"Nigel Mansell mania was insane": IndyCar insider recalls F1 champ's dream move to American racing

Nigel Mansell's immediate jump to IndyCar in 1993 after winning the F1 championship in 1992 with Williams, suddenly brought a bigger spotlight onto the American open-wheel racing series. IndyCar insider Marshall Pruett has revealed the extent of the British driver's fandom.

Two big storylines headlined Mansell's arrival in IndyCar. Firstly, the obvious allure of a reigning F1 champ jumping ship to the lesser-famed American series, and secondly, he would have 4-time IndyCar champ and 1978 F1 champ Mario Andretti as his teammate. The second storyline, unfortunately, ended sourly.

Reporter Marshall Pruett recently described how crazy the atmosphere was in the paddock when Nigel Mansell arrived. In the weekly RACER Mailbag, an IndyCar fan asked Pruett if he thought the 2025 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg was 'IndyCar's best season opener in years', as he had labeled it and whether it lived up to the 1993 season opener at Surfers Paradise in Australia, which Mansell won on debut.

"I don’t recall saying it was bigger than Nigel’s debut, or even the early days of the St. Pete race with big names like Dario and Danica, so I’m not sure what’s being argued. I was there, working as a mechanic in the Formula Atlantic series that 1993 season, and Mansell Mania was insane; having the reigning Formula 1 world champion in IndyCar was amazing," Pruett said.

In his IndyCar rookie season, Mansell won five races and stood on the podium five more times to win the 1993 championship. He became the first and to date, the only driver to hold the F1 and IndyCar titles at the same time.

When Nigel Mansell explained the "daunting" feeling of his first time racing at an IndyCar oval

Nigel Mansell Tests Indy Car - Source: Getty

One of the biggest challenges Nigel Mansell faced in his first year in IndyCar was getting used to racing on ovals. F1 has never had a permanent oval circuit on its calendar, apart from when the Indy 500 was an official points-paying F1 race from 1950 to 1960.

While the Briton aced his debut at the Surfer's Paradise street circuit, the next race was at the oval Phoenix Raceway track. On a Saturday practice session for the race, Mansell suffered a massive shunt, with his No. 5 Lola T93/00 crashing into the wall at over 170 mph. The accident gave him a concussion and ruled him out from competing in the race.

In 2014, he spoke to Autosport at length about his IndyCar move, and how taking his Newman-Haas car around an oval for the first time intimidated him.

"It was daunting. It was a bit of a shock to the system because you're circulating a mile track in 20 seconds. I think the g-loading was the biggest shock, how long you sustained and held the g-load. And the other thing was that if you came out of the throttle the car would swap ends on you, or do something really nasty to you, because of the blown tunnel underneath that just sucked the car down," he explained.

Nigel Mansell competed in IndyCar for two years before calling it quits after the 1994 season, where he finished eighth in the standings.