1986

In 1986, Elio moved to the Brabham team, as a replacement for double World Champion Nelson Piquet. There, he found Riccardo Patrese as a teammate, with whom he didn’t have a good relationship at the start, but later established a sincere friendship. The car, however, was a completely new car and so low that it was nicknamed “sole”: it proved uncompetitive and failed to bring the team back to the levels of the early eighties. In the first Grands Prix he did not go beyond eighth place in Brazil and was forced to start last in Monaco. Nonetheless, Elio worked hard to contribute to the development of the car, but was increasingly disappointed by the BT55, also considering it unsafe.