F1 Legends - Nigel Mansell

If ever you wanted a driver to take a car by the scruff of the neck and wring a result out of it, then Nigel Mansell was your man. If Lewis Hamilton is the most exciting driver to watch of the current generation, then Mansell was undoubtedly the swashbuckling star of his. Brave, determined and bold - he was the ultimate racer's racer and the 1992 World Championship was the very least his racing talents deserved. With the unmistakable combination of Brummie accent and thick moustache, Mansell's style made him a hero to a generation of British motor racing fans and earned him the respect of a glittering array of peers which included two of the sport's very best, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. A true cult legend, Mansell remains the most successful British Formula 1 driver in terms of race victories (31) and pole positions (32) and his presence inside the top five on both all-time lists is a true tribute to his abilities in a career at motorsport's top level that spanned 15 years and 187 starts. That's not to say it was ever easy. While many of today's current drivers benefit from backing from either a manufacturer or major company as they make their way through the junior ranks, Mansell had to fight tooth-and-nail to make it to motorsport's top level, investing his own money in his career as he climbed the ladder through karting, Formula Ford and eventually Formula 3. Yet twice his progress threatened to be derailed by major injuries following big crashes. He broke his neck at Brands Hatch in Formula Ford prior to returning to win the title, and then later in F3 suffered broken vertebrae in his back. But as 1980s began, and with Mansell approaching his late 20s, he was finally handed his big F1 break by Colin Chapman and Team Lotus, first cutting his teeth as a test driver before starting two grands prix later that year. In his debut at the Austrian Grand Prix, having made the qualifying cut in 24th place, Mansell was running a respectable 13th when 14 laps from home an engine failure forced his Lotus-Ford out, the rookie having already had to contend with a cockpit fuel leak that left him with burns on his backside. He would spend the next four seasons in Norfolk, claiming the first five podium finishes, and in 1984 created one of the most enduring images of his whole career at the US Grand Prix in Dallas. Having claimed his maiden F1 pole on the Saturday, Mansell collapsed as he pushed his car to the finish line in oppressive heat after a gearbox problem struck on the last lap. With Senna arriving at Lotus for 1985, Williams signed Mansell to partner 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg and towards the end of that first season at Grove, and at the 72nd attempt, Mansell finally claimed his breakthrough F1 victory - and on home soil too, in the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch. It's a clichéd saying in F1 that the first win is always the hardest to achieve, but certainly in Mansell's case the floodgates did open thereafter. He would win a further 30 times in the next 115 attempts, including the very next race after Brands Hatch in South Africa. But while the top step of the podium quickly became something of a home from home for the popular Briton - five and six wins respectively would follow in 1986-87 - the holy grail of the World Championship remained tantalisingly just out of his reach. He came closest of all in 1986 when,