1985 Australian Grand Prix

Pre-race

The new Adelaide Street Circuit was received extremely positively with glowing reviews from those within the paddock despite the circuit's temporary nature as it wound through streets, parkland and across horse racing venue Victoria Park Racecourse immediately adjacent to the Adelaide central business district , with the drivers enjoying a street circuit that was unlike Monaco and Detroit with their endless short straights, narrow roads and hairpin or right angle corners. The Adelaide circuit wa...

Dual World Champion Nelson Piquet confirmed the drivers' positive view on the circuit when he said early in race week "After Detroit , Dallas and Las Vegas , we all expected another bad street circuit", while his Brabham team boss and head of the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) Bernie Ecclestone told the assembled media that he believed that the standard of the organisation and the circuit itself was bad news for Formula One, explaining that Adelaide had raised the standards of what ...

The only Australian driver in the field, 1980 World Drivers' Champion Alan Jones who was driving the Haas Lola team's Lola THL1 - Hart , was given the honour of driving the first Formula One car out onto the new circuit when first practice opened at 10am on the Thursday morning (standard practice at the time was to give an extra day's practice at a new circuit, though the meeting starting on the Thursday with just the support categories became a feature of the AGP in Adelaide). Bernie Ecclestone...

Qualifying

World Champion designate Alain Prost was 4th on the grid in his McLaren TAG - Porsche , the Ferrari of 1985 World Championship runner up Michele Alboreto fifth, and Marc Surer in his Brabham - BMW rounding out the top six qualifiers. Outgoing World Champion Niki Lauda was 16th on the grid in his McLaren. Alan Jones ended up 19th on the grid after engine and turbo problems throughout practice and qualifying.

Race

On the penultimate lap, Ligier -Renault driver Philippe Streiff tried to overtake his senior team-mate Jacques Laffite for second place and, as result of this manoeuvre, Streiff's front wheel axle was severely damaged. With fourth placed Ivan Capelli a lap down in his Tyrrell -Renault, Streiff managed to limp his Ligier JS25 home and retain third place despite having only three wheels firmly attached to the car, with the front left wheel bouncing up and down over the course of the last lap, but ...

A delayed Stefan Johansson finished fifth in his Ferrari ahead of Gerhard Berger in his Arrows -BMW. Berger at that stage of his career was also a part-time factory touring car driver for BMW in the European Touring Car Championship (he had won the Spa 24 Hours for BMW's Schnitzer Motorsport in July 1985). He performed double duty during the AGP weekend, also driving a BMW 635 CSi during the Group A support race. This was actually a breach of Formula One's driver rules which stated a driver must...

Renault had a largely forgettable weekend in their last Grand Prix as a manufacturer (until 2002 ). Patrick Tambay , whose Renault RE60B was fitted with an on-board camera during practice and qualifying, qualified 8th while Derek Warwick qualified in 12th place. After Friday's qualifying, Tambay visited Adelaide's major dirt track racing venue Speedway Park which was hosting the inaugural Australian Sprintcar Masters meeting and while there turned a few laps of the ¼ mile clay oval track in a 70...

Race

Both Alfa Romeo and Renault had their last Grand Prix as a constructor in the turbo era. As of 2024 , Alfa have never returned to Grand Prix racing as a factory team; the Alfa team that competed in F1 from 1982 to 1985 was actually a pseudo-factory team actually run by EuroRacing with support from the Alfa factory, and the Alfa team that competed in F1 from 2019 to 2023 was a rebranded Sauber with Alfa Romeo providing technical assistance with the hope that Alfa Romeo will be a works team in the...

Cultural notes

In Adelaide's northern industrial suburb Wingfield, a connected group of streets bears the names of the 1985 pole-sitter and the 6 points scorers: Senna, Rosberg, Laffite, Streiff, Capelli, Johansson and Berger Roads. [ 10 ]

Quick Facts

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1985 Australian Grand Prix Distance

Table 1

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Q1	Q2
1	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	1:22.403	1:19.844
2	5	Nigel Mansell	Williams-Honda	1:22.564	1:20.537
3	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	1:22.402	1:21.877
4	2	Alain Prost	McLaren-TAG	1:23.943	1:21.889
5	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	1:24.666	1:22.337
6	8	Marc Surer	Brabham-BMW	1:24.404	1:22.561
7	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	1:25.362	1:22.592
8	15	Patrick Tambay	Renault	1:25.173	1:22.683
9	7	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-BMW	1:23.018	1:22.718
10	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Renault	1:24.543	1:23.077

Table 2

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Tyre	Laps
1	6	Keke Rosberg	Williams-Honda	G	82
2	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Renault	P	82
3	25	Philippe Streiff	Ligier-Renault	P	82
4	4	Ivan Capelli	Tyrrell-Renault	G	81
5	28	Stefan Johansson	Ferrari	G	81
6	17	Gerhard Berger	Arrows-BMW	G	81
7	24	Huub Rothengatter	Osella-Alfa Romeo	P	78
8	29	Pierluigi Martini	Minardi-Motori Moderni	P	78
Ret	12	Ayrton Senna	Lotus-Renault	G	62
Ret	27	Michele Alboreto	Ferrari	G	61

Table 3

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Alain Prost	73 (76)
2	Michele Alboreto	53
3	Keke Rosberg	40
4	Ayrton Senna	38
5	Elio de Angelis	33
Source:[9]	Source:[9]	Source:[9]

F1ABY Commentary

Can you *feel* the tension radiating from the Adelaide asphalt? Rosberg, a warrior sculpted from ice and determination, is carving a path through the shadows, isn't he? This isn’t merely a victory; it’s a brutal statement, a defiant roar against the fading light of Alfa Romeo’s glory days. The crowd is a frenzy, a wave of blue and white, feeding the beast. Look at that Williams – Honda, a machine utterly consumed by the hunger to conquer. This, my friends, is the brutal, beautiful calculus of Formula One. A final, devastating act.

Hold onto your hats, folks! This, right here, is what Formula One is *built* on – a brutal, merciless battle for supremacy, and Rosberg is delivering! The tension is a tangible thing, thick enough to choke on, as he stalks the streets of Adelaide, poised to etch his name into history.

F1ABY Trivia

Hold on to your helmets! Rosberg explodes from the line, a searing 680 horsepower from that Honda V6 ripping through the Adelaide streets – a brutal display of raw velocity. This isn’t just a race, folks; it’s a declaration! The Williams, a machine built for aggression, seizing the early advantage, and the last hurrah for Alfa Romeo, a poignant chapter closing.

Hold on to your helmets! The Adelaide air is thick with tension – a palpable thing, you can taste it! Rosberg… he *rips* away from Prost, a brutal assertion of dominance on this brand new street circuit. Eighteen laps! Seventeen! And the German is building a gap, a chasm really, fueled by pure, unadulterated aggression. This isn’t just a victory; it’s a statement, a defiant roar echoing the final race for Alfa Romeo and the last Finnish triumph until Häkkinen’s audacious leap in ‘97.

F1ABY Tales

Here we go! Rosberg! He’s *taking* it! The gap is shrinking, a sliver of hope against the blue wall of Williams dominance. Can he hold on? The crowd is a roaring beast, sensing a seismic shift – this is more than a victory; it’s a declaration! The last gasp of Alfa Romeo, a legend etched in the asphalt. This, folks, is the kind of drama that defines a championship.

The rain…it’s a devil, isn’t it? Watching Niki Lauda meticulously adjust his helmet, a ghost of Monza 1982 flickering in his eyes. A man who’s stared down death, now battling the elements, a desperate plea against the shifting asphalt. This isn’t just a race; it’s a reckoning. Rosberg, that ruthless Finn, leads, but the shadows lengthen, and the Adelaide street circuit, slick and unforgiving, threatens to swallow everyone whole. The tension! You can practically taste it, thick with the knowledge that this, this could be the end. The last hurrah for Alfa Romeo, a final, defiant roar before the silence.