It was driven by French veteran René Arnoux, in his third season with the team, and Swede Stefan Johansson, who joined from McLaren.

Johansson joined the team late in the off-season in place of West German Christian Danner, who had originally signed to drive but was unable to fit in the car comfortably.

[3] The JS31 was the first non-turbo car produced by Ligier since the Cosworth DFV powered JS21 used in the 1983 season and it proved to be very uncompetitive.

Johansson, a frequent podium visitor in the previous three seasons, failed to qualify six times and never finished above 9th while seven-time Grand Prix winner Arnoux failed to qualify twice (San Marino and France) and never finished a race higher than 10th.

Neither driver qualified for the San Marino Grand Prix, the first time in team history that neither of its cars made the grid.