Why Mansell's F1 exit - and Ecclestone's role in it - still hurts him so much

Thirty years ago today, Nigel Mansell's glorious Formula 1 career ended in bleak fashion as he retired his McLaren from the 1995 Spanish Grand Prix and then split with the team after a disastrously brief stint.

In an interview for sports journalist Graham Nickless' new audiobook Cheers to 50 years...On The Sporting Frontline, Mansell has revealed new details about Bernie Ecclestone's role in getting him out of IndyCar - where he intended to stay long into the 1990s - and back into F1 in 1994 for the return that proved so shortlived.

Graham has kindly provided the clip above and adapted book extract below for The Race Members' Club on Patreon:

Formula 1 legend Nigel Mansell has confessed he is still “hurting” over the humiliating way he was forced out of the sport he loved.

And ‘Red 5’ has revealed for the first time that Bernie Ecclestone played a major role in his F1 career ending in such an ignominious way.

British race fans were up-in-arms when their 1992 Formula 1 champion was unable to defend his title in his Williams-Renault and went racing in America instead - becoming CART IndyCar champion at the first attempt with the Newman/Haas team.

And two years later Mansell was forced to leave IndyCar after team co-owner Carl Haas sold his contract to Ecclestone behind the driver’s back.

Ecclestone was desperate to get Mansell back to Formula 1 to fill the void left by the tragic death of three-time champion Ayrton Senna.

But after returning to Williams and winning the final race of the 1994 season in Australia, Mansell ended up driving an uncompetitive McLaren-Mercedes car which he couldn’t fit into. 

It was 30 years ago this week that the “devastated” Briton stepped away from grand prix racing for the final time following the 1995 Spanish Grand Prix.

Now Mansell, 71, has revealed all to renowned sports writer Graham Nickless who has followed the driver’s career since the early 1980s.

Nickless reported on Mansell’s dramatic rise to fame in Formula 1 and was there in Hungary in 1992 when ‘Red 5’ won the world crown in his revered Williams-Renault FW14 .

And they became firm friends when the reporter commuted to America to cover Mansell’s record-breaking 1993 IndyCar World Series championship success as a rookie driver.

The Brit thus became the first racer in history to hold both the F1 and IndyCar titles simultaneously.   

But the wheels fell off the driver’s racing world and his future in America when Ecclestone manipulated Mansell’s return to F1 a year later.

“Yeah, of course it hurts,” Mansell opened up to Nickless. “I mean, it would’ve been much better to do a few more years and then have a retirement year and everything else, like a number of drivers do.

“But, when you have people selling your contracts from underneath your feet, and they’re not even having a word with you, as if it's OK, there's no words to describe how that makes you feel.

“I understand why Bernie wanted me back, but the far-reaching powers to come across the Atlantic and do a deal with Newman/Haas, and Carl Haas especially, to be able to achieve what he did, it's pretty ridiculous.

“Bernie comes over and buys all my contracts out from Carl Haas, which, I've got to say it, bless him, if he had had a backbone, he wouldn't have sold the contracts.”

Mansell was all set to make his home in the States with his wife Rosanne - who he has just celebrated their 50th anniversary with - until Ecclestone’s intervention.

The Formula 1 powerbroker desperately wanted the British crowd pleaser back on the grand prix grid and Mansell often told Nickless he was under extraordinary pressure to do so.

The double world champ went on: “And you know, he changed our lives again. We were very settled, we had contracts for ‘95, ’96 and ’97.

 “We had all sorts of plans for the future. It was fantastic. And then, the rug's pulled from under your feet.

“You come back to Formula 1. The contracts then, that I actually had, were not honoured.

“Again, Frank Williams, shall we say, doing a U-turn for ‘95, which I should have been driving.

“You have the best years of your life, you win two world championships back-to-back, do sensational things, and it's just one of those that it wasn't meant to be, so carry on.

“A lot of my friends had died, and a lot have been injured out of the sport, and we decided enough was enough.”

Mansell was also upset by the way he wasn’t able to defend his one and only F1 drivers’ title after suffering 12 years of blood, sweat and tears reaching the pinnacle of his career.

He had known all season in 1992 that Alain Prost was stalking his seat and that Senna was offering his services for free to Frank Williams.

Williams at first refused to give Mansell the contract he wanted and then changed his mind - but the racer still stepped away.

And it was Hollywood great Paul Newman, co-owner of the Newman/Haas team, who persuaded the champion to “have an adventure” in the States.

And that was some adventure with Mansell racing to the IndyCar title a week before Prost claimed the 1993 F1 crown in the Williams car he had to walk away from.

Mansell concluded: “When I look back, I'm just grateful that we achieved what we did.

“But you know, not to have the support and be able to defend the title in the manner it was won in, is pretty devastating, I have to say.

“But there you go. You know, we're here, we're alive, we've got a tremendous bit of history behind us.

“And we had some great times and to win two championships is wonderful.”

·       The audiobook 'Cheers to 50 years...On The Sporting Frontline' written by Graham 'Nico' Nickless is available now on Amazon, Spotify and Audible and the ebook on Kindle. The book version will be out soon.