At the end of , Nichols decided to follow Alain Prost and moved to Ferrari. Prost won five races and was a serious contender for the world title until a controversial collision triggered by Ayrton Senna put both drivers out of the race at the Japanese Grand Prix. Nichols stayed at Ferrari until December 1991, and later joined Sauber to help Peter Sauber move into Formula One. In he moved to Jordan as chief designer; later in he was back at McLaren as a technical consultant. He assisted McLaren back to the front of the grid and winning the world title in and .