Mansell really was remarkable. In his first CART year: Mansell won his 1st ever CART race (Australia); completed 15 out of 16 races; had 10 podiums; had 5 wins with 3 of them being ovals, and one being a superspeedway (Michigan); and placed 3rd at Indy. He came across the Atlantic, and showed up a very experienced, and deep-talented field (Fittipaldi, Tracy, Rahal, Boesel, Andretti, Unser Jr., Luyendyk, Goodyear, Gordon, Fabi, Sullivan, Johansson, Guerrero, Brayton, Vasser, Cheever).
yep, and No Indy or Cart driver has ever managed to be even half as successful in F1 , ever , never mind in their first season.. They usually never even make it to a second season.
@@kadiummusic Whatever. I don't know how you can call a driver who challenged for the F1 championship in his rookie year, and won the F1 champion, CART champion and Indy 500 a "joke". Yes, he didn't have that many achievements after 1997, but Williams struggled after they lost the factory Renault engines and BAR never reached its potential.
Yeah, broke his neck in three places from whiplash in an early accident, had a neck brace he wore through his entire F1 career. A bit of a trend setter :). He was racing with the broken back 3 weeks later. He broke the lumbar portion of his back a few years later too. Tough guy with lots of guts.
Mansell was an awesome driver. Amazing how he came over from F1 right after winning the championship, and even more impressive is how he held both the F1 & CART titles at the same time. In this day and age can anyone imagine Hamilton or Kimi departing F1 after winning the title to come over and race in Indy?
Mansell really was remarkable. In his first CART year: Mansell won his 1st ever CART race (Australia); completed 15 out of 16 races; had 10 podiums; had 5 wins with 3 of them being ovals, and one being a superspeedway (Michigan); and placed 3rd at Indy. He basically came across the Atlantic, and showed up a very experienced, deep talented field (Fittipaldi, Tracy, Rahal, Boesel, Andretti, Unser Jr., Luyendyk, Goodyear, Gordon, Fabi, Sullivan, Johansson, Guerrero, Brayton, Vasser, Cheever).
@Jonas Jonaitis Busted flush Alonso's best chance of winning a championship again would be Indycar. Hamilton would never lower himself to racing Indycar Kimi is so bad he could win a raffle if he held all the tickets.
@@azaz911c This was also a Mansell past his best. Yes he won the F1 title in record breaking style the previous year but it was in a dominant style. The best Mansell as several years earlier when he filed to win 2 or 3 wolrd championships down to nothing other than downright bad luck. Brilliant and courageous driver.
@@Coxy_Wrecked Yeah, one late 80's F1 season, when his car broke, all he had to do to win the championship was hit the wall to red flag the race since at the time, if the race was stopped in the last 1/4 the race was over and the drivers kept their positions. I wonder how honest people would be today if the rules were still the same.
Nigel isnt given enough credit. He jumoed into IndyCar when it was in the middle of its golden era. This wasnt a watered down series like the late 90s. THe series was full of talent and he won the championship the first year! I wish he stook around for more than just two seasons.
I agree. The IndyCar series in 1993 was very strong. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Mansell was going to win the championship, especially given the major differences between the Indy car and the F1 car he drove for the '92 title.
it was close or senna would be in indy in 1994 too. he left mclaren because they signed with peugeot and he had to decide between williams and usa. wich he chose the last
+TheUsmc1488 The thing with Nigel was that his first year here, everything was sweetness and light. I know he did suffer an injury at Phoenix, which was a tough break, but other than that, the team was great, he won races, came close to winning Indy, and won the championship, so everything was jolly good and Nigel was Mr. Nice Guy. The next year when things didn't go his way, he turned into a big crybaby, and alienated many of the fans he had won the year before, because even all the American fans over here were rooting for him in his first year. He was shown up as a front-runner, and at least over here, pretty much quit when the going got tough.
Great explanation. Mansell was right at his peak and showed he was right at the very summit of world motorsport back then. What a talent to hold both F1 and Indycar titles simultaneously.
90’s CART/Indy Car was amazing. As a U.K. resident, Mansell’s debut campaign and the race highlights being shown on British FTA TV was my first exposure to it. Cars were beautiful too. The 1994 Penske was a work of art. I know the modern Indy Cars are a lot safer, but they’re also a lot uglier...
For all the people knocking other forms of racing, even Jimmy Clark, probably the greatest driver of all time, tried his hand at NASCAR, and not at some fancy big track event, but at old Rockingham, in North Carolina. The folks were astounded at the time, wondering why the greatest driver in the highest formula would "lower" himself to a lower-tech series, like NSCAR, and he said something like "A driver wants to prove himself in all different disciplines of racing", and he said they all have their merits. What an attitude to have, and one that probably would draw sneers from F1 lapdog fans. In the past couple of decades, we've seen an IndyCar champ move to F1 and win a championship (Villeneuve) and an IndyCar camp go to NASCAR and win 3 championships (Tony Stewart), while we've seen an F1 champ (Villeneuve again) try NASCAR and fail, and same with an IndyCar champ (Franchitti). We'll never see it because F1 isn't an open series anymore. For instance, Gilles Villeneuve would NEVER get a chance at F1 nowadays. But it would be interesting to see what a NASCAR driver with a dirt driving background (like Stewart or Jeff Gordon, if they were still young guys) could do if given an opportunity at F1. For a present candidate I'd propose Kyle Larsen, who hasn't done much in NASCAR yet, but much of that comes from driving for a second rate team. Some people will laugh at the idea, but is it impossible that we could see something like what happened when Kenny Roberts moved from oval dirt track racing in the US to MotoGP with a completely different approach to the sport and dominated, won championships and changed the sport itself? Maybe it wouldn't happen, but it's a shame we'll never know, and it's also a shame because it makes motor sports as a whole less interesting.
That semi-obscure 1967 race in Rockingham had more than a few legendary names. In addition to Clark, AJ Foyt and Gordon Johncock were also qualified, along with the names you'd expect from 1960's NASCAR (Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, etc.) You don't see very many modern-day drivers with the "Give me something with 4 wheels and let's go" attitude. Think of all the crossover champions there were from that era. Graham Hill won an F1 championship, an Indy 500 and a LeMans24. Mario Andretti won an Indy 500, a Daytona 500 and an F1 championship. Mark Donohue was known for his various sports car championships, but also won Indy and actually scored Roger Penske's first win in NASCAR. AJ Foyt won 4 Indy 500s, a Daytona 500, a LeMans24, a Daytona24 and a Sebring12.
I think it's opening up a bit. Formula 1 drivers are being given a bit of freedom even, and we're seeing them (and Indycar drivers too!) try Le Mans and other endurance racing. Honestly though the reason why it's not at the level of before is simple logistics and travel. Mario Andretti mentioned that his essentially world tour of racing wouldn't have been possible without the Concorde and pre-9/11 open travel. Before he'd win a race in America, hop on a plane and fly to Europe and win a race over there the next day. Can't do that anymore.
Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Chris Amon, Jack Brabham and others would compete in the Trans Tasman trophy in New Zealand as well as competing in the CanAm races in the US (Bruce McLaren among many others).
Like Jaque Villenueve? Actually I think his was more difficult. He only ran two years Indy, 24 year old never drivin a F1 car. I remember watching the first race in Australia. He qualified on pole, and won from start to finish, with Shuey charging hard. He won the championship as a young rookie, from Indy.
The Road of America track reord was set in 1998 I think was the year. So as fast as Nigel was on that course the cars got faster. 1.38 is the record, 2016 pole position time was 1.42. Four seconds is a huge margin in motor racing. The strange thing is, the new cars seem to be faster on street courses and 1 mile ovals.
this is when F1 and CART were more similar even with nigels explanation of the differences. in the past 20 years F1 became aeronautical while cart/indy pretty much stayed the same even with the new changes to the package in 2012. this was also a time where jumping to indy didn't mean a downgrade.
It sure as hell wasn't an upgrade, the simple fact that he could do an F1 season, jump in an Indycar and win the entire season outright.. should be enough to tell you it was not on the same level.. Nobody else has managed to do the reverse direction..Several tried and most did not survived their first season in F1. let alone winning even just 1 race.
His downshifting after the long straightaway was by far the best of the pack every lap - like a machine. And it was a real thrill to hear him do so live back in the day when I was compted a worker's pass.
Indycar was never more exciting when Mansell joined after retiring from formula 1. It was great seeing him race against the likes of Unser, Fittipaldi, and the Andrettis.
great video and thank you for posting, it really takes me back to when I was a kid going to cart races at nazareth. Golden years of american open wheel racing back then.
Adjustable front wing. In-car radio. I'm quite surprised to learn F1 followed in Indycar footsteps in some ways. I'm a massive F1 fan but credit where credit's due. Mid-90's Indy was pretty good, imo.
You're absolutely right. Not every piece of automobile technology comes from F1. Turbo = CanAm, Alternative fuel = Indycar etc. And F1 didn't have a real pace car culture before mid 90's when after Senna's fatal accident they started to realise they should have some performance standards for pace car (or Safety Car in FIA rulebook).
RedPetrol76 Turbos were used in F1 back in the late 40's already. Before you say anything.. A turbo and supercharger was both called superchargers and technically they operate in the same way and only differs in the way they are charged. Before that, turbos were used in aircrafts in the 1920's to mitigate the problem with loss of air pressure at altitude.
I like how Indy cars basically all have the same chassis. That's what we call a level playing field, which makes for a less predictable result. What I have against Indy is Oval Circuits. Not that Monaco isn't a boring track too though.
Peter Mayer I was remembering this line from Wiki. "Starting in 2012 the series moved to using a common chassis supplied by Dallara" But on the oval issue, it seems that now, only a third of the races are on ovals.
Keep in mind this is a 90s CART car. Modern Indycars are low cost and slow compared to modern F1 cars. But in the 90s the cars were just as powerful as their F1 counterparts. Slightly less cornering speed on road courses mind you, but good luck running a 90s F1 car at Michigan for 500 miles without the engine exploding, or the suspension breaking down. Ovals are brutal.
dont know where you found this video i dont care but thank you for posting it it was fun in the day watching f1 and indy mix it up when it came to drivers and i love them all thank you
Watching Nigel's '93 oval wins (Milwaukee, Michigan 500, New England, Nazareth) and his almost-win at Indy (3rd and would have won if not for a yellow with nine laps to go) is watching a racing brilliance that's truly rare. To be able to adapt to a totally different style of open wheel racing and to cope with the crazily hectic traffic and overtakes of the short ovals, and the incredible constant speed, danger, and endurance required of the Superspeedway 500 mile races, and indeed master them almost immediately as he did is almost incomprehensible. Especially considering his practice crash and severe injuries (requiring surgery to close a huge cavity in his back caused by tissue literally being ripped off his bones) at his very first oval race at Phoenix gave him a very clear understanding of what accidents on these tracks can mean. The best of these is the new England 200, one of the best auto races you could ever hope to see, with Mansell dicing with Paul Tracy and overtaking him for the win with only two laps to go. Epic. Red 5's '93 title winning season in Indy Cars is something very very special. Oh and a great guy too, you could tell how much his team and crew loved him and vice versa.
@ajdaemon08 Of course there has been a lot of changes, but my point is that in F1, if you want to win a race and, as consequence, the championship, you have to build the best car on the field the whole year. That is what I meant when I said that F1 relies on equipment rather than driver skill.
Yes, and by doing that it controls its max pressure. As far as I know it, the bov just releases the pressure surge caused by the closing of the throttle.
@kers80bhp The IRL (or the IZOD IndyCar Series as it's called now) is still pretty young, but it carries the legacy of American Open-Wheel racing, which goes back to the turn of the 20th century. It WOULD be great to see some F1 drivers try their hand at it again... When Mansell clinched the 1993 CART championship, he was still reigning World Champion for a few weeks if I remember right.
@samothsamothsamoth The Penske 1994 pushrod Mercedes-Benz 500I engine wasn't bad either, designed and developed for the single race of Indianapolis, exploiting a loophole in different technical rules between the Indy 500 and CART sanctioning bodies at that time.
Ya my point exactly...I was saying can anyone imagine Kimi or Lewis leaving F1 the year after winning the title to go to Indy. As in, it would be lunacy to pull such a move...
Watching this vid again in 2023 made me realize that current day Indycars are physically smaller than their F1 counterparts, while the Cart car in this vid is physically bigger and way heavier than the F1 cars of the time. Only thing that has stayed the same is Indycar cars being heavier than F1 cars, although the current day F1 cars are closer to the weight of an Indycar car.
I run a taxi company and would never have hired Nigel because of his lack of enthusiasm for the basics of left / right driving. Love him and Derek Warwick because they never put themselves above their own ability.
But you would hire Danny Sullivan though; former NY cabbie who applied that essential talent in his motorsports endeavors - notably his Spin-n-Win at the 1985 500.
I was able to get Nigel's autograph at K-mart when I was a kid. Everyone had champCar swag to sign. When it was my turn I had him sign my Renault F1 1:20 scale model box and he lit up like a school boy. He said I made his day and would rather be In the f1 car. As a no nonsense bloke i believe him.
I've heard about Nigel Mansell from readings, to see the man race and talk in these videos is something impressive. I am a NASCAR fan but I watch other forms of motor sport, too sometimes they are better because they have stuck to a formula as opposed to NASCAR changing the formula.
@gpfwestie True, and while you talk of the series as a whole, I kind of always wished Senna would have come over for just Indy, yet something tells me he never would have had he lived in '94. I remember all the rumors for years. Also, Damon Hill, I'm sort of surprised he never gave it a shot with his father's short track record at Indy. Shumy, well, he has stated he doesn't want to die so he will never race at Indy, lol.
f1 cars were still miles ahead even then. they had active suspension, traction control, paddle shift, automatic ect the one thing the did have though was higher driver sides in the car which were much more safer, its crazy when you see the old f1 cars of the early 90s with their heads and necks sticking out...
that would be fantastic. I'd love to see a racing driver in this day and age just get up and say the money isn't enough. I want to be the best, and win at all the famous circuits. I want to conquer the best of the best, in any series at any time. Just compete because that is the thrill of racing. We can still hope that we see drivers jumping from series to series! Tony Stewart is a good example. Shame he never raced in CART. I'd like to see how he'd have done with some good equipment.
@tinySHINEY1 In 1996, Paul Tracy recorded a trap speed of 256.948 mph (413.52 km/h) at Michigan International Speedway which i think is still the world record
Well actually, later in the 90's Cosworth was struggling to match the reliability of Honda's engines and while they matched performance the engines for Newman/Hass racing kept exploding at various speedways.
also when he points out how the suspension is set up, nascar cars have that weird camber built into the frame to a degree. the cars that run ovals cant be set up for the road courses and whole different car is needed
Also, why does everything come to F1? Why not just say, man, cool cars, good speeds? Some of you act like F1 is it, period, which is not true. Sports Car racing can be cool. Rally racing. Supercross, Motocross. Hell, you want to talk pure speed on road courses? Moto GP beats them all.
Peter Mayer Because F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. No other sports car or bike goes faster around a circuit than an F1 car. Period. There isn't a single series (that races on circuits) that is faster in acceleration, cornering and (especially) braking than F1. No not even MotoGP. A MotoGP bike will get destroyed by an F1 car, mainly because of the immense speed difference in the corners and the F1's ability to get on the brakes as late as it does. There are MANY other series that are just as, or even more enjoyable than F1 (especially nowadays..) but none of them beat F1 in pure speed, lap times, cornering, braking, G-forces and the amount of strain it puts on your body.
Peter Mayer Well, they're wrong. There are side by side comparisons of lap times on Spa for example, where even a Caterham F1 (which is/was a 'slow' F1 team) is 5 seconds (!!!) faster per lap than a WEC car. Imagine how much faster the top teams are. F1 cars reach 215+ on a straight quite often. Montoya once hit 372 km/h (231+m/h) on the straight at Monza back in 2005. Last year the cars did around 225 m/h there. MotoGP might have similar top speeds, but they will still get crushed by an F1 car on a full lap.
Peter Mayer What do you mean by pure speed? Top speed is not that important in terms of overall lap time. A Moto GP bike will accelerate faster than an F1 car and on some tracks the top speed down the straight will be faster, but the bike would be a fair bit slower over a lap because the cornering speeds they are capable of are much lower than an F1 car.
kimi & lewis have both won the f1 crown in their youth so it would not be so appealing at the moment, may be when there older esp lewis if the price is right and there was no opportunity`s in formula 1 it might appeal to them I think everyone`s got a price, when mansell raced there indycar racing had a great history with some of the best drivers in the world now you have the IRL which is still quite a young series 1996 may be in years to come as it builds its history it may attract f1 drivers
very well spoken nigel. can you imagine lewis hamilton taking us around his mercedes? "err yeah this is the mercedes i won the british gp with. hmm the emotion at silverstone was like a .... like a wave... err a tsunami of emotion...umm british flags... err and i believe in god... err for sure... and senna was my favourite even though he was a tosser, when senna died the emotion hit me like a tsunami and i cried like i often do.... err brb, just gonna cry real quick and take some selfies for my instagram and get some sympathy likes for being a fkn SNAG"
Such a shame they slowed down both indy and F1, in essence they've both been neutered. Back in the 90's indycars and champcars shape even looked fast looked like a dart and were regularly racing wheel to wheel at 245mph from its 950hp and also F1's V10 days of the early 2000's were producing similar power and cars were a real handful, it seperates the men from the boys, its wrong that race cars get slower and slower yet technology improve and road cars gets faster, F1 cars should run 1000hp.
