Until the
2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, this was the last World Championship Grand Prix to be held on a Saturday; it also was the last World Championship Grand Prix where laurel wreaths were given to the drivers at the podium. The event was boycotted by two teams,
Ligier and
Renault, owing to
mounting international pressures against tolerating the country's system of apartheid. A state of emergency had been declared by the South African government in July due to growing civil unrest nationwide, and
French teams Ligier and Renault's boycotts were in lockstep with the
French government's boycott and sanctioning of South Africa, apparently doing so under pressure. Most of the Formula One drivers, including
Alain Prost,
Niki Lauda and
Nigel Mansell were personally very much against racing in South Africa, but the drivers held the mentality that because they were contracted to drive at every Grand Prix, they would race at Kyalami. Some governments tried to keep their drivers from entering the race. Brazil's sanctions on South Africa nearly prevented
Nelson Piquet or
Ayrton Senna from racing. Finland and Sweden held similar reservations regarding Finn
Keke Rosberg and Swede
Stefan Johansson competing. Multiple sponsors also ordered teams to remove their branding from cars they backed, most notably
Marlboro and
Beatrice Foods. The latter held an equity interest in the single car
Haas Lola team. While
Alan Jones qualified 18th for that team, his car was not on the starting grid. Officially Jones cited illness as to why he did not race, but it was widely rumored at the time that Beatrice ordered the team to boycott. It was the final South African Grand Prix until apartheid ended, with
FISA president
Jean-Marie Balestre announcing days after the race that the Grand Prix would not return to the nation for 1986 because of apartheid. ==Classification==