The F1/86 was designed by Harvey Postlethwaite as a replacement for the 156/85, which had started 1985 strongly before suffering severe reliability failures in the second half of the season. The brief for the new car centred on refining the aerodynamics and solving those reliability problems, while the basic chassis architecture remained close to its predecessor. Reliability was indeed improved — the turbocharger failures that had plagued Alboreto's 1985 title challenge were largely eliminated — but the handling characteristics of the new car proved far worse than the previous design.
The F1/86 was powered by the Ferrari Tipo 032, the last of Ferrari's 120-degree turbocharged V6 engines and the final iteration of the configuration the team had used since 1981. During qualifying for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, Alboreto reportedly used in excess of 1,250 bhp from the engine on the long Mistral Straight, making it the most powerful car Ferrari had produced to that point for either racing or the road. Race power was detuned to approximately 850 bhp.
Despite its straight-line pace, the F1/86 handled poorly on anything other than the smoothest circuits. Paul Ricard suited the car; most other venues did not. The car's bulk gave it a visual resemblance to the 1983 Ferrari 126C3, though it was actually smaller and lower in reality. Alboreto made an impression on the approach to corners, where the car's limitations became apparent: Nigel Mansell reported that Ferrari were travelling considerably slower through the corners at Paul Ricard even as Alboreto passed his Williams on the straight during a qualifying lap.
The car failed to score a single victory, pole position, or fastest lap across the entire 1986 season. Five podium finishes were recorded in total: four by Johansson and one by Alboreto. The single competitive highlight came at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, where Johansson inherited the lead when Mansell made an early tyre stop. Johansson finished third in that race, also beating Alboreto despite team radio instructions to hold position — a detail that revealed the competitive gap between the two drivers on certain days.
At the Italian Grand Prix, Alboreto was absent for Friday practice and qualifying following an injury. Johansson was permitted a few laps in his teammate's qualifying car and found it noticeably more powerful than his own — a concerning sign of how inconsistently the machinery was being prepared across the garage.
Even as the 1986 season progressed, Ferrari were moving to secure their medium-term future. John Barnard, McLaren's technical director and architect of the McLaren MP4/2 that had dominated 1984 and 1985, was recruited toward the latter part of the season. He would take up his role as Ferrari's technical director from 1987. The F1/86 was succeeded by the Gustav Brunner-designed F1/87, which also introduced an all-new 90-degree V6 Tipo 033 engine. The 1986 season was the last time Ferrari used their long-running 120-degree V6 configuration in Formula One competition.
The F1/86 occupies an uncomfortable position in Ferrari's history — a car that possessed genuine engine power but squandered it through poor chassis behaviour. The contrast between raw qualifying pace and race-day competitiveness underlined how far behind the team had fallen in chassis design compared to their principal rivals. The recruitment of Barnard, whom Ferrari had to convince to work from a dedicated design office in Guildford rather than relocating to Maranello, reflected the scale of the effort required to close that gap.