Top 5 teammate rivalries in Formula 1

#4 Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet

Reason for the Rivalry being Special: Piquet believing Mansell would just be another push over.

When a double World Champion joins a team, it is believed that he would be given all the required preference, because he would deserve it anyway. However, when his teammate gets a good run at him, all hell breaks loose.

That’s what happened in 1986 when Brazilian star Piquet joined Williams, on multimillion dollar salary, to partner the Brit Nigel Mansell. It was expected that the Honda powered Williams would be a good car to win a championship in and Piquet’s name was already being carved to be engraved on the year’s title. However, Mansell had other plans, and challenged the Brazilian tooth and nail.

Thus created the problem that the Brazilian always believed Mansell was preferred by the team because he was British. The tension between the two drivers intensified and that led to name-callings. Piquet once called Mansell ‘an uneducated blockhead’, to which the former Champion replied: Piquet is just a vile man.

The pair, let us say hated each other, and that did effect their on track demeanor in 1986, which allowed Alain Prost in a McLaren to take the title right under the nose of both the Williams drivers. The following year in 87, both still teammates, it was all the same, however because of Mansell’s accident at the Japanese Grand Prix, a title showdown was robbed from us as Piquet became a third time world champion that season.

Both Piquet and Mansell were great drivers, legends of the sport, but they couldn’t stand each other, at least not in one team.