Development and Race History
The Ferrari F1/86 was designed as a replacement for the 156/85 used in 1985, which initially proved to be competitive, but as the season developed had increasing unreliability issues as well as lagging behind in the power race. The chassis and the overall design of the 1986 car was very similar to the 1985 model. The main concerns were in refining the aerodynamics and improving reliability.
Although it was among the fastest cars in a straight line in the 1986 season, often bettered only by the BMW powered cars, the F1/86 performed far worse than its predecessor: the reliability problems were all but eliminated, but it was constantly outpaced by the faster Williams-Hondas, McLaren-TAGs, Lotus-Renaults and Benetton-BMWs. The car gained 5 podiums during the year, 4 from Stefan Johansson and 1 from Michele Alboreto, and failed to score a single win, pole position or fastest lap. Despite this it was generally regarded in the F1 paddock that Ferrari actually had one of the more powerful engines in the field.
Visually, the F1/86 was bulky looking compared to its rivals. The car did manage to lead one lap of the entire 1986 season when at the Belgian Grand Prix when Johansson inherited the lead once Mansell made an early pitstop for new tyres. The F1/86 looked to be at its most competitive during the Italian Grand Prix where Alboreto, encouraged by the Tifosi, was keeping pressure on the Williams' of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, before a spin exiting the Viriante del Rettifilo chicane. Alboreto had already overtaken Keke Rosberg (McLaren), René Arnoux (Ligier-Renault) and Gerhard Berger (Benetton) and looked on course to compete for victory.
Ferrari recruited English designer John Barnard, then technical director at McLaren, towards the latter stages of the season in an attempt to regain ground on their rivals from 1987 onwards. The chassis was replaced by the Gustav Brunner designed F1/87 model for the 1987 season.
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