Fireworks guaranteed

After some thought, Nelson Piquet, reluctantly left Brabham at the end of 1985, after seven seasons and two world championships (1981 and 1983) under his belt. The Brazilian, convinced that the Williams-Honda was the package to have, and attracted by a 3.3m$ per year contract, largely paid by Honda, a record at the time, joined Nigel Mansell at Williams, but did not regard the Brit as a serious threat.

Picture above: The season began well with Nelson Piquet Williams FW11-Honda, dominating the Brazil Grand Prix 1986 held at Jacarepagua, a motorsport circuit in Rio de Janeiro, soon to be named after him.

Piquet had underestimated Mansell, and the Englishman came out of 1985 on a confidence high, after winning two of the last three races of the season. Both were regarded as high-strung characters with delicate temperaments, and two top drivers in the same team was a recipe for fireworks.

Though the two drove what were clearly the best cars on the grid, their rivalry caused each to deprive the other of points, allowing Alain Prost (McLaren-TAG) to win one of the closest and most fiercely disputed championship, ever in Formula One.

Picture below: Both Williams-Honda FW11B, Piquet (2nd on the grid behind Senna) ahead of Mansell, at the 1986 Mexican Grand Prix won by Gerhard Berger (Benetton-BMW).