THE PIT STOP issue 8
q u a r t e r l y
m o t o r s p o r t
m a g a z i n e
BOSSING WORDS BY MARK PAULSON IMAGES BY STEPHEN JACKMAN
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IMAGE BY GRAND PRIX PHOTO
PAST IN A FLASH CHRIS AMON DRIVING HIS FERRARI AROUND THE STREETS OF MONTE CARLO IN THE 1969 MONACO GRAND PRIX
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THE FRIENDLY
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FIGHT
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fuel of GOVERNMENTS MAY WANT TO PUSH ELECTRIC POWER AS THE FUTURE FUEL TO USE, BUT THE ACO HAS A DIFFERENT VIEW
WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO 36 | THE PIT STOP
the future
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ELLIOT PAYNE TACKLING THE NIGHT STAGE
OLD
INDEPE 64 | THE PIT STOP
SCHOOL
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IMAGE BY MATT WIDDOWSON
CLASSIC THE SILVERSTONE CLASSIC IS THE PERFECT EVENT FOR ANYONE WANTING TO INDULGE IN NOSTALGIA. AND IN 2022, THERE WERE PLENTY OF F1 CARS TO JOIN IN ON THE ACTION
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MANSELL'S
AFTER YEAR'S OF NEAR MISSES, NIGEL MANSELL FINALLY SECURED HIS FIRST F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE IN 1992
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SEASON
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He was in control. Unlike previous seasons, his FW14B was reliable and fast. It could cope with the demands he was placing on it for full race distances. But knowing how close he was to securing his title, his speed was hampered. Not to the point of being uncompetitive, he still qualified second for the race, but it was clear he wasn’t taking any risks. It was Patrese who claimed pole position. Not a total disaster but not ideal. In order to secure the championship Mansell needed to either win the race, or finish third so long as Patrese failed to score a point. Anything less than that and the title battle would go on. And when the race started, things became even harder. Uncharacteristically, Mansell got too much wheelspin when pulling away, while Berger and Senna had stronger starts behind. It meant that as the field trailed into the opening corner Mansell was down in fourth while Patrese retained the lead. However, Mansell wasn’t down and out. He wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip him by and on the eighth lap he had a better run out of the final corner than Berger and made a move to claim third position. It wasn’t long before he was once again hot on the tail of Senna, but Senna put up a much tougher battle
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than his team-mate. He managed to keep Mansell at bay and then lucked in with some assistance from backmarker Pierlugi Martini. Senna quickly made his way past Martini, but Mansell found himself stuck behind the Dallara-Ferrari, losing valuable time on his rivals. However, luck soon turned back in Mansell’s favour when Patrese spun out of the lead. He was too eager on the throttle, losing the rear of his car and dropping his rear wheels into the gravel. He did manage to return to the track and continued, but by the time he was facing the right way he was down in seventh. All of a sudden Mansell was in a dream position. So long as Patrese didn’t climb back into the points, second was enough to secure the title. Things got even sweeter when Patrese subsequently retired with an engine failure, but a few laps later the tables turned once again. Mansell picked up a suspected puncture and dived into the pits for a fresh set of tyres. Even though Patrese was out of the race, he still needed a podium result. Emerging from the pits, Mansell found himself on the fringes of the points in sixth position. He was a long way off the podium position he needed. It felt like it was too tall an order to carve his way back through the
order. But Mansell being Mansell, the fight wasn’t over. There was no way that he was ready to relinquish the title there and then. Rather than settling for a points finish, he got his head down, determined to get a podium result. Two laps later he inherited fifth after Schumacher dramatically lost his rear wing, causing him to retire immediately, and on lap 66 he passed Mika Hakkinen's Lotus for fourth position. Martin Brundle was only a second down the road and a lap later he passed the Bennetton to move up into third, a result that would safely secure him the title. However, Mansell wasn’t done yet. Berger wasn’t that far ahead and a lap later Mansell passed him for second down into the first corner. Senna was too far ahead to catch, but it didn’t matter. Mansell crossed the line in second and secured himself his first F1 drivers' championship. Finally, at the fourth time he'd been in title contention, he had won the title he so desperately wanted, and naturally it was an emotional affair for him after the race. “Being a driver for almost 30 years and being second twice to Ayrton and once to Alain [Prost], you think that you’re never going to crack it,” Mansell said
in the press conference after the race. “And I think that race was interesting to say the least wasn’t it? So I don’t think I’ll take it in for a little while, so if you speak to the others I’ll sit here quietly for a minute.” It was a huge feat, not only for Mansell, but also for British motorsport. He was the first British driver to win the championship since James Hunt in 1976, bringing a 16-year winless drought to an end for Great Britain. The pressure had been on Mansell’s shoulders for so many years, but in an instant it was all lifted. He could relax knowing he had achieved everything he wanted from the moment he turned a wheel in the series. But although the championship may have been decided, the season wasn’t over, far from it. There were still five races for him to contest, but naturally, with the title won he didn’t feel the need to push as hard as he had been earlier in the year. Next time out at Spa, the rain descended and it was Schumacher who took the spoils, having made a perfectly-judged tyre change in the rain, while Mansell ended up half a minute behind in second. And then at the following race in Italy Mansell failed to finish, after his FW14B suffered its first reliability issue with an electronics failure hitting the 'Red 5' car on lap 41.
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PEUGEOT'S RADICAL RETURN
WORDS BY ASH MILLER / PAUL DAVIDSON IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO
THE REAL SEBASTIAN VETTEL WORDS BY EDD STRAW IMAGES BY RED BULL / FERRARI / ASTON MARTIN / GRANDPRIX PHOTO
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THE
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ARTURA
WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY BRIAN SMITH / MCLAREN THE PIT STOP | 135
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IMAGE BY MATT WIDDOWSON
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