1986 F1 season and the start of the "Gang of Four" rivalry

Karun takes a look back at the epic 1986 F1 season! With the help of Goodwood's very useful phone book, all the key players from that year come forward to recall their memories.

[@joseferreirajr2285]

86 season should be a Hollywood movie. It was a great and unforgettable season. Hi from Brazil

[@Mishima505]

RIP Johnny Dumfries

[@garinakbar1907]

Sad that, Ayrton wasn't there on that virtual interview, imagine if he still alive...

[@jacobmassey3897]

Blame the bastards who never thought to change Tamberello following Piquet and Bergers accidents and the scumbags running the sport who didn't care about the drivers opinions on cockpit and circuit safety. If Tamberello had a tyre wall or if the Williams had raised head protection or if active suspension hadn't been banned by Balestre and his minions then Ayrton would still be here without a doubt. I lay blame firmly at the door of the FIA, the Imola circuit owners and even Patrick Head for what happened that day.

[@TinyBearTim]

@@jacobmassey3897 you know it’s Williams fault the steering failed it had nothing to do with the track

[@jacobmassey3897]

@@TinyBearTim oh right so that concrete wall he hit wasn't the fault of the race organisers who couldve placed a tire wall there at least.

[@pedropedra.7777]

@@TinyBearTim You are wrong , never is only one thing, The accident was a sum of factors! Including the track design....the tamborello curve, .... and others.... capisce bambino ¿¿¿¿

[@princeendymion9044]

@@TinyBearTim Except it isn't, because nobody actually knows what happened. Did he bottom out? Schumacher saw sparks coming off the back of his car before he crashed and Hill said he had to take the corner differently because of the bumps in the corner making the car unstable. Was it the tyres? Behind the safety car he lost a lot of temperature and it's possible he had a slow puncture. Was it the steering column? It's highly possible but Senna was the one who asked for that modification, it wasn't the engineers who just did it out of thin air so he would've known there was a chance of it breaking under stress, and on top of that the crash was so severe it was impossible to tell if the steering broke before or after the crash. The point is it's very easy for people to put the blame at Williams simply because Senna was so good that nobody though he could be killed, just like what happened when Jim Clark died in 1968. But the point will always stand that no matter what you think, we can never, ever prove without a shadow of a doubt what caused Senna to crash, or what exactly killed him at the moment of impact.

[@MrBboyflexibi]

The Four Of Them 1. Prost - 4 Championships 2. Senna - 3 Championships 3. Piquet - 3 Championships 4. Mansell - 1 Championship Thank god they all won one world championship

[@johnhassall1782]

Think nige was runner up 3 times to those guys!

[@josiaswattrelos]

Wrong! Balestre took 1989 championship from Senna and gave it to his compatriot Prost. Really Senna have 4 championship. Everybody saw the politicking.

[@coencordia]

Yeah and Senna took the 1988 title with 11 total points less then Prost. 2 horrible title deciders.

[@livingbeing1113]

@@josiaswattrelos Senna robbed Prost in 1990 and was gifted the 1988 one due to a horrible rule. So Prost 6 and Senna 1. And Alain could've won 7 or 8 titles even, Ayrton's only clean one was the 1991 title.

[@jannovak6806]

THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH FOR THIS COMMENT.I LOVE TRUE AND HATE MANIPULATION AND DIRTY POLITICS...I LOVE JUSTICE AND AYRTON IS 4 TIME WORLD CHAMPION!!! NO QUESTION.BALESTRE IS CRIMINAL BASTARD AND FLAVIO BRIATORE TOO.

[@neverleftthe80s29]

Adelaide 1986 was one of the most incredible F1 races ever. Incredible.

[@superdragUSA1]

F1, Groupe B...glad to have witnessed this golden era as a 17yr old!

[@tacheovale]

And don't forget Group C also

[@superdragUSA1]

@@tacheovale Aye!

[@johnhassall1782]

Absolutely,, my cousin competed in the 84 lombard rac in a corolla twin cam,, he got close to ari vatenens 205 t16,, I remember him telling me about it as a 13 year old,, absolutely loving it 👍

[@jorgemuske9890]

Greatest season ever!

[@jonaszukauskas9151]

Absolutely!!

[@livingbeing1113]

One of the very best indeed, due to the drivers involved, the peak of the turbo's era with 1000hp cars, and all the different manufacturers. The one and only Professor came out on top after a gruelling battle with his McLaren vs the superior Williams.

[@FlatOut75]

And I had the honor of watching these four battle at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 1986 before my very eyes. The heat that day was unbearable I must say but it was definitely worth it. A second to none GP!

[@MustangCollectibles]

Excellent!! That season showed that being fast isn't enough, you've got to be smart. Alain Prost sure had both!

[@jameshogan6142]

Mansell fans point to his tyre failure at Adelaide. However Prost would have undoubtedly won at Spa had Berger not damaged his front wing as a consequence of which Prost finished only sixth in that race. If Prost had won in Belgium he would have been unassailable at the Australian Grand Prix.

[@alphabetaxenonzzzcat]

A golden era for F1. 4 great drivers - all very different. 3 great teams. 3 great F1 cars(although I think the Williams was technically the best - just by a little bit though in this season). Great old school track(Brands Hatch, Austria, Adelaide, etc.). The turbo era. Great battles on track. The heart break of Mansell, the disappointment for Piquet and the savviness of Prost at the last race. They really make this an epic tale of F1.

[@popmart2000]

The most famous picture in F1 on these 70 years. thank you Bernie.

[@gersonnunes4288]

1986 para mim foi o melhor campeonato da história da F1!

[@emersonsantos6232]

Não existia tanta manipulação, mesmo porque tudo era mais manual tinha que ser piloto.

[@taytaytay871]

Do more of this Karun. Loved it.

[@simonkevnorris]

Adelaide 1986 was the first GP I ever attended. I was on a coach trip from Perth and we stopped in the Barossa Valley for an overnight stay after a 36 hour trip only stopping for meals. We did a winery tour before the 8 hour trip to Adelaide. I was seated on the pit straight with no big screen in sight. We heard that Mansell had a tyre explode but I only saw it that evening when walking past a bar. It seems a very long time ago. I've been to 64 other F1 races around the world and enjoyed the trip and race at each one.

[@yvlakhtionov]

All speaking politics forgetting how striking fast and masterful Prost was…

[@shooter7a]

Prost was every bit Senna's equal. He just had a different approach. He looked at the whole race weekend, and often would not waste time setting the car for qualifying, instead focusing on making his car perform best at the end of the race. Senna had more poles...but guess who had far far more fastest laps in race. Prost. In fact...Prost set fast race laps almost twice as often as Senna.

[@jamespatagueule4599]

Mansell say this every time just because he was jalous of Prost's talent

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@jamespatagueule4599 And because he would speak to the Ferrari people in Italian and be there while Mansell would go out and play golf instead.

[@benitolonard4441]

@@shooter7a Yes, Prost set 12 fastest laps against Senna during their time at Mclaren together but Senna won more of those 12 races than Prost did. What is the relevance of Prost setting fastest lap at Detroit 1988 for example but finished 40 seconds behind Senna in the race?

[@shooter7a]

@@benitolonard4441 ...and how many extra points did Senna earn for those 40 seconds? None. Prost was a much more calculating driver. He DECIDED. Senna just did. This is why Prost is still alive, and Senna is not. Some risks were simply not worth taking.

[@Charles010]

I remember getting up as a young boy and even my dear departed Dad, who wasn't an F1 fan, joined me at 3am to watch the Adelaide race live. We thought we'd be watching the truest British bulldog driver OUR Nige Mansell take the title. It was numbing what happened but 1992, 6 years later made amenze. It was a glorious season in which the greatest driver of them all, Ayrton Senna, started to show his true genius. This is a glorious then and now look back and yes, as other comments suggest, wouldn't it be precious if Ayrton could be here now to contribute.

[@andrebraga8031]

Só feras. Qualquer um deles que ganhasse o título não seria injusto. Todos com muita qualidade, inteligência e o principal velozes e muito, mas muito competitivos.

[@gustavomachado3488]

Greatest season ever. Amazing video, Karun.

[@john2ndname]

Yeah i agree!..in 1986 Adelaide GP was such a great race!... imagine Ayrton with these great drivers!..what a conversion that would be!...I know Ayrton is in Heaven looking down on us!..God bless you all!

[@kevinn1158]

The 80s and early 90s were really crazy to watch. Those cars were insane and they looked great.

[@isaiasprestes]

Holy shit! That was THE season of F-1! I was 6 yo and I can remember that clearly. Every race with my father. Go Nelson! :D

[@JoaoSilva22222]

I am proud to have seen those FOUR MASTERS racing right in front of me, Senna included.

[@FlatOut75]

Me too. Brazil 86. I was there… 👍🏻😃👍🏻

[@Nick-rr3pv]

And I was 12 years old. Remembering all this so well. 80s were the years.

[@andrebentivegna3156]

Ayrton Senna is not dead, he is just one lap ahead of everyone...🏁🏁🏁🙏🏻

[@leepd1]

I was at that race in Adelaide.. sitting at the first corner watching Prost, who had run out of fuel AFTER the finish line, throwing his gloves off, clearly not believing he'd done it.. the crowd going nuts around him..

[@justme-hh4vp]

Amazing to get that range of interviews. Just as well it was done virtually, i doubt you'd get Nigel in the same room as many of them!

[@SuryaAV]

This is really great stuff! Loved it!

[@pratapjayaram200]

A beautiful story... awesome karun 👏👏

[@flaviosambruni2503]

R.I.P. Johnny Dumfries ❤️

[@Subiromba]

Piquet is amazing, even after all these years he still doesn't care like he didn't care care back then "I called his wife ugly and I wanted to fight with him, whatever". He was an unapologetic asshole but at least he had a character, quite different from today's drivers guided by their PR machines.

[@beagle7622]

Saw Piquet on a train in Sydney in 1990 I think. He was being a tourist, dressed down , jeans. I nodded my head at him & said hi, he did the same back, obviously not wanting me to say more. Interesting moment for me. Nigel was absolutely on fire in Adelaide in 86, I really felt for him. He had performed perfectly all weekend. Alan Jones was on the Australian commentary team. He just did not like Nigel ( an understatement) he never said why! An extraordinary weekend Adelaide in 1986.

[@maxbembel2962]

The guy is a train wreck of a character. To show no dignity or discernment even a quarter century after is exposing. The less seen from him, the better.

[@augustolemos1590]

Fantastic! Great video. They were more than drivers, they showed ATTITUDE like never after this dream team.

[@philtucker1224]

That was amazing! I didn’t hear the name Ferrari once! 😊😊😊

[@SilverfoxThe]

My first season *really* watching. I'd seen some of the races before, but I was addicted to this rivalry in that year. I was a total Mansell Maniac and only really appreciated the skills of the others long after they had finished racing with each other. RIP Senna - he was amazing and the best ever overall IMO.

[@andradejurk]

Amazing Championship in 1986, amazing 80's! Should be fantastic if Senna was here. Regards from Brazil.

[@vidaamericana360]

the old drivers never gets old.. so good to watch... does not matter if is the same thing!

[@richardmortimer8147]

2007 had 4 drivers in contention most of the years and 3 for the final race. In fact, I think Massa sacrificed the race for Kimi to win the championship.

[@80sf1fan2]

REAL RACING, NO STUPID RULES, ONLY BATTLES

[@phrc06]

yes....manual gear box....turbo....no abs...no control traction....no drs....real racing car

[@mrrn100]

Fab video Karun, great season with 4 giants plus Keke doing Rosberg things!

[@rumblefish9]

Brilliant video. More of this!

[@peixemacaco]

One of the best F1 videos I've ever seen!

[@ScienceRockifyMe]

Fantastic video! Please do one for every year since then.

[@robertog2889]

RIP johnny Dumfries

[@PhilipReeder]

This was really well done!

[@gbpfuhl]

Amazing job Karun, congratulations!

[@donyfoster6849]

Golden era!

[@ianphillips4994]

Brilliant, Karun!

[@josemanzur6851]

The only, El Profesor Alain Prost .Mansell,pura envidia.

[@CGIPadawan]

7:14 - Valtteri... You can do this. :D

[@ksells]

Great stuff!

[@nicolasvinicius3377]

Amazing video. Please, keep them coming !!

[@canal8895]

Here is 4 great drivers but nelson piquet was the best on my opinion

[@michaelpashut1696]

Much respect... Piquet in my opinion was truly as good as Senna and Prost and streets ahead of Mansell.

[@Pinhead101]

7:01 Jesus F Christ Monkey Balls. Good editing and very jovial easy to follow delivery. Great job Karun!

[@renatocamurca2713]

Alain Prost was strategicaly perfect.

[@sporkfindus4777]

Karun's an excellent F1 historian and presenter

[@claudioomena6415]

Eu tenho na tela do meu computador essa foto deles sentado no muro....essa foto é sensacional....bons tempos.

[@pvaity_1289]

Nice video 👍

[@wernero.9204]

Karun, great video. Thx for this. I remember the race in Adelaide very well. It was the deeepest night when we sit in front of the tv and watched the race live with Keke and Alain who were my favourites since the early 80s. When i saw Nigels tyre blow up without having an accident fortunately i felt sad for Nigel but as a Prost Fan i was cheering for Alain. I couldnt believe it 'cause Alain Prost had so much bad luck in the past. He was considered as a french Stirling Moss. Sry Nigel, but you were always complaining like a crybaby about Nelson and Alain and everything. How often crashed u with Senna? Maybe you should have used your brain a little bit more... Anyway, i have also the original german "Auto, Motor & Sport" magazine with the famous photo still here.

[@user-eu6we8xk5g]

誰か英語詳しい方、 日本語訳と字幕つけて下さい。 86年のオーストラリアGP アデレードで勝った者がワールドチャンピオンとなるレースだったと思います。 その当時をドライバー、チーム関係者が 皆笑顔で当時を振り返る… 素晴らしい企画です。

[@kaduuu8357]

Verdade

[@simonwilliams4514]

Karun, I how you carry on this series of videos, you have access to participants that other channels don’t

[@MrSstiel]

Love the arcade graphics.

[@powerinnumbers6159]

Was there in person. #Adelaide Alive

[@murilocarvalho2903]

Very Good!!

[@PauI_Guitar]

Incredible season / 1986

[@lendleguanzon4753]

Ah yes, John Deacon, Brian May, Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor in F1

[@ResepEmakKami]

You are wrong there is Nigel Mansell Nelson Piquet Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna which are Formula 1 Drivers

[@aydankhaliq2967]

@@ResepEmakKami you seem fun at parties.

[@SuperDavidGnomo]

Queen are so overrated.

[@luistrekker]

Senna = Mercury. Both were gay.

[@bmbraz]

I'm coming from the future to tell you: if 1986 was good (and it really was), wait untill you see the 2021 season...

[@jakubklimek717]

12:06 "We have never seen a season like 1986?" How about 2010? They even recreated that picture with Alo-Ham-Vet-Web-But.

[@joribremer5260]

Hope you can make one about 97 too

[@yeshuahdenazareth7868]

Well... It's more like Prost and the three musketeers. Out of these four, Piquet and Prost are the only ones to have won at least one title with a lesser car. They were also the most complete drivers. Piquet would be the second best and Mansell and Senna were on par. Was 1986 the best ever season? Arguably it was. Was it one of the best ever seasons? Absolutely!

[@ljubastojanovic608]

I was Mensell fan since 1986 but Piquet was a hell of a driver. In early 90s he had a contract with second class Benetton to be paid for points only, with 6 drivers being in the points at that time

[@yeshuahdenazareth7868]

@@ljubastojanovic608 I believe it was $100k per point scored and he won a couple races at least.

[@jameshogan6142]

Well made points and it is surely no coincidence that Piquet and Prost were the only two of the four to be good friends.

[@michaelpashut1696]

@@jameshogan6142 Very good poiny

[@Holden308]

1986 actually started out as the Gang of Five. The other driver? Keke Rosberg.

[@jkim6200]

Ron Dennis, a shady character, but one heck of a team manager.

[@sz5876]

Not 10% as shady as Bernie lol. Ron was more weird than shady. Christian Horner is a shady character, Toto is questionable.

[@rumblefish9]

Well both Alonso and Hamilton blamed Dennis for not managing them. Publicly villainizing one driver and favoring the other and allowing the whole thing to blow up so... not much of a manager.

[@rumblefish9]

​@@sz5876 All of them are shady. To lead a team, you have to play dirty and all of then were.

[@JoseSanchez-fi2ms]

I was looking for a video of senna,s qualy laps at jerez 86, a race i saw live, and came in front of this video, wich i like. But hard to see videos of senna's qualy laps besides those of monaco and brands hatch.

[@TheJohnlyh]

I hope they will be a future 4 way rivalry between Sainz, Norris, Verstappen and Russell

[@luckyboy4766]

Leclerc over Sainz

[@TheJohnlyh]

@@luckyboy4766 yup

[@joaopaulopassarelli6636]

I'd like to see LH44 in the midst of the lions, poor thing, he's getting dust from boy Russell, the first good guy in the garage next door. Senna should be in this video, simply the best.

[@alainbelanger4547]

Great Era

[@AlonsoRules]

someone is missing

[@claudioomena6415]

Karakas....😱😱😱😱😱😱 só lendas

[@caballitodemar7616]

1986 la temporada de los autos más bonitos.

[@JoTokutora]

The host nodding cut aways are annoying, They are not necessary. Cutting to the host for nodding shots simply kill the moment

[@brendanbrown3100]

Mansell still upset about Prost lol

[@master-kq3nw]

The best season f1need races like this 1986 3 drivers fight for championship in last race mansell have title but prost won big 4 rivals

[@Flanneryshanedward]

If senna survived that Imola crash I believe he probably would have won the 1994 season, stayed with Williams and possibly won another 2. He more than likely should have finished with 7 world championships and about 70 plus wins before retiring.

[@Sam-rl5hs]

There was no one stopping Schumi, he was destined to become the greatest

[@armin7321]

@@Sam-rl5hs senna was still faster than schumi in 94 and prob for a few more years.

[@EL1AS_]

@@armin7321 Might be, but he was already 30 points behind at Imola, and it would have been 40 points had he survived. That's a lot to come back in 12 races against Schumi.

[@jameshogan6142]

Schumacher would have annihilated Senna had he raced all through the 94 season. I wish Senna had not died in that crash but had he lived his legend would not have endured as it has done. There is no question Schumacher was the vastly superior driver.@@EL1AS_

[@Joescuderia]

Karun is such a great historian and good driver pity he's broke and can't race anymore.

[@beagle7622]

Hill versus Clark, sorry I don’t remember that one. Hill won the world championship in 1962 I think but it was not a rivalry . In 1967 when the Lotus 49 came on the scene , Hill didn’t win a race & broke the car. Clark was a musician and nursed the new car to a number of wins.

[@robertmilne4304]

We've never seen a season like 1986 until last year.

[@carlosnunes3701]

The Bastard of Patrick Head takes off the title to his own Driver and even looks proud. Piquet should won 4 world championships, and he was by far the best driver. Senna was quicker in one lap, but Piquet was better in the race. Even with Schumacher at Benetton when Piquet was pre retired Piquet was better in race with precisely the same car. Piquet knew much more about mechanic/suspension and aerodynamic than all F1 mechanics engineers together. The problem was that he realised too late that they had copied from him the setups in training, and he has to work in a secret mode to win . In 1987 he hidden everything from PAtrick Head in training and won many races with the reserve car to avoid Mansell copy his set up and become champion.

[@BD12]

Aaaargh wish it was easier to find good footage of the '86 stuff, every torrent I've ever had was God awful

[@Gadginho]

I eventually found the official F1 app has some great content going back to 1981 - got a free trial first & then upgraded to the annual pass for £19.99 (commentary is available but you need (annoyingly) to turn it on via the audio options at the start of every video 😬) 👍

[@BD12]

@@Gadginho I had the trial for a while but whenever I tried saving clips they always came without the sound included (because of the way it has alternate audio tracks), haha. Some great footage on there though

[@Gadginho]

@@BD12 Ah cool, at least you know about it then. Seemed to take me ages to discover despite probably being the most obvious place to look! 80's F1 is just stunning in so many ways - some of my earliest memories stem from this era & now my 4 year old son loves watching it with me too (he won't sit & watch the modern era though!)...

[@patrickdepailler4468]

Prost =le professeur

[@posthxc]

those low poly cars 🥵🥵

[@ZakkWyldeman]

12:06 that is if you don't count 2007...

[@92trdman]

The host never do a serious homework , "Rain master " are the great Ayrton Senna not Prost

[@toyvers]

Piquet lost the championship but was smiling on the podium, while a certain current driver fled to the caves.

[@jameshogan6142]

He was probably remembering Kyalami 83 when he snatched the title from Prost in a similar manner. It was even steven as far as Piquet was concerned. Really chilled out fellow,

[@michaelpashut1696]

So glad you picked it up... Nelson was just the kindest easiest going guy... Listen to any interview... its never about him.... Such a under appreciated guy.

[@user-bg1xk7cb3h]

7:01 ナイス ピケ(≧∇≦)

[@cacarotocacimbinha2905]

4:32 it nes or not exziste?

[@donnypopovski7251]

From 5:46 (thumbs up)

[@MrBboyflexibi]

What’s the name of the BGM

[@GoldBug78]

was Gerhard Berger in this F1 season too?

[@EL1AS_]

Yes, driving for Benetton. He was 7th in the standings at the end of the year.

[@jameshogan6142]

He won the Mexican grand prix.

[@Gadginho]

Please tell me that's an actual arcade game Karun?!!

[@guiwonsik]

mate you need to do more videos like this one. epic stuff, as a brazilian I almost cried. Its funny how to us brazilians, nowadays HD footage from senna is like seing images of christ himself or something like this (Im not religious, just a analogy).

[@juniorbispodasilva8740]

Link of theme intro/end credits FIA F1 the season review 1986 ( Special Report by Andy Quin ) ➡️➡️kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZucl3mQfcqKaLc

[@TomasUjhelyi]

We need another personality like Piquet

[@michaelpashut1696]

So true and my all time hero