Mansell's FW14B: how Williams maintains one of the most advanced F1 cars ever

“The main standout feature when you look at a 14B – and to tell it from a 14 or a 15C – is where the top wishbones go into the chassis, there’s a sort of a bulge on either side. That’s where the active suspension sits on the top of the chassis. That’s the only place that the team could put it, they’ve basically dumped it on the top. For ’93 they packaged it more compactly into the car.”

Some of Mansell’s idiosyncratic alterations on the car come into play when looking after the car in the modern day.

“It’s really annoying actually to wheel around car parks, because of the smaller steering wheel – Mansell’s preference – that is set quite far in under the chassis. Moving it around is very difficult.”

It’s not all mechanical trickery, as this car was born in a period when F1 was moving into the digital age, with software devised for its active system by legendary engineer Paddy Lowe. Therefore Williams Heritage has to work with software used at the time to get the 14B up and running.

“Operating the computer system is really the main thing with the suspension and car, as well as reading the reading the data that comes off it,” Morton says.

“It’s old school. We’ve got one computer that reads the data card that comes out of the car, and it’s literally put into an old, beige, ‘Tower of Power’ desktop computer on our truck – we still rely on that.

“We’ve got a couple of guys in Heritage who raced this car in period which massively, massively helps as well, as do a couple of guys in the electronics department who helped assist Paddy do all the clever stuff back in the day.”

Though the team doesn’t get too deep into a system which can be complicated at the best of times, it still utilises the active suspension to make the 14B more comfortable in its surroundings.

“We can adjust the right height as per the circuit, and there’s two main different ways to adjust it,” Morton explains.

“One is by the push rods, like any passive car, which we ran at Goodwood this year, when we raised the ride height mechanically.

“We have solutions to this, and we’ll be applying them over the next 12 months.”

Whenever active suspension is mentioned, what often springs to mind for F1 fans is the FW14B ‘dancing’ before it went on track, shifting up and down as engineers with furrowed brows poured over screens and data. Morton explains what is going on as the goes through its routine.

“It’s done for a couple of reasons,” he says. “There’s two processes, a ‘flush’ and a ‘grip’. The flush is basically to get all the air out of the hydraulic system, and then we have a grip, which is like a flush, but at a higher pressure.

“A flush moves the car up and down from the front and then [doing the same] to the rear, whilst a high pressure grip will go make the whole car rise all the way to the top, as a level, and then all the way down.

“It’s basically a hydraulic leak check, it runs the system at super, super high pressure to make sure all the struts go up at the same time, to the maximum extension.”

It’s not all down to the engineers though – the driver would still be trusted with some changes to the active suspension out on track, as long as they remember. As Morton highlights, it can catch out even the best of them.

“When the car is stopped, we have a couple of buttons on the dash that will always take the car back to its maximum ride height, so that when you’re pushing it around in the pits or off the track, it’s more practical,” he says.

“That’s the one thing that we tell the driver the most before they go on track – they need to make sure they flick the switch before turning the engine off, otherwise the car will stay at its racing ride height.

“When Nigel drove the car at Goodwood and got to just outside the house, he forgot…”

“Sebastian Vettel, when he drove his car at the British Grand Prix, because he’s used to having literally a computer in his hands, he remembered. It’s different generation.”

Mansell’s slight error didn’t take away from what was a glorious day at Goodwood, the fans clearly in awe of their hero and his car. The ’92 champ was just as appreciative of the FW14B.

“He was very grateful,” says Morton. “Whenever you’ve not worked with a particular driver before, especially someone of that stature, you do hear different stories, especially from people at Williams.

“I was a little bit sceptical about looking him in the eye and telling him to look after the car and and all that kind of stuff, but he was thrilled with it and was so grateful to the entire crew.

“There were a couple of guys there that he worked with him period that helps him win the championship, and he knew that.

“We met him at a couple of events across the weekend, and every time he made a point of shaking everyone’s hand, saying thanks to Williams for basically giving him a car and creating that moment.”

Morton admits he and his Heritage team felt pressure in making sure the car ran smoothly for the big event, but was ultimately elated that Williams could help enable a “special” experience for everyone present.

With the team focused on looking after its fleet – and those of customers who have bought historic Williams machinery too – for many years ahead, we can look forward to more joyous celebrations of Grove cars for years to come.