The story, as recounted in a motoring magazine after Nigel had gone to Indycars, is that Nigel decided to retire after Silverstone in 1990 because he was being jerked around by Ferrari over equipment. He felt that Alain Prost was being given preferential treatment. He actually had a clause in his 1989 Ferrari contract that made him the #1 driver if Gerhard Berger left the team. When Berger left to join McLaren, Ferrari wanted Alain Prost, but in order to get Prost, they had to pay Mansell a LOT of money to buy out his #1 driver clause. Mansell was supposed to get equal treatment, but did not feel he was getting it.Quote:
Originally Posted by wewillbebest
At the same time...Williams was trying to sign Ayrton Senna away from McLaren. They had already signed Adrian Newey from Leyton House to be chief designer, and were determined to get a top-line driver into the car to satisfy Renault's need for a championship. Williams offered Ayrton a massive amount of $$$, and he actually signed a contract in September 1990 in Frank's private jet in France. The contract, however, had a clause in it stating that either party could nullify the contract before 12 midnight on the same day. Senna told McLaren and Honda that he had signed for Williams, Honda promptly came up with more money, and Senna told Williams he was staying with McLaren and Honda.
So now Williams was a team in need of a replacement driver, Thierry Boutsen having already been told he was not being retained. At the same time there was a driver leaving Ferrari...Mansell duly sold himself to Williams for a lot of money (I bet Nigel knew exactly how much money Williams was going to pay Ayrton, and made sure he was paid most of that). This indirectly led to the infamous 1992 incident where Mansell announced his decision to leave Williams at Monza; Williams was trying to cut his remuneration for 1993 because they felt they had overpaid for him, plus they had some French driver named Prost also under contract for 1993...
The 1991/92 marriage of Mansell and Williams was a marriage of necessity, and the end was perhaps predictable.