Mansell was forced to miss the Belgian and Italian races because of chickenpox and was substituted by Martin Brundle and Jean-Louis Schlesser consecutively. Brundle had previously driven F1 for Tyrrell and Zakspeed from 1984-87. Schlesser drove in what would be the only World Championship F1 race of his career. He had previously driven a RAM-Ford to 6th in the non-championship 1983 Race of Champions, then unsuccessfully tried to qualify the car a week later for the French Grand Prix and had not driven an F1 car since.