Nigel Mansell has expressed his opinion on Lewis Hamilton’s upcoming switch to Ferrari: the 1992 world champion has no doubt that his famous compatriot is very capable of winning the title behind the wheel of a red car.
Mansell played for the Scuderia for two seasons, in 1989 and 1990, also in adulthood, and his partner was Gerhard Berger, who is six years younger than him, but they showed roughly the same results. But the team from Maranello was not in the best shape at that time, and in 1989, at the end of the season, Mansell was ahead of Berger and took 4th place in the individual competition, while the Austrian finished only seventh. The following year, Il Leone, as it was called in Italy, finished the championship in 5th place and Berger in 4th.
But Mansell became world champion with Williams when he was already 39 years old. Furthermore, after retiring from Formula 1, Nigel surprised everyone again in 1993 when he won the title in the American IndyCar Series on his first attempt, despite having never raced on ovals before.
“There are rumors that Lewis is already a bit old – is he 39 years old? Mansell said this in an interview with the BBC. – No, I do not think so. Personally, I won the title at the age of 39 and could have stayed in Formula 1, but politics intervened. But if Lewis has not lost his motivation, he is very capable of performing at the same level for a number of years, or even longer.
In my opinion, this is great news and Lewis can still win an eighth title, although Max Verstappen will of course do everything he can to stop him. I think the coming season will be very interesting, and even more so the 2025 championship promises to be exciting.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
