The scene inside the motorhome is touchingly domestic — father and sons sitting around the table chatting, mother making coffee in the kitchen area. Only the boys’ racing leathers, undone and revealing their fire-retardant suits, and the background whine of high-powered engines tell you that this family is not on holiday.
Nigel Mansell, former Formula One world champion and Britain’s most famous driver for a generation, has been watching his sons practising here at Brands Hatch for an event that will truly be a Mansell family affair: all three will be driving together at Goodwood, the first time they have done so at a major event.
Mansell senior, making his debut at Goodwood, will attempt the famous hillclimb in some of his old Formula One machines including a Lotus F1 from early in his career as well as a Newman Haas IndyCar racer. His two sons, Leo and Greg, will try to outdo him on timed runs on the same course in their 140bhp Formula BMW cars.
“I’m really looking forward to driving some of my old cars again and putting on a show for the fans,” says Nigel. “We’ve all three driven together before but nothing quite like this — it will be quite an experience. The great thing is that there is no real pressure so we can all just go out there, do our own thing and enjoy ourselves.”
The only person who doesn’t seem to be looking forward to it is Rosanne Mansell, Nigel’s wife. “I’m not happy at all,” she says, sitting next to her husband in the trailer.
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“I thought I’d gone through all of this — sitting in the motorhome and hanging around the paddock and listening to the noise from the track. I’d really got enthusiastic about my garden so I thought I’d have a normal life but now I’m back into it — threefold.”
Her concern is understandable. During the course of his career Mansell senior broke his back and his neck and was rushed to hospital unconscious. He is all too aware of the dangers of racing but can’t blame his sons for wanting to get involved.
Did he encourage them into the family business? “Far from it,” he laughs. “I tried to dissuade them and get them to go back to playing golf but they’re determined.”
The sons say it was natural they should follow in their father’s footsteps: they grew up with the smell of petrol in their nostrils.
“I remember being around Ferrari quite a bit when I was about four or five and then IndyCar a bit later,” says Leo, 21. “And I have a recollection of sitting on my dad’s knee during a press conference and falling asleep, but it’s only now that I can appreciate what he was actually doing — I know what it’s like to be sitting there on the grid before qualifying.”
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His younger brother Greg, 18, was just five in 1993 when Mansell completed the famous double and became the only driver in history to hold both the Formula One world championship and American Cart championship at the same time. He says most of his time was spent playing football in the drivers’ paddock. “But now I’m here, in the racing gear myself, it’s all coming back to me — the sounds and smells.”
Mansell himself has fond memories of those days but claims not to miss the buzz of racing. Instead he is happy to watch the latest generation of drivers in action, although he says the sport has changed enormously over the past 10 years. “It’s a lot more expensive — frighteningly so,” he says. “Everything has moved up a gear and got a lot more professional.”
Drivers operate in a different world, he says, adding with what must be a reference to Britain’s current brilliant but underachieving Jenson Button: “Some of the rewards they get before they’ve even won a race are quite amazing but good luck to them. I’d never decry a driver who gets paid as much as they can because at the end of the day they’re risking their lives.”
In his day Mansell was one of the most aggressive drivers on the track. Have his sons followed his example on the Formula BMW circuit? “They’ve both inherited some good qualities and the greatest thing is that they’re their own people,” says Mansell.
“What I’m most proud of is that they’re not trying to emulate me, they’re going about their own business.
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“It’s a very, very tough sport,” he adds. “Motor racing probably has more lows than highs. You can get kicked in the teeth regularly, so whatever happens with their careers eventually it’ll equip them for life beyond the track — it’ll give them an overall view of life.”
Although Goodwood will be their first public appearance, the three Mansells have raced together before, most recently when testing cars at Silverstone. “We also have a bit of fun on the karts occasionally,” says Nigel, proud possessor of eight karting championships himself. “But I’ve noticed that they knock me off at every corner.”
The Mansell boys are not the only relatives of F1 superstars making the journey to Goodwood this year. Nico Rosberg, son of 1982 F1 champion Keke, will be there and Nelson Piquet’s son Nelsinho will pilot his father’s Ralt RT1 Toyota, in which he dominated the British Formula Three championship in 1978.
Bruno Senna, nephew of Ayrton, and this year’s British Formula Three championship leader, will drive the hillclimb in his late uncle’s Renault-powered Lotus 97T — the car the legendary Brazilian world champion used to score his first GP win in Estoril, Portugal. It is a reminder of the glory days of racing, and also of the dangers. Senna died during the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 when his car spun off the track. The three-times world champion, considered one of the finest Formula One drivers ever, is still mourned by racing fans around the world.