1986 Formula One season

The 1986 Formula One season was the 37th FIA Formula One World Championship season. It commenced on March 23, 1986, and ended on October 26 after sixteen races.

The season culminated in a points battle between the Williams duo of Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell versus McLaren's Alain Prost at the final race, the 1986 Australian Grand Prix. Mansell's tyre blew in spectacular fashion and Piquet, in the lead at the time of the incident, was brought in for an unscheduled pit stop soon afterward by Williams to prevent the same happening to his tyres. This enabled Prost to take the lead and the race victory (his 4th of the season) and to secure his second consecutive drivers championship.

For the first (and to date only) year, turbocharged engines were compulsory due to a ban on naturally aspirated (atmospheric) engines. The law banning atmospheric engines was rescinded in 1987, in preparation for a ban on all forced induction engines for 1989. As a result most races became economy runs, with many drivers running out of fuel at the end of a number of races. ''Forget everything after. The 1986 turbo Formula One cars... really were rockets. And to handle them, I think, you had to be a man.'' - Gerhard Berger

1986 Drivers Championship final standings
$†$ Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Drivers' Championship points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the top six finishers in each round.