Andretti and Mansell: struggled to see eye to eye
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It could be the definition of a dream team: one of IndyCar’s greatest drivers, paired with the new F1 World Champion in a team co-owned by an Oscar-winning film legend.
Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti, driving for the all-star Newman/Haas team in the Brit’s IndyCar championship year, were an electric pairing on track.
But, as Preston Lerner explains in this month’s Motor Sport magazine, in the garage, paddock and in the factory, the atmosphere was “hell”.
After failing to agree a new contract with Frank Williams for 1993, Mansell was persuaded to make the jump across the pond by Hollywood legend Paul Newman and US business tycoon Carl Haas – and their statement signing delivered in spades.
Winning first time out in Surfer’s Paradise, Mansell became an instant Indy fan favourite – and with his own team also. The only person who wasn’t enamoured, it seemed, was Andretti.
“Business-wise and from a team standpoint, it made sense,” he says. “But all of a sudden Nigel was the preferred driver. I felt like it was a little bit unfair.”
Mansell’s immediate success helped him in his aims to give himself the best chance of the title – wrapping the team around him by buying presents for Andretti’s mechanics and giving cash bonuses to his own.
“He was bubbly,” says crew chief Tom Wurtz. “He was energetic. He was a fun-loving guy who made everybody feel good.”
The all-star line-up from left: Mario Andretti, Paul Newman, Mansell and cigar-chomping Carl Haas
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Andretti has a somewhat different view of it: “Paul [Newman] came to me a couple of times and said, ‘Why can’t you two get along?’ I said, ‘It takes two. He’s a tremendous talent, no question, but he’s totally divided the team. We used to be able to sit down after practice and discuss things. But he looks at my worksheets and I can’t look at his. When he wins a race, he buys gifts for my mechanics. That’s all underhanded stuff. How the hell can I get along with a guy like that?’ I felt totally isolated.”
However, the hardnosed Mansell appears to have just seen it as a way to get things done, having experienced much the same from Alain Prost at Ferrari and Nelson Piquet at Williams.
“There were a few times when it was quite frustrating with the other side of the garage,” he told Gordon Kirby in 2013 about the Andretti relationship. “When that happened we just focused on getting on with doing the best we could achieve.
Whatever Mansell’s techniques, it worked: the ’92 F1 champ blitzed the ’93 IndyCar series with five wins to become the first – and still only – person to hold both titles at the same time.
However, with an out-of-date car and resurgent Penske team, Mansell found the going tough in ’94. Andretti feels this showed the reigning champion’s true colours.
“When things started going not so well for him, he started trashing the team,” he says. “Nigel didn’t feel like he wanted to continue [in IndyCar], so he bailed out. It left a very bad taste.”
Mansell has rarely spoken about Andretti since his IndyCar tenure, but when he has it has hardly been positive. Much the same as Senna vs Prost, Prost vs Mansell and Mansell vs Piquet, it’s both drivers with a burning desire to win pushing back on each other.
“Like Emerson, a great driver, a great world champion, but less great off the circuit,” Mansell told Motor Sport in 2015. “Mario could be quite political and underhand, but a great guy nonetheless. He just did things a different way.”
When queried further, he simply said: “I’d rather not comment!”
