

He was way faster than Ayrton.

On the last few laps, he tried
everything to get past Ayrton

but there was just no way.

He never won the Monaco
Grand Prix. It's crazy.

And the winning streak came to an
end, but what a fantastic duel.

It wasn't to be.

He'll look back and that
was the one that got away.

If you had to sum up
Mansell and Williams

between '86 and '91,

the '92 Monaco Grand Prix
actually does that.

He was nearly there once again
and then snatched defeat

from the jaws of victory.

You started to think, "Right, he's
won the first five of the season,

but now Ayrton Senna is on
the top step of the podium.

Is it all gonna unravel once
again for poor old Nige?"

(RHYTHMICAL MUSIC)

(CAR ZOOMS)

(CLICKING)

This is fantastic.

This is the reboot,
isn't it, of Williams?

It's a very young-looking
Frank Williams in his suit.

You know, Frank had lost his team
to the Canadian oil baron

billionaire Walter Wolf,
and he's had to restart again.

And this is really the beginning of
Williams' Grand Prix engineering

as we know it now.

Motor racing was his life.
He loved it.

I mean, and I'm sure all
the members of the family

would agree, motor racing
first, everything else second.

He was so determined.

We were on the steps
to the Sao Paulo Hilton

before the Brazilian Grand
Prix in '77 and he said,

"I've had enough, Peter, I've had
enough. I can't do this anymore."

And what he meant was
working for Walter Wolf

and he said, "Oh, I'm gonna start
again. I'm gonna start again.

And I'm gonna have engineering in
the title of my next race team.

'Cause Formula One's future
is about engineering."

I always remember
him saying that.

And then very soon afterwards
he contacted Patrick Head.

He'd seen in Patrick
this gem of a brain.

Patrick Head is one of the
great figures in Formula One

technical history.
Came from a military background,

which is what gave him
a very stiff spine.

But he had a very, very
clear understanding

of the whole of a
Formula One car.

And I think Patrick loved Frank's

just burning fire of enthusiasm,

and very quickly he got it together.

He did a deal with the Didcot local
council who, at that stage,

they had a very large train
terminus, if you like.

That was a mainline
thing to London.

But nobody wanted to live
in Didcot or work in Didcot.

And so they gave Frank
an amazing deal to set up

a little race shop
under the arches

of the railway line, actually.

You always had the sense of
Frank Williams being this figure

in the background,
just looking for opportunities,

commercial opportunities,
sporting opportunities.

The famous, you know, wearing out
a pair of shoes every month

because he was just walking
everywhere and would never stop.

(SPEAKING IN ITALIAN)

Then, of course, on top of that,

he had this amazing ability
to pick up languages.

(SPEAKING IN ITALIAN)

And very quickly became
multilingual.

We were all aware that Frank
was in the Middle East a lot.

You know, "I'm gonna show
the Middle Eastern community

that they can be the best in the
west if they race with me."

So Frank being Frank,

had the brand-new
Williams '06 liveried up

in Saudi Arabian Airlines colours

and had it towed to
the Dorchester Hotel

where he knew where the key
Saudi prince was staying that week.

Had to bribe a traffic warden

to be able to park there
on Park Lane.

Rushed into the lobby and rang
the prince's room and said,

"Have a look out the window."

Looked down, saw Frank
waving next to the car

and the guy sort of gave the thumbs
up and that was the deal done.

We're in the Middle East now.
Big time in Formula One,

but Frank was the
first guy to go there.

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER))

I thought I was gonna be a fighter
pilot, an astronaut,

various things.

But then police officer
brought me back to my home.

I was driving a one-wheeled
JLO faster car

down the pavement.
Not what you did.

I thought, "Oh, I'm gonna
be a race car driver."

(LIGHT MELODIC MUSIC)

(CLICKING)

Maybe you're born with a
silver spoon in your mouth

where you never have to worry.

I'm afraid I was right
at the other scale

where we didn't really have no...
anything to rub together.

So we worked really hard to actually
achieve whatever we did.

Birmingham, England in
the 1960s and '70s

where Nigel grew up was very
much an industrial town.

Britain's second city automotive
kind of capital, really.

A bit like Detroit in the US.

His father was a professional.
He was an engineer with Lucas.

His mother ran a tea shop.

Not terribly glamorous and
not really the sort of place

you'd expect a Grand Prix star
to come from.

ANNOUNCER: If you've never driven
a go-kart, have a go.

It's great fun and there are
many tracks open to the public.

In fact, it's becoming
increasingly popular

as a competitive sport.

I really persuaded my father
when I was six-and-a-half,

seven to take me.

It was to Shenington, a kart track,

and I thought,
"I know I've got this."

It was terrifying.

And then I had a terrible
rude awakening

because every time I did one lap
and I thought I was really quick,

everyone else had done two laps.

In the next practise, I went out

and I went down the straight
and everything went quiet.

And obviously I came to a standstill
and had the marshals

running over to me, said,
"You're OK, you're OK."

I said, "Yeah, the chain's
fallen off."

And he looked at me, he said,
"You got a bit more of a problem

than the chain falling off.
The whole engine fell off."

And so my engine
and chain was down the road.

(CHUCKLES)

I remember having a tear in my eye
then and my dad saying,

"Well, we'll try and
get a better engine

and a better kart for you."

I think it was about my third event

was the British Championships.

The British team manager
was there watching

to pick a team to go and race
in Holland and Sweden

and go to the world
championships.

(ENGINE ROARING)

And I went from the
back of the grid,

which was about 33 karts,
up to third in one race.

He picked me as one of the
drivers to actually do that.

We were obviously very thrilled
but incredibly disappointed

because we didn't have the finances
to go and get another engine.

It was my grandparents,
when they heard that I'd been picked

for the British team,

they brought me a complete
new engine -

I'll never forget
'cause it's 34 pounds,

which was about $50 back then -

to allow me to go racing
and represent myself

and the British team,
which was truly fantastic.

(CLICKING)

I was training as an engineer
at Lucas Aerospace

and I wanted to go racing.

I didn't want to go karting anymore.

He raced karts. But if you really
wanted to show your talent,

you got into Formula Ford 1600.

35 car grids,

incredibly competitive,
wide track cars,

narrow tyres, no wings,
just sliding all over the place.

It was the category, really.

'Cause it's mostly down to what
the driver can do in the car,

not the package he's driving.

If you could win the British
Championship in Formula Ford,

you know, you had a future
in front of you

if you could find the funding.

And my father, Eric Mansell
did a deal with me and said,

"Look, finish your qualifications.
It takes three or four years.

Once you get your degree
and you're an engineer,

fully fledged and you got an
engineering job at Lucas Aerospace,"

he says, "Then we'll go racing."

19-and-a-half, 20, I got my
results and I was elated.

I passed.

I didn't get a first class pass,
but I got a pass.

Right, let's go racing, you know?
Really, really good. Really happy.

And then my dad laughed at me

and I didn't appreciate him
laughing at me

and I didn't understand it and I
said, "Why are you laughing, Dad?"

He said, "Well, where do you think
we're gonna get money from

to go racing? We can't go racing."

I said, "You promised me."
He said, "Yes."

He said, "I did that for you.

So you made sure you get
your qualifications.

I had to give you a goal
to achieve."

And we fell out.

I fell out with my parents
and my dad at that point,

which is a bit sad for me to
even share that with you now

because I didn't speak to him
for a fair bit of time.

He really didn't have
any money, you know,

and he had to work really hard
and...

to make ends meet
and get out there.

And he was determined
but, but underprivileged,

I think you should say.

Nigel's wife, Roseanne,
is one of the great figures,

actually, in the story.

They'd met when they were young.

I mean they would sleep
in the back of a van

at the racetrack rather than spend
the money on a B&B or a hotel.

She basically gave
all of her salary

as a British gas demonstrator
to him to go racing.

I mean, few wives would
just believe in this crazy

pipe dream that Nigel
seemed to have at the time,

but she stuck with him
through thick and thin.

(BRIGHT MUSIC)

(CLICKING)

Well, my first Formula Ford car
was dug out of a garden.

It was a Javelin JL5

and it had flowers and weeds
growing out of it.

My car was going down
the straight about 140.

The back end just
dropped down a little bit

and I saw this wheel
go flying past

and realised it was my wheel
that had come off,

and so I didn't race
that car anymore.

I borrowed, then, a Crosley 25

and I went and won
straight away, first time out.

Even then he had
this inner belief

that he was the fastest
guy on the racetrack.

Really, really quick.

So you could see him on the
track with other drivers

and they'd be going
into the chicane

and Nigel would be the one
coming in a little bit earlier,

a little bit softer
with his transitions.

Nigel had an incredible year
in '77 in Formula Ford.

He entered 42 races
and won 33 of them.

It's an incredible record.

We won, ended up
winning the championship,

which was wonderful,
but it sort of took off from then.

But what I didn't realise, once you
became champion in one series,

you step up to another series,
you start all over again.

(CLICKING)

'78 was a bit of a nightmare
for Nigel.

I mean, it was the worst
time of my life, really.

The step from Formula Ford
to Formula Three is huge.

You know, we had a home
then, our first home

and it cost just over £4,000

and we sold everything we own -

books, pictures,
furniture and the home -

and went into a rented accommodation

to be able to buy a works drive,

which was March Engineering.

The works team at Formula Three is
essentially one that's backed by

one of the factory engine suppliers
or chassis manufacturers.

So they typically end up
being the best teams

with the best engines,
the best setups,

and in the end the best drivers.

And they said, "Look, if we
give them all this money,

we feel sure that after a few
races I'd get some results

and they'd guarantee they'd be bring
a sponsor for us on board."

In six weeks, they took
all the money and fired me.

He only did five races that year
and the money ran out.

A guy that good,
what a crying shame.

You know, she was working,
I was doing a window cleaning job.

I'd live away from home,
sometimes six weeks at a time.

He had a belief in his own ability,

and him and his wife were
happy to put everything

on the line for that.

But then I managed then to get
the Unipart Drive in 1979

and that's when my career
took off again.

ANNOUNCER: No change in the order.

Andretti, Peterson, Scheckter,
Alan Jones, the Australian.

Williams had an incredible
start to their time in F1.

(CLICKING)

Yeah, the 07 was a quick car

from the minute it turned the wheel

and the grip of the car
was just in another world.

With these ground effect cars, we
have very much more cornering force,

but they're just as
quick down the straight.

It's one of those things. We all
dream about something for nothing.

Ground effect was a strange idea

where you had skirts that pretty
much touch the ground around the car

but then sucked it down
to the ground,

which meant you could go around
the corners more quickly.

And certainly going into
the 1979 British Grand Prix,

Williams were really good at this.

When they turned up at Silverstone,

they were a second faster
than anything else.

They'd done a few tweaks
to the aerodynamics

and wow, they had hit
the magic spot...

..and they were up and running.

'79 British Grand Prix.

Frank got his first win
and it was at Silverstone,

not that by Monday, Frank was
thinking much about Sunday.

He was already thinking of the
next race, typically Frank.

But that was an
interesting crossover

of Nigel and Williams that day

because he was in the Formula Three
race in the Unipart car.

I was very close friends
with Carlos Reutemann,

who at that point was at
Lotus and Colin Chapman.

ANNOUNCER: It seems a pity that
with a British car like this,

there apparently isn't a British
driver good enough for it.

We would be the first team to
consider new talent coming along

and we are always constantly
on the lookout.

So I drag Carlos and Colin
to watch Nigel.

Carlos took one look at him
and turned to me and said,

"Yeah, yeah, he's got it for sure."

And he was saying to Colin,
"Look, this guy is really good."

We did an interview
with Colin Chapman.

He was already world champion
with Mario Andretti and so on.

Where is the next British
world champion coming from?

And he said,
"I've heard a lot of good things

about a young lad
called Nigel Mansell."

It'd always stuck with me that
he got the pronunciation

of the surname wrong,
Nigel Man-sell.

He kept referring to him
as Nigel Man-sell.

The pivotal time in 1979 was when
we were at Alton Park Racing,

doing about 160 miles an hour.

And Andrea de Cesaris put
a wheel into my back wheel,

flipped me and I somersaulted
in the air about three times

and landed upside down.

Bingo, and that broke my back
for the first time.

And I ended up in hospital
with a broken back

and crushed vertebrae on the spine.

And I had an extraordinary phone
call from Colin Chapman

and I said,
"Oh, hello Mr Chapman, how are you?"

He said, "Oh, Nigel." He said,
"I'm running a test in Paul Ricard

and I got six drivers
I'm evaluating down there

and I'd like to give you
the opportunity

to drive a Formula One car."

He said, "Can you be there
in a week's time?"

I put the phone down, and picked
the phone up to my specialist
straight away.

And I said, "I'm going to
drive a Formula One car

in a week's time down at Paul
Ricard. What can you do to help?"

And he tried to talk me
out of being insane.

And I said, "Well, I'm doing it
with or without you."

I had a corset made up.

I got the strongest painkillers,
which make you go a bit doo-lally

but I've never driven a
Formula One car before.

I had no idea, no knowledge.

Formula One racing,

one of the most challenging
and dangerous sports on Earth.

It's a big jump to go from
Formula Three to Formula One.

You're getting something like
four or 5G of braking force,

which means your head is four times
its normal weight on your neck.

You have to prepare for that.
You can't just throw someone in.

Formula One was
unbelievably dangerous.

It was just happening so often
that you kind of expected it.

ANNOUNCER: Ronnie Peterson's
Lotus collided

in a horrific traffic jam,

a crash from which the popular
Swede was never to recover.

It was the most dangerous era
of all.

I mean, they were losing one or two
Grand Prix drivers every year.

You make a mistake back then,
you were dead.

If you were lucky, you smashed
your legs and never drove again.

You broke your back,
you never drove again.

You were quadriplegic,
never drove again.

(ENGINE ROARS)

I was going down the straight
and everything going

(WHOOSHING SOUNDS)
as it does at 215 miles an hour.

Had no time to brake,
no time to see the corner.

Everything happened so fast.

And I was so excited because
Giles Villeneuve in the Ferrari

came past me and I tucked in
behind him down the straight,

and I was going the same speed.

And I stayed with him and I
thought, "Oh, this is great.

Oh, how quick was that last lap?
Was it any good? Was it any good?"

All excited.
I was six seconds a lap,

six seconds a lap off the pace.

I was so dejected
I couldn't find six seconds.

It was ridiculous, you know?

And I remember calling
Roseanne and saying,

"I think I've made the most
terrible mistake of my life."

Basically I'm outta my depth.

I did actually speak to Nigel
actually on that night.

I remember him saying,
"Oh, you know, it's all
happening really quickly."

And he wasn't really dancing
with the music

and I was a bit nervous.

And then I went out in
the car and to this very day

it felt like a big rocket
hit me in the head.

Instantaneously,
everything slowed down.

I could see the trees,
I could see the barrier,

I could see the corner.
I had enough time to brake,

had enough time to change gear.

The next lap, I was six
seconds a lap faster.

They were very impressed to
the point that Colin signed me

as a test driver.
Of course, what did I say?

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll have it. I'll have it."

You know, "Do we get any money
with it?" (CHUCKLES)

(CLICKING)

This is the ultimate chance now

because after Formula One
there isn't anything else.

Formula One is the tops. And this
is what I've been aiming for

for the past three
or four years now.

And to get a chance with a team
such as with Lotus is phenomenal.

He took full advantage
of his testing role,

set some great lap times
and that gave Colin Chapman

the confidence to throw him in for
his Grand Prix debut in Austria.

A year before he was cleaning
offices in Cirencester.

And now he finds himself on the grid
of a Formula One Grand Prix.

The press coverage at the time,

a lot of people were
writing, you know,

why is this guy being fast-tracked
into Formula One?

There are so many more
deserving drivers out there.

Nigel, I think only had a
couple of wins in Formula Three

and not done much more.

The thought was,
he'd sort of lucked in.

You just don't have the experience,
you don't have the name.

People were saying with
a name like mine

I'd never make it in Formula One.

The name was terrible.
I was terrible.

You know, they even commented
on my accent that was,

you know, shocking and I
shouldn't be in Formula One.

You know, he should
come from Argentina

and be called Juan Manuel Fangio.

He should be called Alberto
Ascari or something,

you know, Enzo Ferrari,
anything, you know,

but Nigel Mansell
from Birmingham?

It didn't seem to
fit well with our,

I think with our idea of what

a glamorous Formula One
racing driver should be.

The Formula One world is everything
that people think it is

from the outside. It's stylish,
it's glamorous, it's exclusive,

and it's always sort of marketed
itself on that kind of cachet.

And that makes it a big
challenge for outsiders

to find their way in.

They were slight snobby about him
if I'm honest, you know.

Colin was his own person,
his own man.

He could have had probably
a choice of 20 other drivers

with all sorts of
Formula One experience.

I was always pushing the limits
of trying to be part of something

that I wasn't part of.

A lot of the press was
waiting for Nigel to fail.

And sure enough, in Austria,

I mean, you've got a
sense of the future

because there was
drama attached to it.

There is always drama attached
to whatever Nigel Mansell does.

I go on the grid for
my first ever race.

The guy comes with a bucket of water
and pours a bucket of water

in the cockpit.
I'm getting my arse burnt,

got a leak in the fuel tank.

Can you imagine the drivers
of today sitting on the grid,

getting their arse burnt and their
goolies and everything else

down there?

I suffered first degree burns
of the lower buttocks,

so it was quite an
uncomfortable race for me.

Oh, I got burnt to buggery.
I got second and third degree burns.

And he was sort of lifted
out of the car with burns

and everything else, spent
the night in hospital.

INTERVIEWER: Can you sit down
OK now?

Well, as you notice, I've probably
been standing up a lot today.

(CHUCKLES)

We went to Zandvoort
for another race.

With only ten minutes to go,
he said,

"Right, I'm giving you a Elio's car.
Go on, qualify."

They didn't do a seat adjustment,
seatbelt adjustment,

didn't do a pedal adjustment.
Just straight into the car.

The pressure.

I think I qualified 14th or 15th,

but more importantly, I was
only one or two tenths slower

than Elio with one go.

And I think at that moment
Colin thought,

"Yeah, Nigel Mansell is
a serious racing driver."

At the same time, Frank had
this beautiful operation.

The car was, you know,
just wonderful.

To this day, you've gotta say
Alan Jones

in that 07 Williams,
particularly 1980,

that's as solid a car driver
combination

as you'll ever see in Formula One.

It's one thing to win Grand Prix,
it's quite another

to win World Championships.

1980 was a huge year in the history
of the Williams Grand Prix team

because that was when
Alan Jones clinched

their first world
championship title.

It was extraordinary
when you reflect now

on how long it takes a team
to build itself,

establish yourself, let alone
win a world championship

and they did it in the space
of effectively three years.

It is one of Formula One's
great stories.

(RHYTHMICAL MUSIC)

(CLICKING)

Elio and, of course,
Nigel Mansell,

two young up and coming drivers.

Elio has more experience than Nigel.

Nigel is the best British driver
we've had come along in years.

The thing that I was really
getting a sense of

at the Lotus base
in the early '80s

was this bond that
had been formed

between Nigel Mansell
and Colin Chapman.

I think he saw in me someone who had
a tremendous appetite to learn.

And being a qualified
engineer at that time,

I had a far greater
understanding than somebody

who just was a driver.

What he did for me was
just like a father figure.

If he said do something
and jump out the window,

I'd jump out the window.

He was also very much appreciating
his attitude to racing,

which is go for it.

ANNOUNCER: So Mansell third,
number 12 in the new Lotus 87.

Only his eighth Grand Prix.

Nigel was doing a great job.

He managed to get a couple
of podium finishes -

one in '81, one in '82 -

and he was starting to establish
himself in Formula One.

Nigel was happy.
He was in a really good place.

After all the struggles
to get to this point,

he was a Grand Prix star.

He was established,
he was making some decent money.

ANNOUNCER: The gold lettering on
the £21,000 sports car says it all.

Nigel Mansell has arrived.

Williams were absolutely flying
in the public consciousness

and a lot of the support that had
been very much behind Lotus

at the end of the '70s was suddenly
behind this little team at Didcot.

The FW07 and the FW08,

conceptualised by Patrick Head
and Frank Dernie,

took ground effects and raised
the bar to a whole new level.

By 1982, Rosberg had
delivered the team

its second World Championship.

Williams were now well established
as a top team in Formula One.

Colin Chapman, the man who
made Lotus cars famous

around the world, has died.

He was 54.

A spokesman for Lotus says
he died of a heart attack.

I was absolutely devastated.

I mean, there's no words
even after all these years

to describe the feelings.

Whatever motivation I had
just evaporated in thin air.

The direction in life was lost.

It was the most
shocking time in my life

'cause it wasn't just the
fact that we lost Colin,

I felt like I lost my father.

So the regime changed at Lotus,

and Colin Chapman was replaced
by Peter Warr,

who had been Colin Chapman's
number two,

who wasn't as appreciative
of Nigel's talents

as Colin had been,

and they locked horns very early on.

Communications and dynamics
and leadership just disappeared.

You did get the impression
that Peter Warr

was not only very negative
within the team towards Nigel,

but also outside the team.

And Nigel had a very
difficult time in making sure

that his reputation
remained intact.

I suppose a low point
was Monaco 1984,

which was a very wet race.

He qualified second
on the grid behind Prost

and he was over a second faster

than his Lotus teammate,
Elio De Angelis.

And the whole of
that Monaco Grand Prix,

he was just out there to
show he, Nigel Mansell,

was the quickest guy on the planet.

He passed Prost on lap nine

and really started disappearing
off into the distance.

The race was under control,

obviously in very
treacherous conditions.

And then he went and dropped
it into the barriers.

And I think where
Nigel went wrong,

his immediate quote at
the end of the race was,

"I went on the white lines
and the painted white lines

are very slippery", and, of course,
the press had a field day.

A lot of excellent drivers
made mistakes and fell off

and, you know, I feel through
no real reason of their own.

An habitual whinger in terms
of what the press thought.

You know, it was always
someone else's fault.
It wasn't ever his fault.

And leading that chorus of criticism

was Peter Warr himself.

I'll never forget because
I just couldn't believe

he said it publicly.
He said, "Well, while I have a hole

in my arse,
he will never win a race."

And what's that supposed to
mean for crying out loud?

Well, as I said, he must
be very constipated now.

(CHUCKLES)

By the end of '84, Nigel really
needed a way out of Lotus

and particularly that
toxic relationship

he was facing with Peter Warr.

It wasn't working out and he
was really, really looking

for another home for the
next chapter of his career.

Around the British
Grand Prix time,

I started to inundate
Frank with lots of,

"You've gotta sign Nigel"
conversations

and started to back it up
with lots of stats.

First lap out of the pits,
laps on cold tyres, hot tyres,

qualifying, comparing it with all
the other drivers on the grid.

And he was pretty
enthusiastic about it.

And, of course, next week would
come and nothing would happen

and Nigel will ring and say,
"What's going on? What's going?"

"No news. No news."
And so it dragged on and on.

We got to the Dutch Grand Prix

and I remember saying to Nigel,

"Frank's gonna give us an answer."

And I actually got a
little bit frustrated

with the conversation.

You either want someone to
drive for you or you don't.

Nigel just went ballistic and said,
"Right, tell Frank the deal is off

'cause I don't wanna drive for
anybody that doesn't want me

and can't make up their mind.
Just go tell him that now."

So I did.

I went back to Frank's little motor
home. I said, "Look, Frank,

you're not gonna like this.
This is what Nigel's just said."

He said, "All right,
tell him he's got the deal."

Just like that. It was incredible.

And I ended up driving for
Williams in '85 with Keke,

which was marvellous.

(RHYTHMICAL MUSIC)

(CLICKING)

(ENGINE ROARS)

Start of '85, there's no doubt
Nigel was the number two

in every dimension,

purely because Keke Rosberg
was a Grand Prix winner.

He was known as Rocky. He was
really quick. Great car control.

I had a very uncomfortable
pressure initially with Williams.

The bad blood was told to Keke

and other people within
the Williams team about me.

Nigel was this English guy

prone to errors of the,
you know, the Monaco '84.

And there was this sort of aura
about Nigel as, you know,

why have William signed him, really.
And I'm sure Keke,

he didn't feel Nigel was
a threat, I don't think.

Without a win, and you're
alongside a world champion,

there is an expectation that one is
gonna be better than the other.

My first race was in Rio

and I got planted off
at the first corner.

It wasn't too good.

Second race was in Estoril,

and going to the grid, it was
raining and we had turbo engines,

which were like an on-off switch.

So I get halfway around the
corner, then the power surges.

Anyway, I spun off,
hit the barriers on the warm up lap

to the grid and smashed
the front suspension

on the left-hand side
and had to limp back to the pits.

I'll never forget the number
Patrick Head did on me.

Oh, my goodness me,
he was so upset.

Peter Collins was the
team manager and he said,

"Look, just go and clear your head.
Just focus on being ready

to get back in the car
and start from the pit lane."

And then about a third,
halfway through the race,

my teammate Keke Rosberg,
ex-world champion,

in the fast corner coming
onto the main straight,

he had a mighty accident

with the identical symptoms that
happened to me on the warm-up lap.

I drove the whole race tentatively

and making sure I wasn't
gonna fall off,

but I came from last to fifth.

From the pit lane

to P5 in the rain.

Terrible visibility.

He's in traffic the whole race
and he's passing people.

And he said he literally listened
to the engine note

of the car in front.

And when that engine note changed,

that was the moment Nigel,
without seeing anything up,

just a bank of spray, he just moved
to the right or the left.

That's how he did it.

If ever there was a race where
if he was prone to mistakes

and if he was incapable of
winning in the right situation,

it would've been shown up
that day, but he didn't.

He delivered
beautifully on that day.

Just before the British Grand Prix
and Keke came up to me.

He says, "I need to
apologise to you."

He said, "I listened to those idiots

telling me all different
things about you,

which I know now is totally untrue."

And he said, "I'm sorry."
He said, "I had preconceived

judgements,
which are totally wrong."

In Formula One, it's, obviously...

it's down to the driver,
but it's a team sport.

So, you know, the car
is very important,

the team is very important and you
need the full package, really,

to win your first race.

It's a combination
of man and machine.

That's part of why people love it,
I think.

And the real magic is when you
get a combination of a driver

who's on the up,
who's able to make a car faster.

Through my engineering background,
Patrick Head,

we got on really well.

It was a breath of fresh air.

We got half a second,
half a second to maybe six,

seven tenths a lap faster,
just with one test.

Because he'd got so much road
dust on him at that point

that when finally he was
in a very, very good car

with a good balance,
with a very good rear end,

lots of power, Brands Hatch,

great circuit that he loved,

it was right up Nigel's street.

The 1985 European Grand Prix

was held at Brands Hatch

and it was a huge day for Nigel.

He made a great start
from third on the grid.

Got up to second,
but he ran wide early on,

which allowed both Nelson Piquet
and Keke Rosberg to get past.

Rosberg tried to overtake Senna,

who put quite an
aggressive block on him,

causing Rosberg to spin

and it left Piquet
with nowhere to go.

Piquet gets caught up in that,
as well, and that takes him

out of the race. Rosberg's not
happy. He has to go into the pits

to get some service on
his car to repair it.

He comes back out again
and who does he find but Senna.

Holds him up.
Somewhat predictably,

he wasn't in a mood to let him pass

so he put a bit of
a defensive block on him,

which gave Nigel the
opportunity to sneak by

and take the lead in
front of his home crowd.

Great move on Ayrton Senna
that put him in front of the field

and it was a huge breakthrough.

Once in front, Nigel then
set about building a lead

and this was going to be
his big day at home

in front of the British audience.

You're in a car on your own and
you're like in solitary confinement,

sepia,

blasting around the circuit
with your hair on fire.

You have to manage the car,
drive the car.

It's very physical,
but the mental side of it is huge.

Every single corner
I was making sure

I was micromanaging the corners,
making sure I got the apexes,

making sure I was carrying
enough speed, but not too much.

You had to sort of
control your breathing,

you had to control your motion,
counting the laps down,

and then also the extra pressure
of managing the gap

of the car chasing me down

'cause it wasn't a walkover.

It was only about five seconds
or so in front.

So I've never felt that
pressure ever before.

But sheer panic set in,

and with a few laps to go,
I mean, you know,

a tyre could blow out,
suspension could break,

the brakes could fail,
engine could blow up,

you could make a
mistake and spin off.

And all these feelings in
the car you have to manage

because if you don't

you'll crash on every corner.

(UPLIFTING MUSIC)

1985, the Grand Prix of Europe
at Brands Hatch.

And at long last,
the British Motorsport public

could let out a collective
sigh of relief

because after 72 Grand Prix starts,

Nigel Mansell at last crossed
the line in first position.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

I actually saw Roseanne
long before I saw Nigel

at the end of the race.

And we didn't say much, really.

Just, you know, hugged and...

it's happened and it's OK now.

It'd been such a long,
hard fight to get there.

(UPLIFTING MUSIC CONTINUES)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

You know, I think Nigel
was one of those guys

that didn't really wanna
show too much emotion.

And then as soon as
he won his first race,

I feel that it all came out
and we saw the true Nigel

and he felt confident in,
you know, expressing himself.

It's the most wonderful
feeling in the world.

Now he didn't need to
prove anything anymore.

I think anybody who's tried
for the number of years he'd tried

and then you suddenly win a race,

you're a foot taller,
then, aren't you?

(UPLIFTING MUSIC CONTINUES)

If anybody's won the race
for me today,

it's the people out there.
They've just been unbelievable.

I mean, on the last few laps
I could just see 'em.

I mean, it was just extraordinary.

The best feeling
I've ever had in my life.

I think more than any other
British driver I've known,

he has a genuine love affair
with the British public.

And once you get over that hurdle,

I was up and gone.

I mean, I was ready
to win everything.

Immediately after came
the second victory -

the very next Grand Prix
in South Africa.

And suddenly we went into
the close season thinking,

"Hey, you know, this guy
could really take it

onto to the next level."

(CLICKING)

(FOREBODING MUSIC)

Keke had had an offer
to go to McLaren.

The thinking was,
Nigel's pretty good,

but is he that good

and is he gonna win us
a world championship?

So Frank was casting
around for the next driver.

We need to get a proven winner.
We need to get Nelson Piquet.

He was a double world champion
at that point

and he was Mr Perfect
in every dimension

from Frank's point of view.

He loved the bikes,
he loved the girls,

he loved everything about Nelson's
cosmopolitan way of life.

He sent me off to
Nelson's hotel room

to get the draft
agreement signed.

Just said Nelson is
the number one driver.

I wasn't exactly thrilled with it
'cause I knew Nelson's reputation.

Hopefully we could work close enough
with Nelson to be,

you know...

be in the top three all the time.

From his point of view, it was just
yet another super quick driver

who'd won world championships.
He always thought,

"Well, you know, and I'll beat him,
I'll look even better, I guess."

You know, that's the way he thought.

The feeling was one of
tremendous optimism.

ANNOUNCER: Part of the contract
allows Mobile to tour

the Williams Oxfordshire-based
race shop

with some of its favoured clients.

And we can monitor the functions
of the engine meanwhile.

ANNOUNCER: For Peter Windsor,
it's a routine floor show.

I joined Frank full-time in '85

to do all the liveries
and the uniforms,

all that colour stuff.
He can blame me for that.

But as a result of that,
I was quite involved

at tests and at races.

We were testing at Ricard.

I mean, you could... there's
so many ifs about this thing,

but in fact Frank didn't
really need to be there.

He wanted to be there
'cause it was a test

and it was the first
time we were running

the FW11 Honda car.

I set off with Frank and he
was in a Avis Ford Sierra.

And it was a lovely afternoon,
Saturday afternoon,

but I didn't know that he
was so into being flat out

all the time.

All I said was, "Are the brakes OK
on this thing, Frank?"

Which was my way of trying to say,
"Do we need to go this quickly?"

And he said, "Yeah, yeah, the brakes
are fine, brakes are fine."

And he goes through this kink.

The back end just came out a little
bit and I remember thinking,

"Now we'll see how good he is."

Frank did one of those,

which immediately set up
an oscillation, of course.

We were obviously gonna
hit the wall.

(CAR SMASHES)

Came to rest upside down.

All I could hear was Frank saying,
"Get me out, I'm trapped.

I can't move. Get me out."

The next thing, I was just
lying in the grass field

with a car ten metres away
with Frank's...

well, I was just cradling
Frank's head in my lap.

Nelson and I, an engineer,
we raced to the accident

and obviously saw the whole thing

as it as it happened,
pretty much.

And I remember, obviously,
travelling to the hospital

in the ambulance to try and
keep Frank alive, basically,

and keep him stable.

Nigel got into the ambulance
with Frank

and basically just
kept him conscious,

kept winding him up,

cracking jokes,
abusing him, whatever, you know,

just to keep him going,
keep the adrenaline going.

He was incredible under stress.

Somebody rang up and said,

"Oh, Frank's had a bad accident."

Yeah, I mean we were all
obviously quite shocked,

and then the stories coming
out was how bad it was.

I think we were all
sort of on tenterhooks

because Frank was
such an integral part

of the paddock and the team.

Patrick Head assumed the
mantle of leading the team

and did a fabulous job.

Everyone just closed ranks,

which is what you have
to do in adversity.

Even Nelson and I
closed complete ranks

and for a short period of time

we really worked well together.

Determination of Ginny Williams
was to keep her husband alive.

I mean, an amazing lady who fought

because, you know,
there were people saying,

"No, he won't survive."

But when he reappeared,
I mean, it was a...

it was very emotional for everybody.

Very emotional.

Well, I suppose that day was
just the inevitable result

of 27 years of really good driving.

I was laying there on the ground
while the ambulance came.

It took about an hour to get there.

I couldn't feel very much except
my hands and arms were burning

as if I'd fallen off a bicycle
and got gravel,

you know, ripped the skin off.

But over the next few months,
one realised that, you know,

you're not gonna walk again,
and that was rather a shame.

NARRATOR: Frank Williams
is quadriplegic.

Yep.
From his shoulders down,

he has no control over the
functions of his own body.

The intricate wiring of his
nervous system is snapped,

leaving the moving parts as
dead as a broken machine.

One of his first reactions
was to sort of curse and swear

and say,
"I hope this isn't gonna mean

that I'm not gonna get to
the Brazilian Grand Prix."

(DRUMS BEATING)

Piquet kicked off the 1986 season

with a win on home ground in Rio.

The second round in Spain,
Nigel and Ayrton

were wheel to wheel,
recording the second closest finish

in F1 history,

but Nigel just got beaten
on that day.

It was so close, I think
they should give us...

they should give us
seven-and-a-half points each.

The canny Alain Prost then
took back-to-back victories

at Imola and Monaco,

and as the reigning world champion,

he then drove himself
right to the forefront

of the '86 title battle.

Nigel really had to
dig deep to make sure

that he remained within range

and my goodness, during the
mid part of that season,

he put together a
string of results

which changed the course
of the championship.

I'm sorry it took so long, Frank,

but we cracked it
this year already.

(DRUNS BEATING)

The relationship with Nigel and
Nelson broke down very quickly.

Nelson felt that, as number one,

he shouldn't be troubled by
the other car at any stage.

I was winning races
and told to slow down.

Or, I was catching up
with the leader

and told to slow down
and stay status quo.

Well, at those times my radio
didn't function very well.

You know, if you're racing,
you're racing.

The memo was I should never
be quicker than him

and I should never beat him,
but I didn't get the memo.

He put together a run of
four wins in five races.

The most important
and the most emotional

was the British Grand Prix win
at Brands Hatch,

beating Piquet
and beating Piquet well.

Adding to the emotion
at Brands Hatch

was the appearance in the pit lane

of Frank Williams
in his wheelchair.

A few months earlier,
nobody had expected to see him back

at a Grand Prix circuit,
but with Nigel winning

and his team spearheading
the world championship race,

one of the great moments.

(HORN BLARING)

Mansell's victory spurred Piquet on

and he went on a run of
victories of his own.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

With three races to go,
four drivers could still win

the World Championship, and the
ringmaster, Bernie Ecclestone,

gathered them all together in
Estoril for a legendary picture

now known as the Gang of Four.

That photograph of
the four drivers -

Senna, Prost, Piquet, Mansell -

reminds you of just how tough

and how competitive
Formula One was at that time.

I mean, you're talking about four
of the all-time greats there

in one shot.
I mean, it was truly a golden era.

It's just unbelievable to think back

that the former office cleaner
from Hall Green in Birmingham

at that time was
leading all of them.

And the others had
world championships,

and Nigel hadn't got one yet,

but there they are trying
to be friendly. (LAUGHS)

(ENGINE ROARING)

To be realistic, I think Nigel
is world champion today,

but it's not finished yet.

The lineup for the grid for
tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix,

Nigel Mansell will start
on pole position.

Remember, Nigel only needs to finish
in the top three in Adelaide

to win the world championship ahead
of his two closest challengers,

Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet.

He now has the chance, of course,
to take the title he's waited for,

for six years.

With Senna out of contention,

the season came down to one
final race in Adelaide.

Three drivers,
Mansell with a six-point lead

over Piquet and Prost.
Surely this was his to lose.

Just very excited that we were gonna
get a British world champion.

It was Nigel's moment,
it was Nigel's day in the sun.

Once again, Formula One
was front page news.

Can our Nige do it?

We hadn't had a British world
champion since James Hunt in 1976

and there was this fantastic
sense of national expectation.

(HELICOPTER WHIRRING)

(CARS REVVING)

ANNOUNCER: And it's go, and a
superb start from Nigel Mansell.

Senna goes through into second place
ahead of Piquet.

Race was going to plan.

Nigel was gonna win.

You know, it was all going so well

and then it...
of course it all unravelled.

In a race, you're never
counting any chickens.

You know, you know
anything can happen.

Tyres were a big issue then.

Particularly on a circuit
like Adelaide,

there's a lot of heat and load

going through the rear tyres,
particularly under traction.

Having said that,
in those days a pit stop

was always a slightly risky thing.

You just want everything
to go smoothly.

You don't want to go into the pits

and worry about a wheel not going on

or a cross-threaded wheel nut
'cause then your race is over.

They looked at the tyres, though,
and they said they look good.

You know, they look fine
so Nigel doesn't need to come in

for a tyre change.
So he just cruised around.

He was in an easy position

and he was gonna be world champion

until that fateful straight.

(EXPLOSION)
And look that!

Collosally, that's Mansell.

That is Nigel Mansell.

(SOFT MUSIC)

We were watching that long shot
of him coming down the straight,

and then suddenly all hell lets
loose and we just were gobsmacked.

It all was looking so good.

I think it was also,
it was so spectacular

seeing the sparks and the wheel.

I can still, in my minds eye,

see the car,
and see the tyre and see the sparks.

They brought Piquet into the pit,

so that scuppered his world
championship chance, as well.

Alain Prost was the world champion.

When you feel like you're in
control, shit hits the fan.

It normally does,

but that one was just
out of the blue.

Everybody beats themselves up
if it could have been avoided.

We could have put him on new tyres.

The only thing I regret is
that I should have broken

a couple of legs
and gone in the wall

and would have been world champion.
You know, it'd been worth it.

If he didn't hang onto it
at 200 miles an hour

and take it down the escape road,
he would've put it into the wall.

They probably would've red flagged
it, 'cause the car would've been

in the middle of the circuit.
They would've taken it back a race

and he would've won the
world championship.

But he did the right thing.

Just in that one moment,
you can see how good Nigel is.

Every correction he makes to the
wheel is absolutely perfect.

There's no overcorrection
at any stage.

He's only got one tyre
on the back of the car

and he's flat out
and that was it,

championship to Prost.
I'm sure Piquet was delighted.

For us, it was just
like the worst trip home

that I've ever had.

No, I don't...
I think he hightailed it away.

I don't remember even speaking
to anybody who'd seen him

because, obviously,
he would've been distraught.

Must have been devastating
and I can't imagine

what went through his head.

You couldn't breathe.
I couldn't breathe.

I mean, you come that close

and to know that you might never,

ever, ever smell it

or touch it or taste it
ever again is...

How do you live with that
the rest of your life?

And that's what kept me going.

I mean, the whole world
had fallen apart.

The world championship had gone.

It was one of those iconic moments
again in motor sport.

You know, that's how you lose
a world championship.

I still sometimes have
some sad moments

thinking how easy
and how close it was

and to lose it in the way that
we did was, was horrendous.

But the flip side of that is,

I think that just cemented
the fans in place

for the rest of my career.

I mean, they lost the
world championship, too.

That's what it felt like.

They shared it

and we shared everything together.

The irony is that, you know,

that he became a bigger star
because of what happened

and the way it happened.

And perhaps even if
he'd won, you know,

it became part of his story.

His story is drama.

So there was no world
championship for Nigel,

but all the accolades
came his way

over the next couple of months.

There were honours of all kind,

including one
which he always regarded

as particularly significant.

And that was the BBC viewers
and the television viewers

voting him
Sports Personality of the Year.

Where everyone,
in their tens of thousands,

voted for the top sportsman
of the year.

Far bigger honour

than winning the Formula One
world championship.

I love the fans...

..and they kept me going.

Bless them.

You'll have to forgive me.
You get a bit...

It's the pollen, it's the pollen.
That's what it is.

(SOLEMN MUSIC)

(CLICKING)

(TENSE MUSIC)

That turbo car from 1987

was the peak of the turbo era.

They couldn't even measure
the amount of horsepower

it was producing

and the Williams Honda FW11B

was the biggest monster of them all.

It was the best car
out on the track.

It was gonna become
down to a battle

between the two drivers -
Nigel and Nelson.

They had not got a relationship.

They were what we'd say
trading blows, weren't they?

I could sense and see there was
a division happening in the team,

but I just put that down that,
you know,

Nelson was a multiple
world champion.

When you haven't won one,
that's where you really are

at a disadvantage.
He was being put under scrutiny.

You cannot say a better
driver or worse driver

because I can say I win two
championships and Nigel lost one.

Teammates in Formula One.

Yeah...

mates doesn't really work,
I don't think.

There's always an atmosphere
in a team,

especially if you're
fighting for wins.

And Nigel and Nelson
definitely had that.

Nelson Piquet, deep down
there was a kind of

viciousness and a poison to him.

He was niggly,
he was combative,

he was gossipy

and he was everything that you
didn't want a teammate to be.

When Nigel did start to
cramp Nelson's style,

whether it being qualifying,
whether it be on the first lap

of a race,
whether it be beating Nelson,

outracing him from
start to finish,

he would go into
Frank's office and say,

"You know, this is ridiculous.
What is going on?

I'm supposed to be number
one driver and this guy,

you keep giving him this and
that and he's ahead of me.

They must be favouring
Nigel with a better car

or Honda must be giving him
a better engine

or something must be
going on to explain this.

I don't like this situation.
And Nigel's not good news at all."

Nelson was gonna use
every bit of imagination

that he could to try to
get inside Nigel's head,

irritate him, annoy him,
upset him, beat him that way.

I think it was in Japan on the
bullet train at one time,

and I'd hurt my ribs.

I think I fractured or
cracked some ribs or whatever

and he kept poking me
in my ribs on the way.

And I took it for a little while

and after you've been
tapped a few times

I just turned around to him
and I just looked at him

straight in the eyes and I said,
"You do that one more time,

I will lay you out like
there is no tomorrow."

Early '87, Nelson did an interview

with Playboy Brazil

in which he was asked
about the differences

between him and Nigel.

And his reply was,
"Well, the main difference

is I always have beautiful
girlfriends and he has..."

And I won't use the word here,
but he was very derogatory
about Roseanne.

Roseanne is the nicest person
you can meet in the world.

Their marriage is the most solid

I've ever experienced in any
sporting environment.

The fact that Piquet felt that
he needed to do these things,

I think it shows to what extent
he felt threatened by Nigel.

Because if Nigel wasn't a threat,
he wouldn't need to do it.

I think a lot of people thought
it actually diminished Piquet.

He hit well below the belt
and again,

but that just showed up
his character

to say and do those things.

I don't think that speaks great
volumes about yourself, does it?

And, of course, when that happens,
from that moment onwards

he was a marked man so far
as Nigel was concerned.

Whatever Nelson is, he is an idiot,

but he's a great driver.

Now, I had to hang it out there
to even compete as a number two

to the number one.

Well, Nigel is a true racer

and when the lights go green,
he kind of gets a bit red

and has a lot of anger in him
and that's expressed

in some really superlative racing.

Frank Williams, he thought
it was quite funny

that they were at each other's
throat 'cause in his mind,

if you got two drivers who hate
each other, they go faster.

What do you do? Do you turn around
and say you've gotta be nice

to each other and work together?

As a team owner,
you can't want better.

You know that at the
end of a weekend

it will be a Williams car that wins

because your drivers are
pushing each other so hard.

Piquet, by whatever means,
was getting the upper hand

both in terms of what
happened on the track

and maybe what was
happening psychologically.

Our practise for the British
Formula One Grand Prix

at Silverstone gets underway today

and the focus of attention this
weekend will be on Nigel Mansell

and his William
teammate Nelson Piquet,

who it seems have not
been the best of friends.

The one great highlight,
of course, was once again

the British Grand Prix
at Silverstone,

where Nigel built up, built up,

built up to that wonderful
move down the bottom

of the hangar straight.

The dummy move, I remember
it in the karting days,

pretending you're going
to the left and then

they slightly move that
direction to cover you

and you change direction immediately
and throw it down the inside.

(ENGINES ROARING)

They were so close to touching
in what I would call

a pretty hairy overtake,
but classic Nigel Mansell.

He was a bruiser and would
do anything to succeed,

but Nelson gave him
no room whatsoever.

It was one of the best overtakes
'cause that was on your teammate

in the same car.

And Williams did give both
drivers the same equipment.

They never messed
around like that.

I think that was actually the first
proper track invasion we'd seen.

It was also the start,
I think, of Mansell Mania.

If you're gonna have a home race,

that's the closest you
can get to Birmingham.

So Silverstone is Nigel's backyard.

(CHEERING)

There were suddenly people
coming to the races

that weren't necessarily
Formula One fans.

They were Mansell fans.
They wanted their man Nigel.

There was a worry, I think,
in the sport that Nigel

was sort of attracting the wrong
sort of fans. (CHUCKLES)

We were worried about getting
football hooligans, I think.

People like an underdog,
people like somebody

who's dogged and determined.
I mean, the Bulldog spirit.

People were able to get behind the
team and really felt part of it.

And when he won,
it felt like they'd won.

They could see that Nigel
was a real person,

that he had had a life before
he became a Grand Prix driver.

He wasn't the product
of some academy

that had taken him from
karting straight through,

seamlessly into Formula One
without ever having to do

a day's work in his life
or get his hands dirty.

He was one of them, really.

The Red 5 symbol with Nigel

became a big marketing thing

and everyone knew Nigel
as "Oh, Red 5, Red 5."

I think it's also because
of his look.

You know, the bushy eyebrows,
the big moustache.

He definitely had a look.

(LAUGHS)

Nelson wasn't happy. (CHUCKLES)

As you can imagine,

But the fans were.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

They absolutely electrified
the Silverstone crowd

and left them all believing that,
"Yeah, our Nigel's the man."

He's turned the corner and, you
know, the rest of the championship

is surely gonna be his.

It looked like it was gonna go down
to the wire again in '87.

Nigel was in a good place.

It was well set up and it was
gonna be pretty close for sure.

Came down to the last two races,

Piquet leading the
championship charge.

But Nigel Mansell was still in touch
with those two races left,

first of which was the
Japanese Grand Prix.

Suzuka, 1987.

Nelson went out and did an
amazing time in qualifying

and put in a great lap.

The moment Nigel saw that time

that Nelson put in,

that was game on.

And off Nigel went to match him.

I probably...

I thought I could get
around that corner

just that little bit quicker

and will just go on the curb
that little bit.

(CAR SMASHES)

I remember the shock up my spine

and it stopped me breathing
for a minute or so.

I couldn't breathe,
I was just paralysed.

It crushed my lower back.

Spinal concussion, they call it.

He was in so much agony.

It was pretty obvious that Nigel
was not gonna race the next day.

So, obviously, that had
handed the championship

to Nelson there and then.

He went off by helicopter
and that was effectively

the championship over
and it gave it to Nelson.

You know, there was no
roistering celebrating.

Nelson didn't do that, nobody did
that because he got the championship

but not the way anybody
wanted it to end.

It was an anti-climax.

(SOLEMN MUSIC)

We still won the
constructors' championship.

It was a bit of a mixed emotion.

I was beginning to wonder
whether Nigel was jinxed,

shall we say.

And once again, the chorus started -

it ain't gonna happen for Nigel.

You know, I watched a
couple of people dying

in intensive care over
the time I was there,

and then I thought, in all
honesty, I'll never race again.

When you hurt so badly and you think
you're never gonna walk again,

it doesn't really matter.

My focus wasn't about racing then.

It was about, you know,

having my children climb on the bed

and don't understand why
dad can't come outta bed.

I think the race was about November

and my leg feelings and my
legs never came back till...

started to come back in
January, February, I think.

The end of 1987 was
pretty awful for Nigel.

He was lying in a Japanese
hospital with a broken back.

He'd lost the world
championship to Nelson,

and then Piquet had taken
the Honda engines with him

and left Williams for Lotus.

(CLICKING)

NARRATOR: These are the FW11s,
which took the team

and their sponsors
to absolute victory in 1987.

The problem is these $10 million
technological masterpieces

are antiques, more useless
than a pre-war Mercedes

because Honda won't even let
Williams keep last year's engines.

Williams were back in the pack
for the 1988 season

and seemed to underline
even more the fact

that Nigel's big chance had gone.

Nigel Mansell is leaving the
Williams team for Ferrari next year

in a deal rumoured to be worth
around £4 million to Mansell.

Nigel was the last driver

to be personally signed
by Enzo Ferrari,

and that's quite
a significant thing.

It's something Nigel himself
is very proud of.

"The prophet is never recognised in
his own country" is a phrase.

Interesting phrase, isn't it?
When he went and raced for Ferrari,

they just saw what he
did in a racing car

and what he did in a
racing car gave him

the name "Il Leone."

And that's the way to
look at Nigel Mansell.

He was a lion in a car.

He delivered some decent
results for them

and then came all the
political machinations

that proved his undoing.

Prost fell out with Senna at McLaren
and needed to get out of there.

Ferrari had the opportunity
to bring him in.

And even though Nigel had been
there longer than Prost,

Prost very quickly worked out which
were the levers you needed to pull.

And that situation, of course,
all came to a head

at the British Grand Prix.

I got there and I got in my car

because we had qualifying
cars and race cars.

And I sat in the car and I got in.

It's just like putting a pair
of pants and your trousers on.

It didn't fit properly.

This is not my car.
What the hell's going on?

So I went to the team manager,
I said, "Look, you know,

you swapped cars on me.
What the hell's going on?"

They had to admit that they...

Alain said, "I wanted
Nigel's qualifying car

because of that qualifier the
week before everything else."

If they'd just told me the truth,
I wouldn't have got upset.

But they didn't.
I had to squeeze it out of them.

So we went out and
I qualified in his car,

got pole position and I said,

"Which car are you gonna
have for the race now?"

Nigel took pole position,
he was leading the race,

but once again
his Ferrari broke down

and his teammate went on to win.

And so in front of the crowd,
he throws his gloves.

The wind went out of my sails.

And I knew when I threw my balaclava

and I knew when I threw my
gloves over the copse corner

and I was almost gonna throw
my helmets, as well.

(SIGHS)

All that commitment, all the focus
and everything else just went...

And I said, "I'm done."

It does make me very sad,

but I'm announcing
my retirement today.

And retired, and that was it.

And he was off.

You know, people in shock.
I think we all were.

And the race was still going on
behind and we were all thinking,

"What on earth is going on?"

I think a fair amount of the press
took it all with a pinch of salt.

And, you know,
"This is Nigel. This is Nigel."

My commitment was to my family.

The years I was away from
my family and my wife was...

it was tough.

There's so many incredible
moments in my career

with Lotus and Williams and Ferrari

and a number of people
I loved had died.

My teammates had died.

I've been close, then,

obviously a couple of times.

I'll get out and get a life.

I've got a long life ahead of me.

I'm still alive,
I'm still breathing.

I was the happiest
I could have been.

I think it was about six weeks
or so. It was really good.

I was planning my golf and
I was planning fishing.

We were really, really,
really in a good place.

It was great.

And then...

of course, Prost and Senna,

they're supposed to be
driving for Williams

for '91 and '92.

They obviously did their homework

and saw that the Williams
wasn't gonna be the world beater

that they thought it was gonna be
and neither one of them

wanted to drive for him.

And there was no number
one drivers around.

Sheridan popped up, he said,

"We'd like you to be the
lead driver for Williams."

And, of course, then ultimately,

Roseanne and I decided that
I perhaps wouldn't be able

to live with myself
if I didn't give it a go.

And one of the journalists
suddenly came up to me and said,

"I've just had my office
on the phone.

They've just said that they've heard

Nigel's coming back to Williams."

I said, "Well, but he retired."

"Well, he is unretiring."

The sport couldn't afford
to lose him

and thankfully Formula One

managed to hang on to Nigel Mansell.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the
Goodwood Festival of Speed,

the world's greatest
celebration of motor sport.

Undoubtedly one
highlight of the weekend

will be Nigel Mansell

being reunited with the
Mighty Williams FW14B.

Red 5 is back.

FW14B Car 11 is so special

because it was only Nigel Mansell
that drove that particular car.

And also to Williams fans,

it really is the absolute pinnacle
of what we can do as a team.

Today we are prepping the car.

We're gonna meet Nigel Mansell.

He's gonna sit in this car
for the first time since 1992.

Make sure that we're happy
with how he fits in the car

for the big moment on Sunday.

To bring such a driver as him
and the car together,

it's a really big moment,
not just myself,

but for the whole crew.

(CLICKING)

NARRATOR: Eight months on from
his emotional retirement,

Mansell was back at
Silverstone today

with a team he can trust
and a new car

produced by the organisation
that so nearly brought him

world championships
in '86 and '87.

Nigel was back in normality again,

this time with a teammate

with which he could
feel comfortable.

Finally he got Ricardo and that
coincided with a whole new era

for Williams with Patrick Head
working with

this amazing boy hero, Adrian Newey.

He didn't come in with
any real fanfare.

He basically just appeared.

Even then, back then, you know,

you could tell straight away he
was a very special individual.

He didn't always need a wind tunnel.

He could look at a car
and see which way the air

was actually flowing over it.

Using the cockpit as an aerodynamic
device was a completely...

a massive departure from the
old boxy-looking Williams.

They'd also had Renault
engines and Renault engines

were coming strong
and they were going places.

So '91 season was all
about Senna versus Mansell.

You talk about iconic
moments in motor sport,

but that shot down the straight
where Senna and Mansell

were defying each
other to back off.

Wonderful Formula One.

I think it took me a little
bit of time to realise

just how ruthless Ayrton was.

I mean, he actually planned how
to knock people off the circuit

a number of times and I was a
recipient of that a few times.

In the early days,
Senna was a bit wild.

He didn't mind taking
people off the racetrack.

Nigel famously once pinned him
against the wall by his throat

and said, "If you ever do that
again, I'll knock your block off."

We had a hell of a punch up
at the Spa Grand Prix

and we both went off.

He says, "You're absolutely crazy,
aren't you?" And I said, "No."

I said, "I'm not crazy."
I said, "But I've had enough of you.

I'm not gonna let you intimidate
me and take me off anymore.

And if you're gonna try and kill me,
I'm telling you now, I'll kill you.

We're either gonna die together

or there's gonna be
a healthy respect."

And from that second on,

and I would say there was
a far greater understanding

between us.

Yeah, we got on a lot better then.

(BRIGHT PIANO MUSIC)

And then, of course,
we get to Silverstone

and, of course, Nigel is gonna
do it again for the crowd.

This time the crowd come
pouring onto the circuit

and he picked up Ayrton Senna

and a wonderful gesture to give
him a lift back to the pits.

He got criticised for that.

All Ayrton was doing
was reading the data

from his steering wheel
to report back to the team

and what he'd seen
on the Williams.

So Nigel's nice act
backfired a little bit.

After the Silverstone heroics.

Well, Nigel was in firm contention

until, of course,
that awful moment in Portugal.

The scenario couldn't be better.

He's in control of the Grand Prix

and it looks like it's gonna be
a big point swing

because Senna is further back.

It was all set up perfectly
for Nigel.

The car came in,
the gun went in,

took the nut out,
wheel came off,

put the nut on.
It got cross-threaded

and what he did was
pull the gun out

and when the guy on the rear
jack saw the gun come out,

he thought,
"Oh, that wheel's clear."

And that was the problem.

(ENGINE ROARING)

I think I remember
Patrick Head saying,

"Operationally, (CHUCKLES)

I think we could have done better,

like putting four wheels on
instead of just three."

The media were onto us wanting
to know whose fault it was.

And I'll give Nigel his due.

He never once blamed anybody.

He said, you know, "We win as
a team and we lose as a team."

The world title challenge
completely disappeared.

For a third time he was runner up

in the Formula One
world championship.

But things were only about to get
a bit worse in Adelaide.

We were racing in a monsoon.

There was something like seven,
eight, maybe even nine cars

crashed out already and I
was racing tooth and nail,

guess with who? Ayrton.

And I just aquaplaned
straight off,

straight into a solid concrete wall

and I felt my foot break
as soon as I hit the wall.

It wasn't really obvious at
the time how serious it was,

but as time went on, it became
clear this was a much more serious

situation than it had first looked.

My surgeon said,
"Your foot splinted."

He said, "We've gotta get the chisel

and hit it with a hammer
and get the bone spurs off

which were splintered."

And I said, "Look, I can't
have three months off."

I said,
"What's the worst case scenario?"

He said,
"Well, eventually the splinters

will come through the surface."

And he said,
"Then you can pull 'em out

but it'll be very, very painful."

And I said, "Well, I'll do that."

And when you have an injury, you
have to then go to the FAA doctor

and pass medicals.
I knew I wouldn't pass a medical

'cause if they examined it
and touched it, I'd pass out.

My thought process,

perhaps not the best, I admit,

was not tell anybody,

which is pretty tough
because I had a limp all year.

So '91 ends with Nigel second again

but there was a difference
this time.

There was a real optimism
within the team

and I think Nigel knew it, as well.

He just needed to make
sure that he was ready.

I was overdue.

I mean, the fans were overdue.
We were overdue.

I mean, come on, let's get it done.

(SOFT MUSIC)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

How you doing? You all right?
You good?

Nigel, you all right?

All right, Nige?
Good to see you.

Might be racing this weekend.
Oh, yeah.

Oh, dear.

This is your original seat.

Good Lord.

Definitely got smaller.
You've got bigger.

(CHUCKLES)

Hey, Jay, this is the old crew.

We all go back a long way.
Yeah.

Remember how to drive it?
I don't know.

You have to teach me.

..zero, the engine will stop

and then just flick it back into P1.
OK, got it.

Just make sure you're in neutral,
yeah?Yeah. Got it.

When we start,
we put this one up immediately.

Yeah.
All right, and then we go,

we switch it off and then
put it back to one.

Perfect.
Perfect.

You don't remember?I remember,
yeah. I remember.(CHUCKLES)

The clutch is very hard, isn't it?
Hoo-hoo!

Amazingly enough,
the seat fits really nice.

It's comfortable.

The back of the spine is in
the seat, which is lovely,

and the headrest is not too bad.

I'll tell you,
coming back and sitting in it,

you actually realise
just how exposed we were.

I mean, when you think the
protection they've got now.

(SOFT MUSIC CONTINUES)

Everyone...

I just want to let you know how
really, really proud I am

to be here and drive the car.

It's fantastic.

All the memories are flooding back.

I remember this
position very well.

(MEN LAUGHING)

This will always be your car.
It's that time in history -

Memories in time, isn't it?
Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, to think it's 30 years ago
is staggering.I know. I know.

(ENGINE REVVING)

Can I take a picture of you?
Yes, please. Yeah.

Oh, I'm so blessed. Thank you.

Thank you.

As '91 went into '92,

Nigel knew he had
a real opportunity

to win the world championship.

You dreamt it for years and years,
you've tasted it.

I mean, I'm getting
goose pimply now.

How can you go goose pimply
30 years after?

It was almost like a Rocky movie.

I mean, he's 39 years of age,
he's almost 40.

He's got a broken foot
and he's going into the last year

of his contract.

There was very much this sense
that it's now or never,

it's make or break.

He was running outta years
so I think he knew

this probably was his
last shot at it.

I think they were very excited
and very confident about their car.

These days there's a new car
every season,

but it was such a good car.
I think they just felt that

they could develop some parts of it
and it would be better.

The FW14B is one of the top five
greatest cars of all time.

It had a new technological weapon
known as active ride.

They had gone through such an
exhaustive testing programme

in '91 with the likes of
Damon Hill and Mark Blundell

to make sure the car was
reliable for it in '92.

Nigel called me the test monkey.
I think something like that.

It just...

was a beast, basically.

It had a life of its own.

It used to just sit there in
the garage moving on its own,

up and down, side to side,

bleeding the air out of
its hydraulic systems.

What was so special about
the active ride suspension?

What it meant was that
the car would anticipate

the bumps in the road.

Look at one of those videos on
YouTube of holding a chicken's body

and tilting it like that
and yet the head stays exactly

in the same place.
That is active ride.

It's not to do with the suspension,
it's to do with the aerodynamics.

If you look at pictures
of the active car,

it looks like the
suspension's broken.

It looks like...
You can't see any air underneath it.

It is stuck to the ground.

If you can keep the car in a steady
state and keep it stable,

then those aerodynamics are always
operating at their top level.

It was only really made
possible by computers

and it meant that this
was the start of

really what we take
for granted today.

You know, they broke that ground.

Active suspension looks
great on paper.

Sometimes it does weird things.

Would start to shake a little bit
and then it'd get really violent

and you don't want that when
you're going 180 miles an hour.

So Nigel was understandably
sceptical about this.

The car, I would say,

is one of the most
dangerous cars to drive.

You had to anticipate
what it was gonna do,

trust that it wouldn't
completely fail you.

But if it did, you'd get hurt.

And it hadn't killed me,
so it'd be all right. (LAUGHS)

Subject to upsetting my wife
and the family and friends

and everything else,
I came first.

There was nothing that came
between me and doing my job.

Nigel took me to one side
and he said,

"Just make this car bulletproof
and we will clean up this season."

We basically then went off
to the first five races

and won the first five
races on the trot.

(CHEERING)

I think he found a groove
with that car.

You know, I think he found a setup
that really worked for him

and you can see it.
He was so confident in his driving.

It's a complete caricature
and a falsehood to say,

"Oh, this was a robot car
and all Mansell had to do

was just drive it
and he would win."

But Nigel was really in tune
with the physics of the car

and he loved the physics of the car.

There's something extra that
he was getting out of it.

I mean, he would wring it's neck.

I wanted things so bad

that I was prepared to

push it out there a little bit more.

Ayrton Senna, they were envious.
Everyone was envious because

who wouldn't want to be
in the sharp end?

I knew that everyone was
stacking up to take the drive.

I was willing to go into
every race and risk my life.

If I died, I died.

But the commitment
I had was absolute.

I mean, that's the only thing I can
say. The commitment was total.

We knew that the car could perform,
we knew Nigel could perform,

and we had a confidence that

neither was gonna let us down.

We could see the championship
coming towards us

and it was like,
we can't drop the ball this time,

we can't drop the ball.

ANNOUNCER: Finally, the moment
we have all been waiting for.

Today we are at Goodwood
Festival of Speed.

We're here with FW14B,
Nigel Mansell.

We can't wait to get onto
the hill this afternoon

and give them what
they've come for.

To see Nigel driving
the car again,

it's hard to imagine
what that means to us,

'cause I mean
these were heady times.

We were developing
the car week on week.

He drove it to the limit
and it was just spectacular.

'92 Was just a dream start

and you wonder when it was
gonna end, of course.

You knew something would
go wrong at some point.

Of course it was Monaco
and it was ridiculous.

Nigel, with this 30-second lead,
came into the pits

but came out behind Ayrton Senna

and he gave us six laps
of the most extraordinary

Formula One theatre
that you can imagine.

He was right on his gearbox,
but even for Nigel,

there wasn't gonna be
enough room to get past it.

He never won the Monaco
Grand Prix. It's crazy.

Yeah, what ifs.

Motorsport's littered with what ifs.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

At the '92 British Grand Prix,

I think we saw machine and
Nigel Mansell as a driver

at its absolute zenith.

A bit special
and the crowd there, electric,

the place was.
You didn't need to watch the TV.

You could hear them just by the
crowd as to what was happening

and set the fastest ever lap.

Nigel was 2.7 seconds ahead

of the first non-Williams driven by

no lesser driver than Ayrton Senna.

When Nigel won in '92, it was his
fourth British Grand Prix win.

He was just the perfect guy
at the perfect time,

in the perfect car,
in the perfect team,

in front of a crowd
that was thirsty

and hungry for a British hero.

(ETHEREAL MUSIC)

And so we got to Hungary
and we went there

with a possibility of
clinching the championship.

It's amazing to think,
'cause even then

that was quite early in the
season to win a championship,

but that was the measure of
the dominance of the season.

Didn't sleep a wink
thinking, you know,

is it gonna happen, not happen?

Been there so many times before.

ANNOUNCER: Finally, the
moment we have all been

waiting for is upon us.

I'll talk you through it as we go.

Obviously it's been a while
for all of us. (LAUGHS)

We were all very cautious in terms
of what had happened

in seasons before, but seven race
victories coming up to Hungary.

A second place would
give him the title.

How could he possibly
lose it from there?

Are we all ready?

(ENGINE STARTS)

It went off sort of OK.

And I was second and... but then

same thing we had at Monaco again.

We had a problem with the rear
with a slow puncture.

They were screaming,
"Come in, come in,"

and it dropped me back to sixth.

Going out the pits with the mindset
with the new fresher boots on,

I said, "I gotta do
about ten qualifying laps

to get back as close
I could to third place."

I had to come second to
actually win the championship.

I pushed really, really hard.

ANNOUNCER: And he's away.
Oh, he's not hanging around.

This is a classic Mansell
and Williams display.

I'd have gone through anybody.

Nobody messed with me in '92.

Nobody.

ANNOUNCER: This is sensational.

Man and machine finally reunited,

sparking all those
memories of 1992.

(ENGINES REVVING)

One last blast across
the finish line.

What a fantastic sight.

You are about to see Nigel Mansell

become world champion of 1992,

and he's world champion.

(MUSIC CONTINUES)

(CROWD CHEERING)

I remember just thinking,
yeah, yeah.

The British superstar.

It made you proud to
get him to his...

basically his dream.

(CROWD CHEERING)

Ayrton was on the podium with me.

He turned to me and said, "Do you
understand why I'm like I am now?"

And I said, "Well, not really."

He said, "Well, how good's
the feeling?"

He said,
"That's why we're such bastards."

And I figured he's right.

(CROWD APPLAUDING)

(CROWD CHEERING)

I always knew he could do it

and I always knew he would do it,

and I'm lucky to have been
a part of that team

that enabled that to happen.

Massive round of applause
for the 1992 World champion,

Nigel Mansell.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

He deserved two or three
championships.

They weren't to be,
but he deserved to be known

as Nigel Mansell, world champion.

Frank was happy, Patrick was happy.

I mean, not that Frank will
ever show his emotions,

but you could tell.

Nigel's performance in Formula One

drew audiences.

I think he should be regarded
as one of the greatest drivers

of all time.

(CROWD CHEERING)

INTERVIEWER: You think
Roseanne Mansell

will be pretty relieved
at this moment?

Yeah, I just can't
wait to see her.

I'm still with my best friend
through thick and thin,

which is my wife.

That is the thing
that I'm proudest of.

We're coming up to 48 years of
marriage, which is very special.

And when you look at the injuries

and some of the substantial injuries
that I've come back from...

..I can't take the credit for that.

There's only one person...

..who can take the credit

and that's my wife
to nurse me back.

I look back and go, how the heck
did I get through all that?

I have no idea how
I had the fortitude

and determination and even the...

oh, my goodness me,

the stubbornness to keep going,

but I did.

I don't like giving up.

(RHYTHMICAL MUSIC)

(ENGINE REVVING)

(CAR SCREAMING PAST)

You see how quick it went?

(LAUGHS)

Yeah, yeah.
(LAUGHS)

(CROWD CHEERING)

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

Oh, no.

No.

Sorry.

Elvis, Priscilla, come here.

Come on, come on.

(UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES)

Gonna change the engine
and gearbox for tomorrow

and a few other things, but...

(LAUGHTER)

How are you?This is my
favourite driver.(LAUGHS)

This one is my favourite.

(UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES)

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