Formally the most powerful Formula One car ever built: over 1450 BHP in qualifying trim from only a 1.5 litre 4 cilinder engine! In the hands of emerging talent Gerhard Berger this proved to be a serious contender. The B186 finished in the points in the first three races of the season, including a podium for Berger at the San Marino Grand Prix. However, the car's underlying speed was blunted by run of retirements for both drivers, and uncompetitive showings at events run on tight tracks such as the Monaco and Detroit Grands Prix. Nevertheless, Berger in particular had emerged as a consistent frontrunner by mid-season, although he was criticised in some quarters for driving with his turbo boost set too high for the car's fuel consumption in the early stages of a race in order to complete "glory runs" near the front, only to drop back later on.[10]

In 1986, the car won first time out in Brazil with Piquet, before Mansell laid down a title challenge with four wins. Williams were shaken by the near fatal road crash of Frank Williams which demoralised the team. Williams survived the crash but became a quadriplegic as a result, with the 1986 British Grand Prix the first time during the season he would appear in the Williams pits as he went through his rehabilitation. Patrick Head stepped up and managed the team until Williams returned late in the season. This may have caused the in-fighting between the two team mates, and the lost points helped Alain Prost take his second world championship. That and Mansell's spectacular blow out in the final race in Australia where all he had to do was finish third to win the title. The points built up between Piquet and Mansell were enough for Williams to take the constructors' championship, however.

The Lotus Renault 98T was designed by Gérard Ducarouge and Martin Ogilvie for the 1986 Formula 1 World Championship and driven by Brazilian Ayrton Senna, in his second year with the team, and Scottish newcomer Johnny Dumfries.

The McLaren MP4 / 4 one of the most dominant cars in history of the sport. 15 of the 16 races it started from pole position, 15 of the 16 races were also won and ten times it was 1-2 for McLaren. Only during a wet qualifying session during the 1988 Grand Prix of Great Britain did the team not take pole. And in Ferrari's home race, Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger won. The car has the highest win percentage ever with 93.8%.

The McLaren MP4/2 was a Formula One car designed by John Barnard of McLaren for the 1984, 1985 and 1986 season and powered by a 1.5 Litre, 90° V6 TAG-Porsche turbo engine that produced 650 bhp (485 kW; 659 PS) in race set-up and up to 800 bhp (597 kW; 811 PS) in qualifying set-up i.e. with maximum turbo pressure.

The car was designed by chief engineer Hans Mezger under the leadership of Ferdinand Piëch and Helmuth Bott. The car was built around a very light spaceframe chassis (42 kg (93 lb)) which was permanently pressurised with gas to detect cracks in the welded structure.[7] Power came from a new 4.5-litre air-cooled engine designed by Mezger, which was a combination of 2 of Porsche's 2.25L flat-6 engines used in previous racing cars. The 'Type 912' engine featured a 180° flat-12 cylinder layout, twin overhead camshafts driven from centrally mounted gears and twin spark plugs fed from two distributors.[8] The large horizontally mounted cooling fan was also driven from centrally mounted gears. The longitudinally mounted gearbox was designed to take a set of four or five gears.