How Red 5's 1992 F1 throwback wowed Goodwood

Talk about a grand entry. It’s Sunday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The sell-out crowd is looking for something special, particularly after Health & Safety appears to have been responsible for the Red Arrows performing over some empty field in the next county. A performance closer at hand is needed to stir the blood.

That seems likely just after 2pm as Formula 1 cars from across the decades gather in the assembly area. Among this tasty collection, there’s a Benetton-Ford B192, Ayrton Senna’s Toleman-Hart TG183B, a McLaren MP4/1, Rene Arnoux in the Renault RS10 and a much-anticipated run by George Russell in a Mercedes W10.

In a corner beneath the trees crouches ‘Red 5’, so-called because of the numeral on the nose; red being chosen to distinguish Nigel Mansell from the white number 6 carried by Riccardo Patrese’s sister car. The Williams-Renault FW14B is considered to have been one of the most sophisticated F1 cars ever built but Mansell, the first to arrive in this holding area, appears to be in no hurry to drive it.

He carries out interviews, poses for photographers, his blue Sparco driving suit with sponsor logos from 1992 instantly conjuring memories of that championship year. The marshals signal drivers to climb on board and prepare to head towards the startline. A strict timetable is necessary on a day when more than 200 entries are scheduled to tackle the hillclimb.

Mansell remains standing alongside FW14B, as if savouring the moment on some distant starting grid before winning nine of the 16 grands prix from pole during that memorable season. Cars are ushered towards the exit. Red 5 stays put with its engine silent, Mansell showing no sign of reaching for that familiar crash helmet with its distinctive red, white and blue colours.

When the sound of the last engine has died away, leaving only the distant voice of the track commentator and marshals glancing uneasily at their watches, Mansell begins his routine. Balaclava first – his favourite with the big eye-holes – then the helmet, followed by a careful step over the side and a slow submerge into a cockpit that was tight in 1992 – more so now given nature’s advances on the 68-year-old driver.

Five minutes have passed since the request was made to vacate the collection area. Mansell is clearly in no hurry. The Renault V10 eventually breaks the relative hush. It’s a gloriously melodic sound that quickly develops a harsh edge at the behest of the driver’s right foot. Finally, we’re good to go. The show is about to start.

Mansell was content to soak up the moment and play to the fans as he returned to the cockpit of FW14B chassis #11

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Whereas his predecessors had burbled towards the first corner in orderly fashion, Mansell’s arrival is rowdy and urgent. As soon as the Williams is on track and remotely pointing in the right direction, he gives the V10 a bootful of revs and takes off in a cloud of tyre smoke and sound. The grandstand rises as one. No one can be in any doubt; Red 5 has arrived. It is classic Mansell; playing to an adoring crowd.

This moment has been a long time coming. Prior to Goodwood, Mansell last sat in this particular car in Adelaide in November 1992, the final race of the season and for FW14B. This is chassis #11, brought into service as a spare car at Monaco that year and raced for the first time three months later at Hockenheim, where Mansell started from pole and won – almost as a matter of course.

Mansell would use this car for the rest of the season, stars stuck inside the cockpit by the driver’s left hand indicating its pedigree. There are five red stars for pole and two winning gold stars for this car, the lion’s share of victory having gone to chassis #8. The important memory on this occasion, however, is that this is the very car in which his lifetime ambition was fulfilled as he secured the world title in Hungary on 16 August 1992.

"You couldn’t be ahead of it like you could with a passive car. I just trusted what Adrian and Patrick said. Blind faith, I think you call it!" Nigel Mansell

Mansell came close to winning the championship the previous year as he and the team realised they were onto something with FW14, the first Williams from the combined creative pens of technical director, Patrick Head, and Adrian Newey, recruited as design chief and head of aerodynamics. With Head focused on a semi-automatic gearbox and traction control, Newey got on with blending the mechanical design of the Williams with its aerodynamics.

Due to a tight design and build programme, which limited pre-season testing, it took a while for FW14 to develop enough speed to match the McLaren-Honda MP4/6. But, once on the pace, Mansell rattled off three wins mid-season and gave Ayrton Senna and McLaren a run for their money. If FW14 was considered a potential winner, its successor would be on a different level – literally – thanks to active suspension.

“I think it’s fair to say I would have won the championship in 1991 if we hadn’t had problems early on with the automatic gearbox,” recalls Mansell. “I could see we had great potential with Adrian’s design, but I had misgivings when we added the active ride for 1992. I needed to win races, but I had been there before with Williams and active ride.”

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Mansell is referring to a torrid experience with FW12, a car that ran with active suspension before it was abandoned halfway through 1988. The system had been so unpredictable that Mansell had brought his golf clubs to official practice in Mexico; an unsubtle hint that his time would be better spent on the tee than at the race track.

Mansell was a dominant force in 1992 and clinched the title in Hungary with five races still to go

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Mansell need not have had any worries about FW14B. Newey successfully chased the ambition of using active suspension to control the car’s rideheight - which, in turn, optimised the aerodynamics to produce more downforce. In simple terms, FW14B went faster, more consistently. This productive piece of development was such that FW14B was seen as a stop-gap prior to the introduction of a more refined FW15 during the season. As things turned out, FW14B’s domination was so complete that it remained in service throughout 1992.

Mansell won the first five races from pole and would have claimed a sixth at Monaco had a wheel not worked loose, forcing a pitstop and second place, hard on the heels of Senna’s slower – but very wide – McLaren-Honda. Then came pole-to-flag victories at Magny-Cours and Silverstone.

An enduring image of the latter was Mansell providing a taxi service on his slowing-down lap for Senna after the Brazilian had come to a halt at Club Corner. Senna riding on the sidepod would be symbolic in another way since this was the final time Mansell and chassis #8 would be together: he made the switch to #11 for the rest of the season and the championship would be his a month later in Hungary.

It may be said that Mansell had the best car. But that’s true of almost all grand prix racing’s 34 world champions. The key element in 1992 was that Mansell made the most of it – as only he could. Newey was ideally placed to appreciate that.

“The active car was perfect for Nigel,” Newey told this author in an interview for the book Williams. “This was before we had power steering and, because of the amount of downforce it had, the steering loads were very high. Nigel had this tremendous upper body strength, so he could cope.

“Because the suspension system was quite simple and crude in some ways, the car used to move around and give all sorts of slightly funny signals to the driver. Going into the corner, if the rear started to move in a slightly Citroen 2CV-like way, Riccardo’s understandable reaction was to lift off, whereas Nigel had this total belief in himself and his ability to control the car, so he would keep his foot in it. By carrying his speed, he’d maintain downforce through the corner.”

Patrick Head was also in no doubt about Mansell’s input. “FW14B was a massive step forward for us, but it was difficult to drive,” said Head. “It was changing all the time according to the software, so it didn’t necessarily give the feedback in real time.”

Mansell was well-suited to the demands of FW14B, which required bravery

Photo by: Williams

“Patrick described it perfectly,” says Mansell. “To be honest, needing to have that belief in the car was unacceptable at times because you were risking your life going into a very, very fast corner, hoping and trusting that the car would support you. Back then, the tracks were still incredibly dangerous. If you weren’t quick enough to catch the car, you were going have a massive accident.

“It was exhausting because FW14B was so different to a passive car. You could feel a passive car all the time; it didn’t do anything funny. With an active car, there were moments it was updating and doing things and you were in the wilderness while it sorted itself out. You couldn’t be ahead of it like you could with a passive car. I just trusted what Adrian and Patrick said. Blind faith, I think you call it! But it worked.”

The Goodwood hill has no fast corners calling for Mansell’s cast-iron resolve. Nonetheless, he needed to become reacquainted with a cockpit that had been his workplace throughout 1992. Given the significance of the weekend, Mansell and his crew had the hill to themselves on the Thursday evening. Word soon spread through the paddock. A sizeable crowd had gathered as driver and machine were reunited.

"Someone watching apparently said: ‘I thought Nigel said he was going to start slowly.’ One of my engineers told him: ‘That was slow for Nigel!’" Nigel Mansell

“I also drove a Ferrari 640 this weekend,” says Mansell. “Getting into the Ferrari was relatively easy and made me realise just how snug FW14B is. I’d forgotten how Adrian would do such a fantastic job with the aerodynamics. If he could shave half an inch off the cockpit, he would. My body had, shall we say, expanded a bit! It was really cramped in there but that only seemed to accentuate the special relationship between that car and my body.

“The memories of 1992 just came flooding back. It really was quite incredible. And not just for me. Looking around, I could see that people were getting very emotional and I admit I had a tear in my eye. When the engine started, there was an instant memory of that incredible beat of the V10. Those engines were legends; so different to what we have today.”

Given the all-clear, Mansell pulled first gear, let out the clutch and was gone in a fishtailing blaze of glory. He takes pleasure in recalling: “Someone watching apparently said: ‘I thought Nigel said he was going to start slowly.’ One of my engineers told him: ‘That was slow for Nigel!’

“I was concerned at first. I’d forgotten how comparatively rough the hill is and how rock hard the suspension is. I took it easy round the corners – and then gave it a go.”

Mansell didn't disappoint his adoring fans

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Taking to the cockpit once more on Sunday, with the end of the reunion in sight, Mansell is more circumspect, taking time to pause regularly and wave to the crowd before blasting off, savouring the moment just as many of the fans are. It evokes warm memories among the older fans and creates a lasting impression among new ones on what, for many, is a family day out.

Shortly before taking to the hill, Mansell sharpened his reflexes in the Drivers’ Club by joining his grandson Jai on a game of Gran Turismo 7. Afterwards, the crowd pressed against the collection area fence is three people deep. Among them is Andrew Woolnough from Kent, standing with his young son, Oliver. Andrew’s story is typical of many within the Goodwood crowd: he was born in 1974 and his first F1 hero had been Nigel Mansell. He wanted to explain to Oliver the personal significance of seeing Williams FW14B once again in all its glory.

Mansell and Red 5 did not let him down.

Mansell admits he was emotional to be reunited with the car he enjoyed so many special memories with

Photo by: Williams