1985 Formula 1.5 Season

The 1985 Formula 1.5 season was the 36th running of the Formula 1.5 World Championship. Thierry Boutsen, driving for Arrows, claimed his first of two World Drivers' Championship on 50 points, whilst Brabham-BMW won the Constructors' Championship with 79 points. Both championships were marked by extremely close season-long battles, with Boutsen and Brabham claiming their respective titles by a margin of just one point.

## Entries

### Excluded teams

* Marlboro McLaren International, Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC, Canon Williams Honda Team, and John Player Special Team Lotus

### Team/Constructor Changes

* Following their successful 1984 campaign in which they claimed both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, Williams graduated to F1.0, taking reigning champion Keke Rosberg with them.

* ATS Wheels would shut down at the end of the 1984 season, following a largely disappointing tenure in the lower half of the field.

* Arrows transitioned fully into their new BMW engines which had seen use in the latter portion of 1984, discarding the Ford Cosworth outfits.

* The brand-new team of Minardi would join the Formula 1.5 field for 1985, running two races with Ford engines as *Minardi-Ford*, and contesting the rest of the season outfitted with Motori Moderni's V6 offering as *Minardi-Motori Moderni*.

* German endurance racing team Zakspeed entered into the world of F1.5 for the 1985 season, running a single car on a part-time schedule with self-built engines.

* The newly founded Team HAAS joined the grid for 1985, entering five races with their Lola-backed chassis that sported Hart engines. (The cars were designed and built by Haas themselves, but Lola was officially entered as the team's constructor.).

### Driver Changes

* RAM would transfer their former full-time driver Jonathan Palmer to Zakspeed, instead signing on the recently displaced Manfred Winkelhock who had formerly driven for ATS.

* Arrows also initiated a driver change, replacing the formerly full-time Marc Surer (who moved to Brabham-BMW) with Gerhard Berger, who had run a partial schedule for ATS the season previous.

* Toleman-Hart saw their multiple drivers depart, as flagship talent Ayrton Senna graduated to F1.0 with Team Lotus and both Stefan Johannson and Pierluigi Martini moved to other teams. They would sign former Toleman driver Teo Fabi, who had raced in F1.0 last season, and recruited Piercarlo Ghinzani from Osella.

* Spirit Racing would drastically scale down their operations, running driver Mauro Baldi in just three starts and losing Huub Rothengatter to Osella.

* Osella-Alfa Romeo dropped Jo Gartner, who had run a part-time schedule in 1984, in favour of Spirit's Huub Rothengatter.

* Ligier-Renault would transfer rookie Francois Hesnault to a partial schedule with Renault, instead re-hiring former veteran driver Jacques Laffite full-time (who had previously won the 1978 WDC with them)

## Calendar

### Calendar Changes

* The Dallas Grand Prix, which had made its debut the season previous, was intended to be held on March 24 but would be cancelled following financial issues and safety concerns.

* The Japanese Grand Prix was cancelled as construction efforts would remain unfinished, with the intended date of April 7 being transferred to the Brazilian Grand Prix (which had formerly been marked as taking place on March 10).

* The French Grand Prix was moved from Dijon-Prenois to Circuit Paul Ricard, with a new contract being signed that would officially prevent Dijon from holding the race.

* The British Grand Prix was moved to Silverstone from Brands Hatch, in keeping with the event-sharing arrangement between the two circuits.

* The German Grand Prix returned to the infamous Nürburgring circuit for 1985, replacing the Hockenheimring.

* The Australian Grand Prix made its Formula 1.5 debut, being held at the Adelaide Street Circuit as the penultimate race of the season.

* The planned New York Grand Prix was cancelled for the third and final consecutive year, being replaced by the rescheduled Belgian Grand Prix.

* The provisional Hungarian Grand Prix, planned to be held at Népliget Park Circuit, was ultimately cancelled in light of underlying issues. It would end up debuting in 1986 at the newly-constructed Hungaroring.

* A second attempt was made to hold the Spanish Grand Prix at the Fuengirola street circuit, but the race would ultimately be axed yet again.

* The Mexican Grand Prix was intended to be held as the final race of the season, but was cancelled following the catastrophic 1985 Mexico City earthquake.

## Results and standings

### World Drivers' Championship Standings

The 1985 Drivers' Championship awarded points to the top six classified drivers, with points being scored on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis, respectively. Only a driver's best eleven results were retained in the final standings. Emboldened results signify a pole position, whilst italicised results denote the setter of the fastest lap.

### World Constructors' Championship Standings

The 1985 Constructors' Championship awarded points in the same manner as the Drivers' Championship - on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis. All points earned by a constructor were retained towards their final total. As above, emboldened results signify a pole position, whereas italicised results denote the setter of the fastest lap.