This weekend's Hungarian M Prix marks the 30th anniversary of Nigel Mansell clinching his long-awaited F1 title.

The British hero had suffered three about misses, finishing runner-upwardly in the championship to Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna in 1986, 1987 and 1991 respectively. Only he finally realised his dream at the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, where his 2d place behind Senna sealed the title with five races to spare.

In total Mansell won ix races that season, including the first 5, in the legendary FW14B, a version of which is owned by Sebastian Vettel, who took it for a demo run around Silverstone at the contempo British Grand Prix. Mansell felt '92 was his best – and possibly his final – chance to win the title, but his preparation for a huge yr wasn't platonic after he suffered a badly cleaved foot in the final race of the '91 flavor in Adelaide.

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In monsoon conditions, the race lasted just 14 laps earlier being ruby-red flagged and abased following a spate of crashes, including one for Mansell when he ran over a piece of debris and speared into a wall.

"It splintered 3 of the toes in my left foot and completely broke the joints," Mansell recalled in an interview with F1'south Beyond the Filigree podcast earlier this twelvemonth.

"Information technology was a major decision on what to practice because when we came dorsum to America, where we were living at the time, the infirmary said they needed to operate straight abroad.

"I said 'hang on a infinitesimal, how long's the recovery?' They said three to four months. I couldn't afford that time, I couldn't beget to miss the testing and development.

"I said information technology could wait and that if I walked on the inside of my foot and non put pressure on the outside of my foot, I could cope with it. A doctor friend had to come to the hospital and contend with them to release me."

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Mansell kept his injury placidity and found a solution which allowed him to drive, fifty-fifty if it did lead to farthermost pain during races.

"At that place was 1 ready of boots I could wear with a carbon fibre insert which didn't permit any of my toes to bend in my left foot. If they did, it was incredibly painful," he explained.

As well as managing his broken bones, Mansell set about losing more than a stone in weight to ensure he wasn't at a disadvantage to the smaller drivers on the grid. The burley Brummie felt he had been losing upwards to half-a-2d lap to some of his rivals.

The approach did the trick as Mansell and Williams dominated the start half of the season, pregnant it was a case 'when' not 'if' he would end his long wait for the championship. He finally went under the knife following the last race of the '92 season which ended in another crash, this time after being taken out by Senna as the pair battled for the lead.

"I didn't tell anybody about my broken human foot," he recalled. "You've got to be completely loony to drive the whole '92 season with a broken left foot.

"Afterward the concluding race in Commonwealth of australia, I was on crutches for iii or iv months because they'd repaired a more than broken, a more than damaged left foot than a year agone, but we got the job washed.

"Some of the races were prolific from the pain but adrenalin overcomes everything. And if you're having a expert time and you're winning, which nosotros were, I wasn't going to have the focus fatigued to my foot or anyone else trying demolition '92. We got on with the job and it was a fantastic yr."

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