The 156/85's designation reflected its technical specification: "15" for the 1.5-litre displacement, "6" for the turbocharged V6 cylinder configuration, and "/85" for the year of competition. Ferrari also noted a deliberate echo of the legendary 156 F1 that had won their first constructors championship in 1961. The engine was the Ferrari Tipo 031/2 V6 turbo, mounted with its exhaust systems outside the vee — the reverse of the previous season's 126C4 layout — and producing approximately 750 bhp during the season.
Number 27 was driven by Italian Michele Alboreto throughout the year. The number 28 seat started the season with Frenchman René Arnoux, who contested only the opening race in Brazil before falling out with Enzo Ferrari and losing his drive. Swede Stefan Johansson replaced him for the remainder of the campaign.
The 156/85 was fast and reliable in the first half of the season. Alboreto led the drivers championship standings for an extended period, giving Ferrari and their fans genuine hope that the title drought could end. The car showed excellent mechanical grip and straight-line speed, with Alboreto finishing second at Monaco among other strong results.
However, from the Dutch Grand Prix onwards the car's performance and reliability collapsed. Turbocharger failures became persistent and were not resolved, progressively robbing the engine of power output. Alboreto and Johansson found themselves qualifying in the lower midfield rather than at the front where they had routinely placed earlier in the year. Alboreto retired from four of the final five races of the season.
The most dramatic moment came at the European Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, where Alboreto drove half a lap with the rear of his car on fire following another turbocharger failure before pulling into the pits. His manner of returning the burning car to the Ferrari garage was widely interpreted as a pointed statement about what the car's unreliability had cost him — McLaren's Alain Prost clinched the drivers championship by finishing fourth in that same race.
Johansson, meanwhile, finished fifth twice and fourth once in the final five races, demonstrating that the problems were not wholly consistent across both chassis, though he also suffered two retirements.
Alboreto finished the season second in the drivers championship. McLaren's combination of pace and reliability proved superior across the full year, and Ferrari were runners-up to McLaren in the constructors standings as well. The 156/85's rapid fall from contention after the summer break remains one of the more striking mechanical collapses of the turbo era, with a car that appeared capable of winning the title reduced to a midfield qualifier within the space of a few months.
The 156/85 gave Ferrari their most competitive title challenge since the early 1980s and demonstrated that the team could build a car genuinely capable of fighting McLaren over a season. Its failure highlighted the fragility inherent in the extreme power outputs of the turbo formula and accelerated Ferrari's push to recruit external design talent. The following season's F1/86 would emerge under Harvey Postlethwaite alone, while negotiations to bring John Barnard from McLaren were underway by the season's end.