Latest news with #FW14B
The Drive
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
Lia Block Is Racing Nigel Mansell's Title-Winning F1 Car Up the Goodwood Hillclimb
The latest car news, reviews, and features. Lia Block will get a chance to experience a machine like no other later this summer. The Formula 1 Academy star is set to pilot Nigel Mansell's Williams FW14B at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, which is celebrating the 75th anniversary of F1. Specifically, she will be driving the same car that the famous Brit won the F1 championship with in 1992. Block, the daughter of late racing driver and YouTube legend Ken Block, posted several photos of the FW14B's seat fitting process to her Instagram account Wednesday evening. 'I think I was [in] shock while doing this. My first seat fit in the FW14B, Nigel Mansell's championship-winning car. I'm so honored to be driving this car at @fosgoodwood 2025,' read the caption. Despite being just 18 years old, Block has had the opportunity to race (and recreationally drive) lots of rarefied cars, including the famous 1,400H-horsepower Mustang 'Hoonicorn,' and several rally cars where, just like her dad, she sharpened her car control skills. In 2023, she competed in the now-defunct Extreme E off-road championship, and a year later, she tested Keke Rosberg's Williams FW08 F1 car. Since then, Block has been racing in the F1 Academy series as a Williams Racing Academy driver. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lia Block (@liakblock) That said, the FW14B will prove to be a completely different animal, given its wicked power-to-weight ratio and, of course, aero. Even with a previous brief taste of the FW08, she will surely find it a handful. And while the Duke of Richmond's driveway isn't exactly the ideal (or most exciting) place to drive a vintage F1 car, this will certainly be a special experience for Block and everyone watching. 'I started going to Goodwood when I was really young with my dad who used to do the hillclimb a lot,' said Block in a press release. 'Last year was a very big moment for me being able to drive an F1 car up the hill. It was a dream come true, and Goodwood is so special to me because so many people from different areas of motorsport come together to celebrate the sport. This year is going to be an iconic experience for me in an iconic car—I can't wait!' The second-generation racer will share driving duties with team boss James Vowles and fellow racing star Jamie Chadwick. Got a tip? Email us at tips@ Jerry Perez is the Deputy Editor at The Drive, overseeing the site's daily and long-term content initiatives in addition to writing his own features and reviews. He's been covering the automotive industry professionally since 2015 and joined The Drive in January 2018.
TimesLIVE
07-05-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
Nigel Mansell to join Goodwood's star-studded F1 75th anniversary lineup
Nigel Mansell, the 1992 Formula 1 world champion and patron saint of the moustache, is set to return to the 2025 Festival of Speed, marking his fourth appearance at the iconic event. The festival will join forces with Formula 1 to celebrate 75 years of the World Championship, making Mansell's participation more special. Mansell will be behind the wheel of two significant cars from his career: the Williams FW14B, which secured his 1992 Championship, and the FW11, the car that could have won him the 1986 title had a dramatic tyre failure not cost him the crown in the final race. The FW11 will be displayed with support from the Honda Collection Hall. From his first race in Formula 1 in 1980 to his retirement in 1994, Mansell became known for his fierce competitiveness and aggressive, sometimes breathtaking overtakes. During his career, he racked up 31 Grand Prix wins, 14 pole positions and a reputation for relentless determination. His driving earned him fans not only in the UK, but in Italy, where he was nicknamed " Il Leone" during his time at Ferrari, and in the US, where he followed his F1 title by winning the IndyCar World Series in 1993. Mansell's F1 journey wasn't without its ups and downs. After a difficult start with Lotus, he found success with Williams, winning his first Grand Prix in 1985. By the time he retired, Mansell held the record for the most wins by a British driver, a record later surpassed by Lewis Hamilton. His connection to the Goodwood Festival of Speed goes back to 2006, when he first took part in the event. Over the years, he has driven some of his most memorable cars, including the 1982 Lotus 91 and, in 2022, his 1992 Championship-winning FW14B. In 2023, the FW14B made another appearance, this time driven by Sebastian Vettel, running on sustainable fuel as part of Vettel's "Race Without Trace" initiative. At the 2025 Festival, Mansell will join other F1 legends to mark the 75th anniversary of the Formula 1 World Championship. Fans can expect a special reunion of champions, including Alain Prost and Mario Andretti, with more iconic names to be announced.
Mint
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Mint
The seven Formula One cars that changed everything
The first dominant machine in Formula One, 75 years ago, was the Alfa Romeo 158—which might look like a toy by today's standards. But it was state-of-the-art in its heyday. In recent history, it's the next-level Red Bull RB19, which in 2023 won all of but one of its 22 races. What follows are snapshots of the seven cars that have made their mark, and their power and race-victory scoreboards. The first Formula One world championship had barely begun in 1950 when the sport discovered its first dominant machine. The Alfa Romeo 158, which was shaped like a cigar on wheels, won all six of the Grands Prix it entered that season, including three with future five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio at the wheel. And its successor, the 159, would be just as successful. But the most amazing part wasn't their speed. It was that the Alfa Romeo that powered to the 1950 world championship had originally been designed 12 years earlier, in 1938. Perhaps the most revolutionary car in the history of Formula One, the Lotus 72 showed the world that aerodynamics wasn't merely a gimmick: It represented the future of the sport. The brainchild of British engineer Colin Chapman, one of F1's mad scientists, every part of the car was conceived to maximize 'ground effects," shaping the airflow around the car to keep it pressed to the road at high speeds and prevent it from spinning out of corners. Though it was plagued by other safety issues, the Lotus 72 would influence F1 design for decades. By rights, the MP4/4 should have been a catastrophe. For the 1988 season, McLaren tore up a playbook that had delivered three titles in the previous four seasons, abruptly ditching its engine supplier in favor of a deal with Honda and hiring a new chief designer, Gordon Murray. Four months before the season, there wasn't even a vague sketch of what the car would look like. When it was finally unveiled, however, it was worth the wait. The MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 races that year as McLaren stormed to the title. The FW14B wasn't so much a racing car as a 200-mph supercomputer with a spoiler on the back. Equipped with the sport's first on-board computer system, almost every part of the car was at the cutting edge: Microprocessors controlled the suspension, the throttle, the traction control, even a semiautomatic gearbox. At a time when no other F1 team was working with silicon in this way, the FW14B was faster, better and smarter. Williams won each of the first five races, clinching the world title with one third of the season still to run. When Enzo Ferrari founded the racing team that bears his name in 1929, his ambition was to achieve a level of supremacy unlike anything seen. In 2002, Ferrari did exactly that. Utilizing a lightweight chassis, a powerful V10 engine and bespoke tires from Bridgestone specifically designed to match Michael Schumacher's driving style, the F2002 powered the German driver to the world title by a then-record margin of 68 points. The Lewis Hamilton dynasty at Mercedes defined the 2010s. And when he was at his best, only one other driver could get anywhere near him. It was teammate Nico Rosberg, and the reason he kept things close was that he happened to be driving the same all-conquering car. In 2016, the W07 won all but two of the season's 19 Grands Prix and went 1-2 in eight of them. The surprising twist that year was that Rosberg managed to nose in front of Hamilton for the world championship. The RB19 was one in a long line of masterpieces by legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey. But combined with Dutch prodigy Max Verstappen in the cockpit it became one of the greatest race cars of all time. In 2023, Verstappen took the checkered flag a staggering 19 times in 22 races. His teammate Sergio Perez guided the RB19 to two victories of his own. The only non-Red Bull to win a race all season was Carlos Sainz's Ferrari. Email Joshua Robinson , a Wall Street Journal editor in New York, at Email Jonathan Clegg , the Journal's sports editor in New York, at
