Magic Moments: Nigel Mansell vs Emerson Fittipaldi (1993)

Whilst battling it out for the ’93 IndyCar Championship – a pair of F1 legends from different eras went head-to-head.

1980 was two-time Formula 1 World Champion Emerson Fittipaldi’s last year racing in F1. It was also the year that Nigel Mansell arrived, then a young British driver who would go on to carve his own legend into the history of the sport – winning the 1992 F1 World Championship. Although time dictated that these two icons were to experience individual F1 careers that would barely overlap, IndyCar was to be a completely different story.

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Emerson Fittipaldi had been racing CART since the mid 1980s, winning the 1989 Championship ahead of Rick Mears and Michael Andretti. By 1992 Nigel Mansell had become the Formula 1 World Champion, however found himself without a drive in 1993 for political reasons. Signing up for CART instead, Mansell slipped into the pond with Fittipaldi and immediately began battling it out. Although neither would win this race in Cleveland (Canadian Paul Tracy took the top spot), the event would see one of their greatest duels caught on camera. Enjoy!

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