The car I loved and the car I loathed – with Nigel Mansell

Nigel Mansell drove a wide range of cars across his F1 career, from Lotus machines he struggled to qualify in to the Williams FW14B with which he ultimately claimed the Drivers’ World Championship title.

But what were the standout designs that he loved and loathed in equal measure? For a new F1.com series, we put those questions to him. Read on to discover his choices, as well as to learn more about each car...

The car Mansell loved: Williams FW11B

“The car I really loved more than anything was the FW11B. It was the fastest car, I think, ever, or [the most] powerful car ever to be developed in F1, with 1,500 horsepower using a Qualifying tyre. That blew your mind.

"Martin Brundle was absolutely spot on: it was a car that wanted to kill you on every corner. So that car… I loved it. I hated it at the same time, because it was trying to kill you! But when you drove that, it was a monster – a monster. You knew when you got out and you were in one piece that you’d done half a decent job.”

F1 technical expert Mark Hughes says…

“The Williams FW11B was the 1987 low-line version of the 1986 FW11. Because the fuel limit had been reduced from 220 litres to 195 in the regulations, the smaller tank allowed the car to be packaged accordingly. There were suspension changes, too, but essentially this was the same concept as before and powered by Honda’s hugely powerful RA167E, which got around the 4-bar turbo boost limit regulated for ’87 to be even more powerful than the unrestricted ’86 engine.”

The car(s) Mansell loathed: Lotus 81B and Lotus 92

“I think the car I really didn’t enjoy at all for a period of time, and loathed, was the first active Lotus car, [the 92], when we were developing that. It was throwing you off the circuit and causing you to have accidents when you were going in a straight line. That was a terrible experience to go through.

“The other car, I think, was the first Lotus that I drove, [the 81B], to try and qualify in a Grand Prix. It was seven inches longer than the normal Lotus car that we were developing, and it wouldn’t turn quickly, because it was too long. It was something that we were trying, but I didn’t enjoy that one either!”

F1 technical expert Mark Hughes says…

“The Lotus 92 was a stop-gap car used by Mansell for the first half of the 1983 season. It initially featured active suspension (the first ever in F1), but this was abandoned after two races because of its unreliability and extra weight. This was Team Lotus’ first season with turbo engines (from Renault) and Lotus had built an entirely different car – the 93T – around that engine. However, Renault could not initially supply enough engines for two cars and so another car had to be built to take the existing non-turbo Cosworth DFV engine. This was the 92 model which Mansell so disliked, especially in active form. The 93T proved uncompetitive and both it and the 92 were replaced by the turbo-powered 94T from the British Grand Prix onwards.

“The Lotus 81B of 1980 was a longer wheelbase version of the original 81. A ground effect car, the 81 struggled in the midfield and it was felt that part of its aerodynamic shortfall was that there was too small a gap between the rear face of the engine and the diffuser, hence a longer wheelbase version was created. This simply created a car with a great reluctance to turn in and was even less competitive than the standard car.”