1985 South African Grand Prix

Until the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix , this was the last World Championship Grand Prix to be held on a Saturday,; [ 1 ] [ 2 ] it also was the last World Championship Grand Prix where laurel wreaths were given to the drivers at the podium. [ 3 ] The event was boycotted by two teams, Ligier and Renault , owing to mounting international pressures against tolerating the country's system of apartheid. A state of emergency had been declared by the South African government in July due to growing civil u...

Finland and Sweden held similar reservations regarding Finn Keke Rosberg and Swede Stefan Johansson competing. [ 7 ] Sweden's National Automobile Federation had announced Johansson could not race in South Africa before the event, [ 7 ] but he did race.

Multiple sponsors also ordered teams to remove their branding from cars they backed, most notably Marlboro and Beatrice Foods .

The latter held an equity interest in the single car Haas Lola team. While Alan Jones qualified 18th for that team, his car was not on the starting grid. Officially Jones cited illness as to why he did not race, but it was widely rumored at the time that Beatrice ordered the team to boycott. [ 6 ] In 2017, Jones described a meeting with Bernie Ecclestone the night before the race, who suggested that Jones feign illness the next morning and not show up. Ecclestone described how Beatrice were unde...

It was the final South African Grand Prix until apartheid ended, with FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre announcing days after the race that the Grand Prix would not return to the nation for 1986 because of apartheid. [ 5 ] Even without the political pressures, this might well have been the final Formula One race held at Kyalami in its then form: FISA had long since deemed that circuits where lap times were under 60 seconds were considered too small for Grand Prix racing and with car speeds incr...

The South African Grand Prix would only return in 1992 , after apartheid ended, in a new configuration of the Kyalami circuit. Mansell would also win the 1992 race driving a Williams, albeit with a naturally-aspirated Renault engine. [ 11 ]

Pole position went to Nigel Mansell, averaging 236.898 km/h (147.201 mph).