1985 FIA Formula One World Championship

The 1985 Formula One season was the 39th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1985 Formula One World Championship which commenced on 7 April and ended on 3 November after sixteen races. The Formula 1 World Championship for Drivers was awarded to Alain Prost, and the Formula One World Championship for Constructors was awarded to McLaren. Prost fended off a title challenge from runner-up Michele Alboreto and Ferrari, that faded away from mid-season, leaving the path clear for Prost to win his first career title at the age of 30 following several near-misses. Alboreto led the championship after winning the ninth race of the season in Germany, but then did not score a single point in the final five races, denying him his only career title challenge.

The 1985 Formula One season saw continued success for the McLaren-TAG team. After losing the Drivers' Championship by two points to Nelson Piquet in 1983, and by just half a point the previous year to team mate Niki Lauda, Alain Prost would ultimately secure his first of four titles by a 23-point margin. The Formula One writer Koen Vergeer remarked that "It was about time, everyone knew he was the best", reflecting a general feeling that Prost had been unlucky to finish runner-up in the previous two years, even though he had won more races than Piquet in 1983 and Lauda in 1984.

The reigning Drivers' Champion Lauda competed in his final season of Formula One, but he was unable to match Prost for results; despite maintaining a close pace with his team mate, Lauda only won once at Zandvoort. Seated next to an unhappy McLaren team boss, Ron Dennis, who had unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to continue driving, Lauda announced his decision to retire for good at the season's end in a press conference before practice for his home Grand Prix in Austria.

For most of the season, the points table was headed by Ferrari's Michele Alboreto, who enjoyed his best season in F1. He won the Canadian and German Grands Prix, and was on the podium eight times. However, Ferrari's results faded badly in the second half of the season as other emerging drivers took the fight to Prost.

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