10 1989 BRAZILIAN GP
RIO FERRARI 640 1ST
while Mansell suffered a torrid season at Williams. He then jumped to Ferrari, but the semi-automatic-gear-box-equipped 640 gave trouble throughout testing. Things didn’t look positive heading to the season-opening race in Rio. McLaren had dominated 1988,
“The gearbox kept breaking down,” remembers Mansell. “I couldn’t do more than five or six laps before something happened. I was so sure I wouldn’t finish this race, I booked an early ticket back on British Airways and told the captain – who had been at the track – to wait for me. I was quite relaxed because I knew my race would be over within three or four laps.”
He was gifted an immediate bonus when team-mate Gerhard Berger clashed with polesitter Ayrton Senna, and Mansell took second from Thierry Boutsen’s Williams on lap three of 61. He then closed on Riccardo Patrese and overtook the Williams with a touch on the grass.
After the tyre changes, Mansell found himself chasing early stopper Alain Prost’s McLaren. “When I was catching Prost, I actually got quite angry,” says Mansell. “I’m saying, ‘Oh, please don’t stop now’.”
The Ferrari kept going and Mansell overtook Prost on lap 28, only to suffer an unexpected issue: “Then the steering wheel came off in my hands. All the bolts had come undone. I yelled on the radio, ‘I’m coming in for tyres – and a new steering wheel!’ The chief mechanic thumped the new wheel into place so hard, the radio button left a scar on his hand. But the wheel stayed on, the gearbox kept working.”
By contrast, Prost was hindered by a clutch issue that prevented him stopping for another set of tyres and Mansell reeled him in. Mansell regained the lead just three laps after the stop and made it to the finish to win on his Ferrari debut.
9 1993 AUSTRALIAN INDYCAR GP
SURFERS PARADISE LOLA T93/00 1ST
“I noticed these yellow stripes on the back of my rear
