1986 Formula One World Championship

The 1986 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 40th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1986 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1986 Formula One World Championship for Manufacturers, both of which commenced on 23 March and ended on 26 October after sixteen races. The Drivers' Championship was won by Alain Prost , [ 1 ] Prost was the first driver to win back-to-back Drivers' Championships since Jack Brabham in 1959 and 1960. Together with Prost, Nigel Mans...

After 1986, Renault left the sport as an engine supplier due to company restructuring , only to return in 1989 . The Constructors' Championship was won by Williams - Honda . Honda became the first Japanese engine supplier to win a Constructors' Championship. [ 4 ]

The following competitors contested the 1986 Formula One World Championship.

Back in 1980 , Renault proved that turbocharged engines were the way to success and by the half-way point in the 1985 season, all teams had followed their example. The FIA saw that the power output from turbo engines had doubled in the past six years. The 1986 F1 cars in qualifying trim proved to be the most powerful Grand Prix cars in history. Manufacturers mentioned numbers above 1,400 bhp (1,000 kW), powering cars that weighed just 540 kg (1,190 lb) giving a staggering power-to-weight ratio o...

So after mandating turbocharged engines for 1986, the governing body decided to re-allow naturally aspirated engines for 1987 , and at the same time started reining in the power of turbo engines, before banning them altogether for the 1989 season. [ 17 ] [ 18 ]

The first race of the season was in Brazil at the rough and abrasive Jacarepagua Riocentro Autodrome in the tropical heat of Rio de Janeiro. Lengthy test sessions there before the race weekend was often the case for the teams. Qualifying resulted in pole position for Senna, followed by the two Williams-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell, and by Rene Arnoux and Jacques Laffite in the two Ligier-Renaults. Sixth on the grid went to Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) ahead of Rosberg, Stefan Johansso...

The race day was very hot and humid. At the start Mansell tried to get ahead of Senna. The Brazilian refused to give way and Mansell went off into the barriers. Piquet then went past Senna on Lap 3 and took the lead, beginning to pull away at a second a lap; Senna remained ahead of Arnoux, although the Frenchman was soon overtaken by Alboreto. Rosberg was fifth but his engine would soon fail, leaving Johansson to take over. Prost made rapid progress and by lap 16 he had worked his way ahead of J...

3 weeks after the Brazilian Grand Prix saw the return of the Spanish Grand Prix. There had not been a Spanish Grand Prix since the Madrid-based Jarama circuit hosted the race in 1981, but the local authorities in Jerez had built a new circuit and so the F1 trucks rolled down to southern Spain for the event. The circuit, located 1 hour south of Seville was in a desert and was located in the Costa del Sol, providing very pleasant weather for the event. The flat circuit was very modern, and had a n...

At the start, pole-sitter Senna took the lead and with Piquet second and Rosberg and Prost quickly getting ahead of Mansell. The Englishman then began to charge and he moved gradually back up to second place and on the 39th lap he overtook Senna to take the lead. Mansell then pulled out a four-second lead by Senna gradually reeled him in again, while Prost sat on his tail in his McLaren-TAG/Porsche, Piquet having gone out with engine trouble. With 10 laps to go Senna challenged for the lead but ...

The San Marino Grand Prix, not held in the tiny principality of San Marino (which did not have a race track) but at the Autodromo Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy; just outside of Bologna near the Ferrari headquarters. The circuit had been updated with new safety features, including the demolishing of a house for more runoff area at the fast corner near the two Rivazza corners. Senna was on pole ahead of the two Williams-Hondas of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell. The McLaren of Alain Prost was ahead...

There was a new chicane at Monaco, the track having been extended out over the harbor to create a much slower kink than had previously been the case. The only change to the entry was that Patrick Tambay had a new Ford turbo engine in the back of his Beatrice Lola for the first time. Qualifying resulted in pole position for Prost, with Mansell, and Senna behind him. Then came Michele Alboreto's Ferrari and the improving Benetton-BMW of Gerhard Berger. The Brabham-BMW BT55 seemed to be getting bet...

In the fortnight between Monaco and Belgium, there was a test at Paul Ricard and a rear wing failure on his Brabham caused Elio de Angelis to crash. The car cartwheeled over the barriers and landed upside down. The ill-equipped marshals were unable to turn it over and a fire broke out. This was put out and de Angelis was released and, after a lengthy wait for a helicopter, he was flown to hospital in Marseille where he died of smoke inhalation. This was an incident that led to the introduction o...

The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps saw a big surprise in qualifying as Gerhard Berger qualified his Benetton-BMW second behind Nelson Piquet's Williams-Honda. The powerful and aerodynamically efficient Benetton was able to show its true performance at Spa. Alain Prost was third in his McLaren ahead of World Championship leader Ayrton Senna. Nigel Mansell was fifth in his Williams-Honda with Teo Fabi (Benetton), Rene Arnoux (Ligier-Renault), Keke Rosberg (McLaren), Michele Alboreto (Ferr...

Piquet made a good start to take the lead to go into the lead while Berger was slow away and found was between Senna and Prost at the hairpin. Prost and Berger collided and there was chaos behind them. When the dust settled Tambay was out with a broken suspension but everyone else was still going, albeit with some damage. This meant that Piquet was clear of Senna with Mansell third, Stefan Johansson (Ferrari) fourth, Johnny Dumfries (Lotus) fifth and Jacques Laffite (Ligier) sixth. Mansell quick...

Before the Canadian Grand Prix at the public road Gilles Villeneuve circuit in Montreal, the death of Elio de Angelis a month earlier had created an opening at Brabham and the team hired Derek Warwick who had been left out of work after Ayrton Senna refused to have him as his Lotus teammate. Marc Surer was also missing having been very seriously injured while competing on the Hessen Rally in a Ford RS200 supercar; he never raced in Formula One again. Christian Danner was hired by Arrows but beca...

Qualifying resulted in pole position for Nigel Mansell's Williams-Honda with Ayrton Senna's Lotus-Renault right with him. Nelson Piquet was third in the second Williams while Alain Prost was fourth for McLaren ahead of Rene Arnoux (Ligier), Keke Rosberg (McLaren), Gerhard Berger (Benetton), Jacques Laffite (Ligier), Riccardo Patrese (Brabham) and Warwick. Michele Alboreto was 11th in his Ferrari. In the morning warm-up Patrick Tambay suffered a suspension failure on his Lola-Ford and injured his...

Bernie Ecclestone had arranged a convoy to travel from Montreal to Detroit, which would take place a week after the Canadian Grand Prix. Detroit was the only 1986 Formula One Grand Prix in the United States; this unpopular race on a very bumpy, rough, tight and angular street circuit lined with unforgiving concrete walls in the middle of downtown Detroit was widely accepted as the toughest and most demanding Grand Prix of the year. With Patrick Tambay recovering from his leg injuries from Canada...

Elio de Angelis's fatal accident had led the Paul Ricard authorities to shorten the circuit dramatically and it now cut through on the 2.3 mile (3.8 km) racing school circuit, which took out the high-speed esses where de Angelis had crashed and reduced the length of the Mistral Straight. Patrick Tambay was back in action with the Haas Lola team after missing the Detroit GP because of leg injuries from an accident in Canada. Tambay also had a new engineer, Adrian Newey having been hired from the ...

There was a massive crowd at the British Grand Prix at the challenging Brands Hatch circuit just outside London, with many locals turning out hoping to see home favorite Mansell win. Jacques Laffite was due to equal Graham Hill's record of 176 Grand Prix starts and the popular Frenchman was hoping for a good performance at Brands Hatch as the Ligier-Renault had been very competitive. Williams celebrated the return of team boss Frank Williams to the F1 paddock for the first time since he was para...

Jacques Laffite's accident at Brands Hatch meant that Ligier needed a new driver and Philippe Alliot was hired to replace him for the German Grand Prix at the very fast and forested Hockenheim circuit. Team Lotus announced that it would be using Honda engines in 1987 with Ayrton Senna being joined by Satoru Nakajima. Arrows had the new A9 chassis for the first time while Keke Rosberg announced that he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the season and then took pole position for McL...

The World Championship headed behind the Iron Curtain for the first time to the new Hungaroring, outside Budapest, and there was an enthusiastic welcome for the Formula 1 circus. The very modern track was rather twisty and overtaking would be difficult. Traffic was a problem in qualifying but as usual Ayrton Senna was on pole in his Lotus-Renault with Nelson Piquet second in the Williams-Honda ahead of Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG), World Championship leader Nigel Mansell (Williams-Honda) and Keke R...

A week after Hungary, the teams were in action again at the fastest circuit of the year, the scenic and spectacular Österreichring in Austria and it was a surprise to see the two Benetton-BMWs on the front row with Fabi two-tenths faster than home favorite Berger; these cars were not only the most powerful cars on the grid with the Brabhams and Arrows cars but also along with the Williams and McLarens among the most aerodynamically efficient cars. Rosberg was third quickest in his McLaren-TAG/Po...

The big news at the Monza Autodrome near Milan was that McLaren designer John Barnard was leaving to join the Ferrari team. The new AGS was in the paddock for the first time with Ivan Capelli driving the Motori Moderni-engined chassis (which was, in fact, an old Renault Sport one with AGS bodywork). This had previously been tested by Didier Pironi. Michele Alboreto was in difficulties having crashed a motorcycle and injured his shoulder. The Osella team had replaced Allen Berg with local rising ...

The Portuguese Grand Prix at the Estoril Autodrome near Lisbon was moved to September instead of being held in April. The field was as it had been at Monza except that Allen Berg was back in the second Osella after the car had been driven by Alex Caffi in Italy. Pirelli announced that it was withdrawing from Grand Prix racing at the end of the year and Renault said that it too had decided not to continue supplying F1 engines for the 1987 season. Ferrari had also announced that it had signed up G...

It had been 16 years since the last Mexican GP (the country that hosted the football World Cup earlier that year) and the same circuit, now called the Rodriguez Brothers Autodrome in the heart of Mexico City had been completely rebuilt was a shorter circuit than the original but despite resurfacing work it was very bumpy, thanks to Mexico City's geologically active surface. The circuit was located 7,380 feet above sea level- even higher than the Kyalami circuit in South Africa, of which this eve...

Berger thus took his first Formula 1 victory, followed home by Prost and Senna. Piquet and Mansell were fourth and fifth - Mansell had caught right up to Piquet but was unable to pass his team-mate, who needed the points to retain a mathematical chance of the championship himself, and set the fastest lap of the race in response to Mansell's challenge: while the final point went to Alliot. As the F1 circus headed off to Australia Mansell was still in a dominant position in the World Championship ...

The most dramatic and exciting race of the 1980s, the 1986 race in Adelaide saw the showdown of a three-way fight for the World Championship between Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet. Mansell had 70 points, six more than Prost and seven more than Piquet. Prost's McLaren-TAG was no match for the Williams-Hondas – which had lapped the Frenchman at several races – although Alain had collected points all year while the Williams pair fought one another. Mansell was on pole ahead of Piquet ...

At the second corner of the race, Senna forced his way into the lead. Piquet and Rosberg followed him past Mansell and on that first lap Piquet overtook Senna to take the lead. On the next lap Senna dropped behind Rosberg and on lap 4 behind Mansell. Two laps later Prost was also ahead of Senna.

On lap 7 Rosberg overtook Piquet and began to build a lead while a little later Prost got ahead of Mansell and chased after Piquet. On lap 23 Nelson spun. Prost's hopes seemed to evaporate a few laps later when he had a puncture and had to pit. He was back in fourth again.

Piquet charged back from his spin, passing Mansell for second place on lap 44 but Prost closed on his two Williams driver and with 25 laps to go all three were running together.

On lap 63 the battle became one for the lead, when Rosberg suffered a right rear tire failure. Mansell was on course for the title when two laps later on the Dequetteville Terrace (Brabham Straight) his left rear tire exploded at 180 mph. Nigel managed to avoid hitting anything, but his championship hopes were over. Williams had no choice but to call Piquet to the pits and so Prost went into the lead.

The 1986 Formula One World Championship was contested over a sixteen-race series. [ 4 ]

Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers. For the Drivers' Championship, the best eleven results were counted, while, for the Constructors' Championship, all rounds were counted.

Numbers without parentheses are championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points were awarded in the following system:

† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

† Car did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as it completed over 90% of the race distance.