Chequered Past

1986: The Season That Power Could Not Control Part 2


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By mid-season in 1986, the fastest team no longer needed to prove its speed — but it still needed to define its authority.

Part Two follows how momentum hardened into expectation, how internal balance at Williams shifted without being addressed, and how reaction slowly replaced decision. As pressure accumulated, opportunities narrowed, information fractured, and a championship that seemed destined to resolve itself instead became exposed to volatility.

While Williams wrestled with consequence, Alain Prost waited — banking points, surviving problems, and allowing the season to complete the pattern it had been drawing all year. When the moment finally arrived in Adelaide, the result felt dramatic only because the process had gone unnoticed.

This is the story of how restraint prevailed over excess — and why 1986 was decided not by speed, but by control.

Cover Image: By Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

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Music by #Mubert Music Rendering

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Chequered PastBy Martin Elliot