| Country | Great Britain | |
| Date of Birth | 8-8-53 | |
| Lotus | Career | |
| Debut | 17-8-80 | |
| Last Race | 21-10-84 | 14-5-95 |
| Races | 61 | 187 |
| Wins | 0 | 31 |
| Podiums | 5 | 59 |
| Poles | 1 | 32 |
| Points | 38 | 482 |
Other information...
Came to the attention of Colin Chapman in 1979 and tested at Paul Richard despite recovering from a broken back sustained in an F3 shunt. At his first race for Team Lotus in Austria drove through the pain barrier after a fuel leak caused him to be burnt. But it was enough to earn him a three year contract.
His four seasons at Lotus were gritty but mostly uneventful, and he was frequently out-driven by his team mate Elio de Angelis. By the time of his famous spin in the wet while easily leading the 1984 Monaco GP the writing was on the wall and due to a personality clash with Peter Warr (then Lotus' team principal) he left for Williams.
The next four seasons at Williams saw the best of Mansell and his championship hopes were dashed twice due the now famous blow-out at Adelaide in 1986 and a large shunt at Suzuka in 1987 where he suffered serious back injuries.
The 1988 season was a write-off as the Honda engines had been replaced by Judd due to Frank Williams' refusal to give Satoru Nakajima a drive (see also Eddie Jordan and Takuma Sato. Told you so!).
Mansell was then on his way to Ferrari.
The two seasons at Ferrari saw a new favourite for the Tifosi who named him "Il Leone" for his charging performances. But once again things didn't work out and he announced his 'retirement' in 1990 after he seemed to suffer significantly more failures than his team mate Alain Prost. In the end he didn't retire and went back to Williams.
His second stint at Williams started slowly, but finally delivered the World Championship in 1992 whilst driving the Williams FW14B which was as dominant as the Lotus 79 was for Mario Andretti and the McLaren MP4/4 was for Ayrton Senna. However his demands for the coming season were too much and so he left Williams for the second time, and headed for America.
1993 saw Mansell become the first rookie to win the IndyCar championship whilst being partnered by Mario Andretti for Newman-Haas. The next season wasn't as successful, and so he returned to Williams to drive in four races which included a win at Adelaide. That should have been the end of his career (an offer of a Williams drive for 1995 was withdrawn), but he was lured to (a desparate) McLaren in what can only be described as a disaster.
Ron Dennis had said "I'll never hire a driver I don't understand... and I don't understand Nigel Mansell", so who knows what he was thinking! After two races (and a cockpit modification, so that he could get in) Mansell finally retired from F1.
In the lead up to the 2004 British Grand Prix, drives a Jordan EJ14 round the streets of London.
In 2005 wins the first Grand Prix Masters race, with Emerson Fittipaldi right behind him.
Returns to racing in 2007 driving a Ferrari F430, paired with Chris Niarchos, for the Scuderia Ecosse team in the FIA GT Championship at Silverstone. Finishes 21st overall and 7th in class.
For 2010 joins with existing UK GT team to create Beechdeam Mansell Motorsport. The team will run Mansell along with sons Leo and Greg in a Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S Le Mans Prototype in the 2010 Le Mans Series and also the Le Mans 24 Hours (subject to entry).