Mansell really was remarkable. In his first CART year: Mansell won his 1st ever CART race (Australia); completed 15 out of 16 races; had 10 podiums; had 5 wins with 3 of them being ovals, and one being a superspeedway (Michigan); and placed 3rd at Indy. He came across the Atlantic, and showed up a very experienced, and deep-talented field (Fittipaldi, Tracy, Rahal, Boesel, Andretti, Unser Jr., Luyendyk, Goodyear, Gordon, Fabi, Sullivan, Johansson, Guerrero, Brayton, Vasser, Cheever).
yep, and No Indy or Cart driver has ever managed to be even half as successful in F1 , ever , never mind in their first season.. They usually never even make it to a second season.
@@kadiummusic Whatever. I don't know how you can call a driver who challenged for the F1 championship in his rookie year, and won the F1 champion, CART champion and Indy 500 a "joke". Yes, he didn't have that many achievements after 1997, but Williams struggled after they lost the factory Renault engines and BAR never reached its potential.
Mansell was an awesome driver. Amazing how he came over from F1 right after winning the championship, and even more impressive is how he held both the F1 & CART titles at the same time. In this day and age can anyone imagine Hamilton or Kimi departing F1 after winning the title to come over and race in Indy?
Mansell really was remarkable. In his first CART year: Mansell won his 1st ever CART race (Australia); completed 15 out of 16 races; had 10 podiums; had 5 wins with 3 of them being ovals, and one being a superspeedway (Michigan); and placed 3rd at Indy. He basically came across the Atlantic, and showed up a very experienced, deep talented field (Fittipaldi, Tracy, Rahal, Boesel, Andretti, Unser Jr., Luyendyk, Goodyear, Gordon, Fabi, Sullivan, Johansson, Guerrero, Brayton, Vasser, Cheever).
@Jonas Jonaitis Busted flush Alonso's best chance of winning a championship again would be Indycar. Hamilton would never lower himself to racing Indycar Kimi is so bad he could win a raffle if he held all the tickets.
@@azaz911c This was also a Mansell past his best. Yes he won the F1 title in record breaking style the previous year but it was in a dominant style. The best Mansell as several years earlier when he filed to win 2 or 3 wolrd championships down to nothing other than downright bad luck. Brilliant and courageous driver.
@@Coxy_Wrecked Yeah, one late 80's F1 season, when his car broke, all he had to do to win the championship was hit the wall to red flag the race since at the time, if the race was stopped in the last 1/4 the race was over and the drivers kept their positions. I wonder how honest people would be today if the rules were still the same.
Yeah, broke his neck in three places from whiplash in an early accident, had a neck brace he wore through his entire F1 career. A bit of a trend setter :). He was racing with the broken back 3 weeks later. He broke the lumbar portion of his back a few years later too. Tough guy with lots of guts.
Nigel isnt given enough credit. He jumoed into IndyCar when it was in the middle of its golden era. This wasnt a watered down series like the late 90s. THe series was full of talent and he won the championship the first year! I wish he stook around for more than just two seasons.
I agree. The IndyCar series in 1993 was very strong. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Mansell was going to win the championship, especially given the major differences between the Indy car and the F1 car he drove for the '92 title.
it was close or senna would be in indy in 1994 too. he left mclaren because they signed with peugeot and he had to decide between williams and usa. wich he chose the last
+TheUsmc1488 The thing with Nigel was that his first year here, everything was sweetness and light. I know he did suffer an injury at Phoenix, which was a tough break, but other than that, the team was great, he won races, came close to winning Indy, and won the championship, so everything was jolly good and Nigel was Mr. Nice Guy. The next year when things didn't go his way, he turned into a big crybaby, and alienated many of the fans he had won the year before, because even all the American fans over here were rooting for him in his first year. He was shown up as a front-runner, and at least over here, pretty much quit when the going got tough.
Great explanation. Mansell was right at his peak and showed he was right at the very summit of world motorsport back then. What a talent to hold both F1 and Indycar titles simultaneously.
Watching Nigel's '93 oval wins (Milwaukee, Michigan 500, New England, Nazareth) and his almost-win at Indy (3rd and would have won if not for a yellow with nine laps to go) is watching a racing brilliance that's truly rare. To be able to adapt to a totally different style of open wheel racing and to cope with the crazily hectic traffic and overtakes of the short ovals, and the incredible constant speed, danger, and endurance required of the Superspeedway 500 mile races, and indeed master them almost immediately as he did is almost incomprehensible. Especially considering his practice crash and severe injuries (requiring surgery to close a huge cavity in his back caused by tissue literally being ripped off his bones) at his very first oval race at Phoenix gave him a very clear understanding of what accidents on these tracks can mean. The best of these is the new England 200, one of the best auto races you could ever hope to see, with Mansell dicing with Paul Tracy and overtaking him for the win with only two laps to go. Epic. Red 5's '93 title winning season in Indy Cars is something very very special. Oh and a great guy too, you could tell how much his team and crew loved him and vice versa.
For all the people knocking other forms of racing, even Jimmy Clark, probably the greatest driver of all time, tried his hand at NASCAR, and not at some fancy big track event, but at old Rockingham, in North Carolina. The folks were astounded at the time, wondering why the greatest driver in the highest formula would "lower" himself to a lower-tech series, like NSCAR, and he said something like "A driver wants to prove himself in all different disciplines of racing", and he said they all have their merits. What an attitude to have, and one that probably would draw sneers from F1 lapdog fans. In the past couple of decades, we've seen an IndyCar champ move to F1 and win a championship (Villeneuve) and an IndyCar camp go to NASCAR and win 3 championships (Tony Stewart), while we've seen an F1 champ (Villeneuve again) try NASCAR and fail, and same with an IndyCar champ (Franchitti). We'll never see it because F1 isn't an open series anymore. For instance, Gilles Villeneuve would NEVER get a chance at F1 nowadays. But it would be interesting to see what a NASCAR driver with a dirt driving background (like Stewart or Jeff Gordon, if they were still young guys) could do if given an opportunity at F1. For a present candidate I'd propose Kyle Larsen, who hasn't done much in NASCAR yet, but much of that comes from driving for a second rate team. Some people will laugh at the idea, but is it impossible that we could see something like what happened when Kenny Roberts moved from oval dirt track racing in the US to MotoGP with a completely different approach to the sport and dominated, won championships and changed the sport itself? Maybe it wouldn't happen, but it's a shame we'll never know, and it's also a shame because it makes motor sports as a whole less interesting.
That semi-obscure 1967 race in Rockingham had more than a few legendary names. In addition to Clark, AJ Foyt and Gordon Johncock were also qualified, along with the names you'd expect from 1960's NASCAR (Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, etc.) You don't see very many modern-day drivers with the "Give me something with 4 wheels and let's go" attitude. Think of all the crossover champions there were from that era. Graham Hill won an F1 championship, an Indy 500 and a LeMans24. Mario Andretti won an Indy 500, a Daytona 500 and an F1 championship. Mark Donohue was known for his various sports car championships, but also won Indy and actually scored Roger Penske's first win in NASCAR. AJ Foyt won 4 Indy 500s, a Daytona 500, a LeMans24, a Daytona24 and a Sebring12.
I think it's opening up a bit. Formula 1 drivers are being given a bit of freedom even, and we're seeing them (and Indycar drivers too!) try Le Mans and other endurance racing. Honestly though the reason why it's not at the level of before is simple logistics and travel. Mario Andretti mentioned that his essentially world tour of racing wouldn't have been possible without the Concorde and pre-9/11 open travel. Before he'd win a race in America, hop on a plane and fly to Europe and win a race over there the next day. Can't do that anymore.
Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Chris Amon, Jack Brabham and others would compete in the Trans Tasman trophy in New Zealand as well as competing in the CanAm races in the US (Bruce McLaren among many others).
Like Jaque Villenueve? Actually I think his was more difficult. He only ran two years Indy, 24 year old never drivin a F1 car. I remember watching the first race in Australia. He qualified on pole, and won from start to finish, with Shuey charging hard. He won the championship as a young rookie, from Indy.
90’s CART/Indy Car was amazing. As a U.K. resident, Mansell’s debut campaign and the race highlights being shown on British FTA TV was my first exposure to it. Cars were beautiful too. The 1994 Penske was a work of art. I know the modern Indy Cars are a lot safer, but they’re also a lot uglier...
this is when F1 and CART were more similar even with nigels explanation of the differences. in the past 20 years F1 became aeronautical while cart/indy pretty much stayed the same even with the new changes to the package in 2012. this was also a time where jumping to indy didn't mean a downgrade.
It sure as hell wasn't an upgrade, the simple fact that he could do an F1 season, jump in an Indycar and win the entire season outright.. should be enough to tell you it was not on the same level.. Nobody else has managed to do the reverse direction..Several tried and most did not survived their first season in F1. let alone winning even just 1 race.
The Road of America track reord was set in 1998 I think was the year. So as fast as Nigel was on that course the cars got faster. 1.38 is the record, 2016 pole position time was 1.42. Four seconds is a huge margin in motor racing. The strange thing is, the new cars seem to be faster on street courses and 1 mile ovals.
His downshifting after the long straightaway was by far the best of the pack every lap - like a machine. And it was a real thrill to hear him do so live back in the day when I was compted a worker's pass.
Indycar was never more exciting when Mansell joined after retiring from formula 1. It was great seeing him race against the likes of Unser, Fittipaldi, and the Andrettis.
Adjustable front wing. In-car radio. I'm quite surprised to learn F1 followed in Indycar footsteps in some ways. I'm a massive F1 fan but credit where credit's due. Mid-90's Indy was pretty good, imo.
You're absolutely right. Not every piece of automobile technology comes from F1. Turbo = CanAm, Alternative fuel = Indycar etc. And F1 didn't have a real pace car culture before mid 90's when after Senna's fatal accident they started to realise they should have some performance standards for pace car (or Safety Car in FIA rulebook).
RedPetrol76 Turbos were used in F1 back in the late 40's already. Before you say anything.. A turbo and supercharger was both called superchargers and technically they operate in the same way and only differs in the way they are charged. Before that, turbos were used in aircrafts in the 1920's to mitigate the problem with loss of air pressure at altitude.
I like how Indy cars basically all have the same chassis. That's what we call a level playing field, which makes for a less predictable result. What I have against Indy is Oval Circuits. Not that Monaco isn't a boring track too though.
Peter Mayer I was remembering this line from Wiki. "Starting in 2012 the series moved to using a common chassis supplied by Dallara" But on the oval issue, it seems that now, only a third of the races are on ovals.
great video and thank you for posting, it really takes me back to when I was a kid going to cart races at nazareth. Golden years of american open wheel racing back then.
dont know where you found this video i dont care but thank you for posting it it was fun in the day watching f1 and indy mix it up when it came to drivers and i love them all thank you
Yes, and by doing that it controls its max pressure. As far as I know it, the bov just releases the pressure surge caused by the closing of the throttle.
Keep in mind this is a 90s CART car. Modern Indycars are low cost and slow compared to modern F1 cars. But in the 90s the cars were just as powerful as their F1 counterparts. Slightly less cornering speed on road courses mind you, but good luck running a 90s F1 car at Michigan for 500 miles without the engine exploding, or the suspension breaking down. Ovals are brutal.
Watching this vid again in 2023 made me realize that current day Indycars are physically smaller than their F1 counterparts, while the Cart car in this vid is physically bigger and way heavier than the F1 cars of the time. Only thing that has stayed the same is Indycar cars being heavier than F1 cars, although the current day F1 cars are closer to the weight of an Indycar car.
Ya my point exactly...I was saying can anyone imagine Kimi or Lewis leaving F1 the year after winning the title to go to Indy. As in, it would be lunacy to pull such a move...
@kers80bhp The IRL (or the IZOD IndyCar Series as it's called now) is still pretty young, but it carries the legacy of American Open-Wheel racing, which goes back to the turn of the 20th century. It WOULD be great to see some F1 drivers try their hand at it again... When Mansell clinched the 1993 CART championship, he was still reigning World Champion for a few weeks if I remember right.
@ajdaemon08 Of course there has been a lot of changes, but my point is that in F1, if you want to win a race and, as consequence, the championship, you have to build the best car on the field the whole year. That is what I meant when I said that F1 relies on equipment rather than driver skill.
@gpfwestie True, and while you talk of the series as a whole, I kind of always wished Senna would have come over for just Indy, yet something tells me he never would have had he lived in '94. I remember all the rumors for years. Also, Damon Hill, I'm sort of surprised he never gave it a shot with his father's short track record at Indy. Shumy, well, he has stated he doesn't want to die so he will never race at Indy, lol.
@samothsamothsamoth The Penske 1994 pushrod Mercedes-Benz 500I engine wasn't bad either, designed and developed for the single race of Indianapolis, exploiting a loophole in different technical rules between the Indy 500 and CART sanctioning bodies at that time.
I've heard about Nigel Mansell from readings, to see the man race and talk in these videos is something impressive. I am a NASCAR fan but I watch other forms of motor sport, too sometimes they are better because they have stuck to a formula as opposed to NASCAR changing the formula.
f1 cars were still miles ahead even then. they had active suspension, traction control, paddle shift, automatic ect the one thing the did have though was higher driver sides in the car which were much more safer, its crazy when you see the old f1 cars of the early 90s with their heads and necks sticking out...
that would be fantastic. I'd love to see a racing driver in this day and age just get up and say the money isn't enough. I want to be the best, and win at all the famous circuits. I want to conquer the best of the best, in any series at any time. Just compete because that is the thrill of racing. We can still hope that we see drivers jumping from series to series! Tony Stewart is a good example. Shame he never raced in CART. I'd like to see how he'd have done with some good equipment.
very well spoken nigel. can you imagine lewis hamilton taking us around his mercedes? "err yeah this is the mercedes i won the british gp with. hmm the emotion at silverstone was like a .... like a wave... err a tsunami of emotion...umm british flags... err and i believe in god... err for sure... and senna was my favourite even though he was a tosser, when senna died the emotion hit me like a tsunami and i cried like i often do.... err brb, just gonna cry real quick and take some selfies for my instagram and get some sympathy likes for being a fkn SNAG"
@tinySHINEY1 In 1996, Paul Tracy recorded a trap speed of 256.948 mph (413.52 km/h) at Michigan International Speedway which i think is still the world record
also when he points out how the suspension is set up, nascar cars have that weird camber built into the frame to a degree. the cars that run ovals cant be set up for the road courses and whole different car is needed
Well actually, later in the 90's Cosworth was struggling to match the reliability of Honda's engines and while they matched performance the engines for Newman/Hass racing kept exploding at various speedways.
Also, why does everything come to F1? Why not just say, man, cool cars, good speeds? Some of you act like F1 is it, period, which is not true. Sports Car racing can be cool. Rally racing. Supercross, Motocross. Hell, you want to talk pure speed on road courses? Moto GP beats them all.
Peter Mayer Because F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. No other sports car or bike goes faster around a circuit than an F1 car. Period. There isn't a single series (that races on circuits) that is faster in acceleration, cornering and (especially) braking than F1. No not even MotoGP. A MotoGP bike will get destroyed by an F1 car, mainly because of the immense speed difference in the corners and the F1's ability to get on the brakes as late as it does. There are MANY other series that are just as, or even more enjoyable than F1 (especially nowadays..) but none of them beat F1 in pure speed, lap times, cornering, braking, G-forces and the amount of strain it puts on your body.
Peter Mayer Well, they're wrong. There are side by side comparisons of lap times on Spa for example, where even a Caterham F1 (which is/was a 'slow' F1 team) is 5 seconds (!!!) faster per lap than a WEC car. Imagine how much faster the top teams are. F1 cars reach 215+ on a straight quite often. Montoya once hit 372 km/h (231+m/h) on the straight at Monza back in 2005. Last year the cars did around 225 m/h there. MotoGP might have similar top speeds, but they will still get crushed by an F1 car on a full lap.
Peter Mayer What do you mean by pure speed? Top speed is not that important in terms of overall lap time. A Moto GP bike will accelerate faster than an F1 car and on some tracks the top speed down the straight will be faster, but the bike would be a fair bit slower over a lap because the cornering speeds they are capable of are much lower than an F1 car.
I was able to get Nigel's autograph at K-mart when I was a kid. Everyone had champCar swag to sign. When it was my turn I had him sign my Renault F1 1:20 scale model box and he lit up like a school boy. He said I made his day and would rather be In the f1 car. As a no nonsense bloke i believe him.
kimi & lewis have both won the f1 crown in their youth so it would not be so appealing at the moment, may be when there older esp lewis if the price is right and there was no opportunity`s in formula 1 it might appeal to them I think everyone`s got a price, when mansell raced there indycar racing had a great history with some of the best drivers in the world now you have the IRL which is still quite a young series 1996 may be in years to come as it builds its history it may attract f1 drivers
@ajdaemon08 On the other hand, Indy cars are more sensitive to steering, specially when they're racing ovals... one little mistake they kiss the wall pretty hard. Lately F1 is more dependent on equipment than pilot skill. Have you seen any Virgins or Hispanias battling for a better position on the grid?
No it does not...you are thinking of a dumpvalve or blow off valve. A wastegate releases excess exhaust gas so it prevents the turbo from over spinning/producing to much boost.
2:39 Seeing a manual shifting open wheel car is a thing of beauty.
Mansell really was remarkable. In his first CART year: Mansell won his 1st ever CART race (Australia); completed 15 out of 16 races; had 10 podiums; had 5 wins with 3 of them being ovals, and one being a superspeedway (Michigan); and placed 3rd at Indy. He came across the Atlantic, and showed up a very experienced, and deep-talented field (Fittipaldi, Tracy, Rahal, Boesel, Andretti, Unser Jr., Luyendyk, Goodyear, Gordon, Fabi, Sullivan, Johansson, Guerrero, Brayton, Vasser, Cheever).
yep, and No Indy or Cart driver has ever managed to be even half as successful in F1 , ever , never mind in their first season.. They usually never even make it to a second season.
@@stijnvandamme76 Jacques Villeneuve would disagree.
@@azaz911cJacques was a bit of a joke. Very lucky to get a Williams car to win a championship. Never did anything after.
@@kadiummusic Whatever. I don't know how you can call a driver who challenged for the F1 championship in his rookie year, and won the F1 champion, CART champion and Indy 500 a "joke". Yes, he didn't have that many achievements after 1997, but Williams struggled after they lost the factory Renault engines and BAR never reached its potential.
@@stijnvandamme76Mario Andretti
Steering pulls heavily to the left on a straightaway. Just like my 1981 Ford Escort straight from the factory.
LOL
🤣🤣🤣🤣
lmao my BMW does the same shit
Mansell was an awesome driver. Amazing how he came over from F1 right after winning the championship, and even more impressive is how he held both the F1 & CART titles at the same time. In this day and age can anyone imagine Hamilton or Kimi departing F1 after winning the title to come over and race in Indy?
Mansell really was remarkable. In his first CART year: Mansell won his 1st ever CART race (Australia); completed 15 out of 16 races; had 10 podiums; had 5 wins with 3 of them being ovals, and one being a superspeedway (Michigan); and placed 3rd at Indy. He basically came across the Atlantic, and showed up a very experienced, deep talented field (Fittipaldi, Tracy, Rahal, Boesel, Andretti, Unser Jr., Luyendyk, Goodyear, Gordon, Fabi, Sullivan, Johansson, Guerrero, Brayton, Vasser, Cheever).
@Jonas Jonaitis lol Alonso tried Indycar, didn't get anywhere mate. Even Grosjean got better results -although Alonso had a duff car.
@Jonas Jonaitis Busted flush Alonso's best chance of winning a championship again would be Indycar.
Hamilton would never lower himself to racing Indycar Kimi is so bad he could win a raffle if he held all the tickets.
@@azaz911c This was also a Mansell past his best.
Yes he won the F1 title in record breaking style the previous year but it was in a dominant style.
The best Mansell as several years earlier when he filed to win 2 or 3 wolrd championships down to nothing other than downright bad luck.
Brilliant and courageous driver.
@@Coxy_Wrecked Yeah, one late 80's F1 season, when his car broke, all he had to do to win the championship was hit the wall to red flag the race since at the time, if the race was stopped in the last 1/4 the race was over and the drivers kept their positions.
I wonder how honest people would be today if the rules were still the same.
They don’t make racing drivers like Nigel anymore. 👨🏻
Yeah, broke his neck in three places from whiplash in an early accident, had a neck brace he wore through his entire F1 career. A bit of a trend setter :). He was racing with the broken back 3 weeks later. He broke the lumbar portion of his back a few years later too. Tough guy with lots of guts.
He is amazing at explaining the differences, very clear , great video
Nigel isnt given enough credit. He jumoed into IndyCar when it was in the middle of its golden era. This wasnt a watered down series like the late 90s. THe series was full of talent and he won the championship the first year! I wish he stook around for more than just two seasons.
I agree. The IndyCar series in 1993 was very strong. It wasn't a foregone conclusion that Mansell was going to win the championship, especially given the major differences between the Indy car and the F1 car he drove for the '92 title.
If only Michael had shown the same dedication in F1! He had the talent to be the next American champ but he chose to still live in the United States.
it was not watered down in the late 90s. It was at it's zenith.
it was close or senna would be in indy in 1994 too. he left mclaren because they signed with peugeot and he had to decide between williams and usa. wich he chose the last
+TheUsmc1488
The thing with Nigel was that his first year here, everything was sweetness and light. I know he did suffer an injury at Phoenix, which was a tough break, but other than that, the team was great, he won races, came close to winning Indy, and won the championship, so everything was jolly good and Nigel was Mr. Nice Guy. The next year when things didn't go his way, he turned into a big crybaby, and alienated many of the fans he had won the year before, because even all the American fans over here were rooting for him in his first year. He was shown up as a front-runner, and at least over here, pretty much quit when the going got tough.
Spoke clearly, ,precise and very detailed.
Better spoken than most teachers or even professors.
It was a shame to see him leave CART so quickly. He brought so many new eyes to the sport.
Great explanation. Mansell was right at his peak and showed he was right at the very summit of world motorsport back then. What a talent to hold both F1 and Indycar titles simultaneously.
He was definitely over the hill at this point.
IndyCar make Formula 1 looks like a childs play. I really like Lewis to win in sauber. love you Nigell from Pakistan, You are true Champ of the world
Ah, yes... back when F-1 cars weren't truck sized and still weighed around 500 kilograms, and races like Monaco were still fun to watch.
Badass car!!! I miss seeing those colours of the early 90s Newman/Haas cars. Indycar was amazing back then.
Very cluey man. Genuinely knows his info and you can feel his interest in describing it.
back when Indycar was a genuine competitor to F1
hahahah don't make me laugh F1 has always been above Indy cars
back then on the faster street circuits the wasn't that much difference.
In 1993 refueling was not allowed in F1, like today...
then Tony George "fixed" it
o0RAGA0o not in the US
Watching Nigel's '93 oval wins (Milwaukee, Michigan 500, New England, Nazareth) and his almost-win at Indy (3rd and would have won if not for a yellow with nine laps to go) is watching a racing brilliance that's truly rare. To be able to adapt to a totally different style of open wheel racing and to cope with the crazily hectic traffic and overtakes of the short ovals, and the incredible constant speed, danger, and endurance required of the Superspeedway 500 mile races, and indeed master them almost immediately as he did is almost incomprehensible. Especially considering his practice crash and severe injuries (requiring surgery to close a huge cavity in his back caused by tissue literally being ripped off his bones) at his very first oval race at Phoenix gave him a very clear understanding of what accidents on these tracks can mean. The best of these is the new England 200, one of the best auto races you could ever hope to see, with Mansell dicing with Paul Tracy and overtaking him for the win with only two laps to go. Epic. Red 5's '93 title winning season in Indy Cars is something very very special. Oh and a great guy too, you could tell how much his team and crew loved him and vice versa.
For all the people knocking other forms of racing, even Jimmy Clark, probably the greatest driver of all time, tried his hand at NASCAR, and not at some fancy big track event, but at old Rockingham, in North Carolina. The folks were astounded at the time, wondering why the greatest driver in the highest formula would "lower" himself to a lower-tech series, like NSCAR, and he said something like "A driver wants to prove himself in all different disciplines of racing", and he said they all have their merits. What an attitude to have, and one that probably would draw sneers from F1 lapdog fans. In the past couple of decades, we've seen an IndyCar champ move to F1 and win a championship (Villeneuve) and an IndyCar camp go to NASCAR and win 3 championships (Tony Stewart), while we've seen an F1 champ (Villeneuve again) try NASCAR and fail, and same with an IndyCar champ (Franchitti).
We'll never see it because F1 isn't an open series anymore. For instance, Gilles Villeneuve would NEVER get a chance at F1 nowadays. But it would be interesting to see what a NASCAR driver with a dirt driving background (like Stewart or Jeff Gordon, if they were still young guys) could do if given an opportunity at F1. For a present candidate I'd propose Kyle Larsen, who hasn't done much in NASCAR yet, but much of that comes from driving for a second rate team. Some people will laugh at the idea, but is it impossible that we could see something like what happened when Kenny Roberts moved from oval dirt track racing in the US to MotoGP with a completely different approach to the sport and dominated, won championships and changed the sport itself? Maybe it wouldn't happen, but it's a shame we'll never know, and it's also a shame because it makes motor sports as a whole less interesting.
That semi-obscure 1967 race in Rockingham had more than a few legendary names. In addition to Clark, AJ Foyt and Gordon Johncock were also qualified, along with the names you'd expect from 1960's NASCAR (Petty, Pearson, Yarborough, etc.)
You don't see very many modern-day drivers with the "Give me something with 4 wheels and let's go" attitude. Think of all the crossover champions there were from that era. Graham Hill won an F1 championship, an Indy 500 and a LeMans24. Mario Andretti won an Indy 500, a Daytona 500 and an F1 championship. Mark Donohue was known for his various sports car championships, but also won Indy and actually scored Roger Penske's first win in NASCAR. AJ Foyt won 4 Indy 500s, a Daytona 500, a LeMans24, a Daytona24 and a Sebring12.
I think it's opening up a bit. Formula 1 drivers are being given a bit of freedom even, and we're seeing them (and Indycar drivers too!) try Le Mans and other endurance racing. Honestly though the reason why it's not at the level of before is simple logistics and travel. Mario Andretti mentioned that his essentially world tour of racing wouldn't have been possible without the Concorde and pre-9/11 open travel. Before he'd win a race in America, hop on a plane and fly to Europe and win a race over there the next day. Can't do that anymore.
Not necessarily. Dario Franchitti tried NASCAR and washed out, then went back to IndyCar and won championships. I wouldn't call that retired.
Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Chris Amon, Jack Brabham and others would compete in the Trans Tasman trophy in New Zealand as well as competing in the CanAm races in the US (Bruce McLaren among many others).
Like Jaque Villenueve? Actually I think his was more difficult. He only ran two years Indy, 24 year old never drivin a F1 car. I remember watching the first race in Australia. He qualified on pole, and won from start to finish, with Shuey charging hard. He won the championship as a young rookie, from Indy.
There are a lot of "fanboys" on here. Any true racing fan can appreciate all forms of racing.
I came from the future to say it's getting worse. The hating era.
Yes, I like Nigel and I am a NASCAR fan. Seems like an okay bloke.
@@ethanweeter2732 He's famously a nice fella, unless you're wheel to wheel with him! I'll borrow a NASCAR term. "Rubbin's racin!"
some say his eyebrowns and mustaghe change places when no one is looking
This car is sitting in the Indianapolis airport right now! Saw it on my way into work today 👍🏼
90’s CART/Indy Car was amazing. As a U.K. resident, Mansell’s debut campaign and the race highlights being shown on British FTA TV was my first exposure to it. Cars were beautiful too. The 1994 Penske was a work of art. I know the modern Indy Cars are a lot safer, but they’re also a lot uglier...
this is when F1 and CART were more similar even with nigels explanation of the differences. in the past 20 years F1 became aeronautical while cart/indy pretty much stayed the same even with the new changes to the package in 2012.
this was also a time where jumping to indy didn't mean a downgrade.
It sure as hell wasn't an upgrade, the simple fact that he could do an F1 season, jump in an Indycar and win the entire season outright.. should be enough to tell you it was not on the same level.. Nobody else has managed to do the reverse direction..Several tried and most did not survived their first season in F1. let alone winning even just 1 race.
Awesome cars, awesome series back then.
The 90s indy cars look awesome, i have a model of that '93 car
better looking than today's cars
The Road of America track reord was set in 1998 I think was the year. So as fast as Nigel was on that course the cars got faster. 1.38 is the record, 2016 pole position time was 1.42. Four seconds is a huge margin in motor racing. The strange thing is, the new cars seem to be faster on street courses and 1 mile ovals.
The new cars have a lot more drag, hence the slower speeds at Road America which is mostly straights.
Disagree
That was 4 years ago. Cars look good now
His downshifting after the long straightaway was by far the best of the pack every lap - like a machine. And it was a real thrill to hear him do so live back in the day when I was compted a worker's pass.
Awesome video! Even though it's 19 years old, it's still incredibly interesting!
Ohhhhh I miss those mid-90’s chassis’s about as much as I miss the V10’s in Formula 1. Those things were so ferocious!
It’s so nice seeing cosworth on that engine
Indycar was never more exciting when Mansell joined after retiring from formula 1.
It was great seeing him race against the likes of Unser, Fittipaldi, and the Andrettis.
Damn, Nigel has probably already forgotten more about race cars than I will ever know...
What a great explanation of Indy and the car setup. Much appreciated.
Really interesting interview !
Thanks for posting it !
Adjustable front wing. In-car radio. I'm quite surprised to learn F1 followed in Indycar footsteps in some ways.
I'm a massive F1 fan but credit where credit's due. Mid-90's Indy was pretty good, imo.
You're absolutely right. Not every piece of automobile technology comes from F1. Turbo = CanAm, Alternative fuel = Indycar etc. And F1 didn't have a real pace car culture before mid 90's when after Senna's fatal accident they started to realise they should have some performance standards for pace car (or Safety Car in FIA rulebook).
RedPetrol76 Turbos were used in F1 back in the late 40's already. Before you say anything.. A turbo and supercharger was both called superchargers and technically they operate in the same way and only differs in the way they are charged.
Before that, turbos were used in aircrafts in the 1920's to mitigate the problem with loss of air pressure at altitude.
I like how Indy cars basically all have the same chassis. That's what we call a level playing field, which makes for a less predictable result. What I have against Indy is Oval Circuits. Not that Monaco isn't a boring track too though.
zenzombie72 actually, they had multiple chassis. And I've been to Michigan when CART ran their, doing 235 mph laps! It was pretty cool.
Peter Mayer I was remembering this line from Wiki. "Starting in 2012 the series moved to using a common chassis supplied by Dallara"
But on the oval issue, it seems that now, only a third of the races are on ovals.
Wow, I had no idea these guys had so much possibilities and options to change the handling of the car... amazing video, thanks!
great video and thank you for posting, it really takes me back to when I was a kid going to cart races at nazareth. Golden years of american open wheel racing back then.
This was the guy who got me intrested in racing.
dont know where you found this video i dont care but thank you for posting it it was fun in the day watching f1 and indy mix it up when it came to drivers and i love them all thank you
Atm i prefer Indy car to Formula 1... Indycar has closer racing, and the costs for the engine are a lower and they sound better :)
Thanks for posting that. Very interesting, and Nigel is very qualified to speak on this.
Just listening to this legend talk is amazing!
One of the greats who battled the greatest!
@VDVShaun.... oval racing provides for extremely fast speeds and PASSING...something not too often found in F1
This is at Phoenix International Raceway (ISM now) in Avondale, Arizona!
Yes, and by doing that it controls its max pressure. As far as I know it, the bov just releases the pressure surge caused by the closing of the throttle.
Super nice guy, fabulous golfer and in his day a unreal in a race car.
Remember watching these sat on the coach with cool beer, great day's.
what an amazing video, think about it. back in the day, how many people watched this?
Keep in mind this is a 90s CART car. Modern Indycars are low cost and slow compared to modern F1 cars. But in the 90s the cars were just as powerful as their F1 counterparts. Slightly less cornering speed on road courses mind you, but good luck running a 90s F1 car at Michigan for 500 miles without the engine exploding, or the suspension breaking down. Ovals are brutal.
He looks like a British version of NASCAR's Erny Ervine... especially with the Texaco branding!
Great Nigel, champion Indycar and F1
How wonderfully old school.
I could listen to mansell forever
Watching this vid again in 2023 made me realize that current day Indycars are physically smaller than their F1 counterparts, while the Cart car in this vid is physically bigger and way heavier than the F1 cars of the time. Only thing that has stayed the same is Indycar cars being heavier than F1 cars, although the current day F1 cars are closer to the weight of an Indycar car.
Ya my point exactly...I was saying can anyone imagine Kimi or Lewis leaving F1 the year after winning the title to go to Indy. As in, it would be lunacy to pull such a move...
@kers80bhp
The IRL (or the IZOD IndyCar Series as it's called now) is still pretty young, but it carries the legacy of American Open-Wheel racing, which goes back to the turn of the 20th century. It WOULD be great to see some F1 drivers try their hand at it again...
When Mansell clinched the 1993 CART championship, he was still reigning World Champion for a few weeks if I remember right.
thank your for posting this, Nigel even Germany loved you :-)
I watched him win on the Gold Coast in that car!! So cool!
@ajdaemon08
Of course there has been a lot of changes, but my point is that in F1, if you want to win a race and, as consequence, the championship, you have to build the best car on the field the whole year. That is what I meant when I said that F1 relies on equipment rather than driver skill.
Man, this is the real Indycar. I miss that old times, and that engine sounds. The actual Indy sucks.
F1 drivers getting smashed in Indy these days, don't know what your talking about.
@gpfwestie True, and while you talk of the series as a whole, I kind of always wished Senna would have come over for just Indy, yet something tells me he never would have had he lived in '94. I remember all the rumors for years. Also, Damon Hill, I'm sort of surprised he never gave it a shot with his father's short track record at Indy. Shumy, well, he has stated he doesn't want to die so he will never race at Indy, lol.
I've always absolutely loved his accent.
That was very very interesting.
@samothsamothsamoth The Penske 1994 pushrod Mercedes-Benz 500I engine wasn't bad either, designed and developed for the single race of Indianapolis, exploiting a loophole in different technical rules between the Indy 500 and CART sanctioning bodies at that time.
I've heard about Nigel Mansell from readings, to see the man race and talk in these videos is something impressive. I am a NASCAR fan but I watch other forms of motor sport, too sometimes they are better because they have stuck to a formula as opposed to NASCAR changing the formula.
f1 cars were still miles ahead even then. they had active suspension, traction control, paddle shift, automatic ect
the one thing the did have though was higher driver sides in the car which were much more safer, its crazy when you see the old f1 cars of the early 90s with their heads and necks sticking out...
He fought very hard to win that championship in '93. Those indycar drivers chased him hard to the end. Like a pack of wolves.
it is amazing how much these differences no longer exist
that would be fantastic. I'd love to see a racing driver in this day and age just get up and say the money isn't enough. I want to be the best, and win at all the famous circuits.
I want to conquer the best of the best, in any series at any time. Just compete because that is the thrill of racing.
We can still hope that we see drivers jumping from series to series! Tony Stewart is a good example. Shame he never raced in CART. I'd like to see how he'd have done with some good equipment.
thanks for using metric units
I've kind of thought of him as the British version of Earnhardt Sr.
Those staches
very well spoken nigel. can you imagine lewis hamilton taking us around his mercedes? "err yeah this is the mercedes i won the british gp with. hmm the emotion at silverstone was like a .... like a wave... err a tsunami of emotion...umm british flags... err and i believe in god... err for sure... and senna was my favourite even though he was a tosser, when senna died the emotion hit me like a tsunami and i cried like i often do.... err brb, just gonna cry real quick and take some selfies for my instagram and get some sympathy likes for being a fkn SNAG"
Oh come on... I'm a Lewis fan and I still found this funny, lighten up beevaeeta!
Udarni Radnik hahahahaha!!!! spot on!
Sanyam Jain c
Udarni Radnik why use Lewis as an example when we have Vettel? Do you want a bigger crying baby than him?
Kimi Raikkonen: Bwoah for sure it's a good car mumble mumble mumble...
I was there workin for molson indy at this historical time w mansell
Damn unlucky with injuries super talented driver missed alot when he left f1
@tinySHINEY1 In 1996, Paul Tracy recorded a trap speed of 256.948 mph (413.52 km/h) at Michigan International Speedway which i think is still the world record
I miss K-Mart lol
Why what happened to it? Closed down?
4:11 Great cameraman. He's explaining the front wing and the wing isn't in the shot for most of it. 😆
also when he points out how the suspension is set up, nascar cars have that weird camber built into the frame to a degree. the cars that run ovals cant be set up for the road courses and whole different car is needed
Well actually, later in the 90's Cosworth was struggling to match the reliability of Honda's engines and while they matched performance the engines for Newman/Hass racing kept exploding at various speedways.
with does sexy big goodyear tires looks so good
and beautiful lola cosworth miss those reynards with the slanted frront wings
nigel mansell, the formula 1 super mario
I can remeber this when he won the two back to back F1 and the indy car..!!
Sponsors aplenty
What's a computter?
Legend!
@ajdaemon08
Also, the engineers can set the ideal downforce on a raceday, but setup is useless if you have inferior equipment...
I'm glad they keep champ cars turbocharged
Good old CART days...
Also, why does everything come to F1? Why not just say, man, cool cars, good speeds? Some of you act like F1 is it, period, which is not true. Sports Car racing can be cool. Rally racing. Supercross, Motocross. Hell, you want to talk pure speed on road courses? Moto GP beats them all.
Peter Mayer Because F1 is the pinnacle of motorsport. No other sports car or bike goes faster around a circuit than an F1 car. Period. There isn't a single series (that races on circuits) that is faster in acceleration, cornering and (especially) braking than F1. No not even MotoGP. A MotoGP bike will get destroyed by an F1 car, mainly because of the immense speed difference in the corners and the F1's ability to get on the brakes as late as it does. There are MANY other series that are just as, or even more enjoyable than F1 (especially nowadays..) but none of them beat F1 in pure speed, lap times, cornering, braking, G-forces and the amount of strain it puts on your body.
666dRC funny announcers at the WEC race said THEY were the most sophisticated race cars. And moto gp does 215 on a straight away on a road course.
Peter Mayer Well, they're wrong. There are side by side comparisons of lap times on Spa for example, where even a Caterham F1 (which is/was a 'slow' F1 team) is 5 seconds (!!!) faster per lap than a WEC car. Imagine how much faster the top teams are. F1 cars reach 215+ on a straight quite often. Montoya once hit 372 km/h (231+m/h) on the straight at Monza back in 2005. Last year the cars did around 225 m/h there. MotoGP might have similar top speeds, but they will still get crushed by an F1 car on a full lap.
Peter Mayer What do you mean by pure speed? Top speed is not that important in terms of overall lap time. A Moto GP bike will accelerate faster than an F1 car and on some tracks the top speed down the straight will be faster, but the bike would be a fair bit slower over a lap because the cornering speeds they are capable of are much lower than an F1 car.
***** A F1 car accelerates faster than a MotoGP, has a higher top speed and is way faster in corners.
I was able to get Nigel's autograph at K-mart when I was a kid. Everyone had champCar swag to sign. When it was my turn I had him sign my Renault F1 1:20 scale model box and he lit up like a school boy.
He said I made his day and would rather be In the f1 car.
As a no nonsense bloke i believe him.
@TheAltron5000
its beefed up for oval racing
what are the chances that the new chassis and engines will bring back the good old days? One can dream.
Come on Roger, give us a new chassis that isn’t 20 seconds slower than an F1 car around the same circuit. Some more aero, more hp would be nuce
kimi & lewis have both won the f1 crown in their youth so it would not be so appealing at the moment, may be when there older esp lewis if the price is right and there was no opportunity`s in formula 1 it might appeal to them I think everyone`s got a price, when mansell raced there indycar racing had a great history with some of the best drivers in the world now you have the IRL which is still quite a young series 1996 may be in years to come as it builds its history it may attract f1 drivers
@ajdaemon08
On the other hand, Indy cars are more sensitive to steering, specially when they're racing ovals... one little mistake they kiss the wall pretty hard.
Lately F1 is more dependent on equipment than pilot skill. Have you seen any Virgins or Hispanias battling for a better position on the grid?
They were not passing out and crashing at Michigan.
@ACOWproductions
Shumi said it wasn't challeging enough.
By the looks of it, at this time Indycar had F1 clearly beat in terms of sponsorship.
No it does not...you are thinking of a dumpvalve or blow off valve. A wastegate releases excess exhaust gas so it prevents the turbo from over spinning/producing to much boost.