Mansell's Williams was screaming at me, 'Why are you lifting!?' — Vettel's 'responsible' Silverstone blast

F1

Sebastian Vettel says his 1992 British GP-winning Williams FW14B was faster in some Silverstone corners than his current Aston Martin F1 car. The zero-carbon synthetic fuel he used for the nostalgic run will help keep racing alive, he said

Sebastian Vettel at the 2022 British Grand Prix driving the Mansell race winning Williams FW14B

Vettel demonstrating his 1992 British GP-winning Williams with sustainable fuel

Florent Gooden / DPPI

Sebastian Vettel’s British GP Sunday lunchtime run around Silverstone in his own Williams FW14B was an early highlight of what turned out to be a memorable day.

It’s not unusual to see current F1 drivers have a go in cars from past eras, but this was made special by taking place on a race day, and by the perfect timing of it being the 30th anniversary of Nigel Mansell’s world championship season and British GP victory in the same car.

An appreciative Mansell, who had driven a different FW14B at Goodwood the previous weekend, was hanging on the pitwall fence to watch his old machine go past.

Having recently sold the chassis he’d acquired from Frank Williams at the end of 1992, he was genuinely impressed that someone of Vettel’s stature had not only paid his own money to purchase a similar car but also personally arranged the Silverstone demo.

“Seb is awesome,” Mansell told Motor Sport. “I mean, a four-time world champion. His career is basically second to none, I believe. And he’s such a private individual.

“There are very few drivers that spend their own money and actually buy an F1 car and do what he’s done. It’s just absolutely incredible.

“I thought the car looked beautiful. Obviously, I think the shock is our cars were definitely smaller. The sound and the noise of the car was pretty impressive.

“He got a hell of a buy though, didn’t he? He got an engine and gearbox for a lot less money than mine went for! He’s a good businessman…”

Sebastian Vettel with Nigel Mansell and Williams FW14B at Silverstone

When 1992 meets 2022: Mansell and Vettel with the FW14B

Dan Mullan/F1 via Getty Images

Vettel’s brief run in his car was fun both for him and for everyone watching, but it had a serious point to it.

He arranged the whole thing on the basis that he could use the run to promote zero-carbon synthetic fuel, having ascertained that the Renault would run quite happily on it. He even replaced the usual Camel cigarette logos with the slogan: “Race Without Trace.”

For Vettel the biggest downside was that a couple of hours later he had to climb into his regular Aston Martin, which in comparison to the nimble Williams must have felt like a truck.

“Well, I was more familiar with my car than the Williams!” he said recounting the experience in Austria this week.

“Obviously I’ve never driven the car, and it was more about getting used to it. But it was good fun. You know, the tyres took a while to warm up. But once they came in the car was just screaming at me, why are you lifting, why aren’t you going faster?

Sebastian Vettel drives past the Silverstone crowd in Nigel Mansell's 1992 Williams FW14B

Vettel screams past the Silverstone crowd

DPPI

“So yeah, it was incredible, because it was sort of a time travel. You know, just imagining now… I was missing the other cars on the track, and it would have been super cool. I mean, Silverstone is a very wide track. I think it’s wider than it has been even. It’s always been wide.

“Incredible in these cars to just imagine how it was at the time. I mean, the shifts were horrible. They were harsh compared to nowadays. Obviously we have more power today but the weight you can feel is a big difference, and just throwing it into the corner is a massive difference.

“Cornering speeds, in the low-speed I was probably higher on the demo laps than in the race. But 300 kilos less is the sort of first thing that jumps at you when you drive these cars…”

Related article

It’s not widely known that Vettel also owns a 1993 McLaren MP4/8 – the Ayrton Senna Monaco-winning car that was erroneously reported to have been bought by Bernie Ecclestone when it came to auction a few years ago.

Vettel has already had a private track day in it, having specifically asked to have Senna’s settings applied.

“I was pushing a little bit harder on that!,” he smiled. “Because I had a bit more time, now I only had like two and a half or three laps in order to wave as well and take the crowd in and enjoy.

“When I had the idea, I looked at the date and it was 2022, half a year ago I realised it was 2022. And there was the idea that 30 years ago Nigel won, and it would be great to take Nigel’s car out at Silverstone.”

Zero-carbon synthetic fuel will help keep F1 alive

Running on synthetic fuel, which is produced by combining hydrogen and carbon with renewable energy, was a big deal to Vettel, who didn’t want to be seen running around purely for his own pleasure.

“It was vital, I wouldn’t have done it otherwise,” he said. “As much as I love the car, and obviously I bought the car at the time with the ambition to drive it, I think it is so important that you do it in a sort of responsible manner.

“I don’t want to go too far, but if you just do it and then burn the fuel, somehow it’s not right. Once we found the fuel and then had the help from Renault, also Williams and the heritage department to check the car, which took some time, a bit longer than we thought. So it was a bit tight at the end to get everything together! But it worked. It was great.”

Sebastian Vettel in helmet with Nigel Mansell design outlines

Vettel incorporated Mansell’s famous Union Jack livery and signature on his tribute helmet

Clive Rose/Getty Images

F1 has targeted a move to sustainable fuel as part of the new power unit regulations that are coming for 2026. Vettel’s demo run begged the obvious question – could or should that happen even earlier? There has already been a move to 10% biofuel content for this season.

“You wonder what’s going to happen to motor sport,” he said. “Looking down the line, [in] 2026 there is the plan for synthetic fuels to come in. In which form, where they get their hydrocarbons from, is not entirely clear yet.

“You need to understand the bigger picture, obviously, what happens on the road is different to what happens on track. You have 1.5 or one billion cars, what do you do with them in the future? Other than cars, you have trucks, you have ships, you have planes, which might be even a bigger question, what to do with them.

Related article

“To bridge that form of transportation into the new era, I think it is a great technology. But it’s not like, okay, now we have synthetic fuels, that’s the full answer. I think we need to be honest and tell the truth from the beginning.

“It can be and is probably the way to keep especially the historic part of Formula 1, or racing in general, motor sport alive. And doing what we do in a much more responsible manner.

“I paid for that fuel I was using €5.95 (£5) per litre. Which is more expensive than normal fuel, significantly, but you mustn’t forget that the machinery of normal fuels and what I bought is very different.

“So there is plenty of scope to come down on price. And equally, the other side will continue to go up mid-term. Long-term, it will only go up. The fuel that we are running in F1 is four or five times at least more expensive than what I used last week.”

The new 2026 engine regulations must ensure that the wider world could benefit from F1 innovations, says Vettel.

“It can be uncontrolled, and maybe run in a way that our engines are now so complex that you will never benefit from those on the road,” he added. “I think that’s where it needs strong guidance and governance in terms of okay, this is what we set out to do for the right reasons. And the right reasons again, coming back to the budget, are very clear and simple.

F1’s net-zero future

Vettel says there’s a bigger picture than just the fuel used in the cars. F1 already has a target of net zero for 2030, and is making some progress towards that by rationalising the calendar, and making transport routes more logical.

“Look at the calendar: does it make sense to go to Miami and back? Makes no sense. It’s a no brainer. So stuff like that, those are the big wins. So you need to look at everything.”

Vettel has a clear way of describing the future as he sees it: “The way I understand it in general is very simple. We have a certain budget of emissions left. And we are part of that budget, all of us, you me, F1, sports, in many ways.

“So the way it’s going now, at some point we will run out of the budget, and then what? As much as we’re panicking now, inside F1, our bubble, we are not able to bring a new update to the car because we need to look at money and we have no money left in our budget?

“Well, the same way we have to think about the budget that we have left in terms of emissions.”

Fifteen years after the fresh-faced youngster made his debut with BMW Sauber at the US GP Vettel has developed into a thoughtful and articulate elder statesman of the sport with some grace and style.