Photo Gallery: Nigel Mansell by The Cahiers
This gallery from master photographers, the Cahiers, looks at The Lion, the man behind The Moustache, Nigel Mansell.
Making his Formula One debut driving for Lotus at the Österreichring in the 1980 Austrian Grand Prix, Mansell would go on to drive the shortlist of Formula One’s greatest teams; steering for Lotus, McLaren, Williams and Ferrari throughout a career that spanned fifteen seasons.
He took his first win at Brands Hatch in the 1985 European Grand Prix, following it up with another two weeks later at Kyalami and going on to win a total of 31 Grands Prix.
He came close to winning his first Formula One World Championship in 1986 when he, Alain Prost and teammate Nelson Piquet went into the final race of the 1986 season with just seven points separating them.
Mansell held a six point advantage over Prost and needed to finish third or higher to secure the championship. He was looking good sitting on pole, but had a poor start and was quickly demoted to fourth. With just nineteen laps left to run he was up to second, but that was when his tyre exploded and put him out of the race and out of contention for the title.
In 1992, driving for Williams again after a stint at Ferrari, Mansell would secure his World Championship title, and do it in dominating fashion. He won the first five races of the season, finished second in the sixth and was World Champion by the time they wrapped up the Hungarian Grand Prix, just eleven races into the season.
He also set the record for most wins in a season, with nine wins, and set fourteen pole positions, a record not broken outright until Sebastian Vettel secured in 2011 and still the highest percentage of pole positions in a season.
Mansell left Formula One as the World Drivers’ Champion in 1992, and went on to immediately win the 1993 CART championship and become the only man ever to hold both titles simultaneously.
He returned to Formula One in 1994 for his third stint for Williams, taking his final Formula One Grand Prix win in the last race of the season at Adelaide, and retired in 1995 after a brief drive for McLaren.
This gallery takes a look at his storied Formula One career, as creatively captured by the chaps at the Cahier archive and is the latest in our series of photo specials showcasing the stunning images from the their Archive. The collection, by photographers Bernard Cahier and his son Paul-Henri are part of a massive collection of 400 000 originals of which 17 000+ pictures are currently available on their website.
Images: TheCahierArchive©
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