1987 Formula One World Championship

The 1987 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 41st season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1987 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1987 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were contested concurrently over a sixteen-race series that commenced on 12 April and ended on 15 November.

The World Championship for Drivers was won by Nelson Piquet for the third and final time. He won just three races, compared to his teammate and main rival Nigel Mansell with six wins, but Mansell had to give up the challenge when he crashed in practice for the Japanese Grand Prix and injured his back. The World Championship for Constructors was won by Williams - Honda for the second consecutive year. The season also encompassed the Jim Clark Trophy and the Colin Chapman Trophy, which were respec...

This was the first season since 1976 that Renault were absent as an engine supplier in the sport due to ongoing company restructuring .

Pirelli 's withdrawal from F1 at the end of 1986 meant that Goodyear was the sole tyre supplier for 1987. It was the first season since 1963 that the sport featured a standard single tyre supplier.

It had already been determined that turbocharged engines would be banned from 1989 on. The FIA tried to make an early switch to naturally aspirated engines appealing: [ 1 ] [ 2 ]

The FIA banned super-soft (and sticky) qualifying tyres to eliminate the unpopular practice of having to find a clear lap on tyres which were good for two flying laps at best. [ citation needed ]

The first race in April at the fast, rough and abrasive Jacarepagua Riocentro Autodrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil resulted in a dominant showing from Williams-Honda with Mansell ahead of Piquet. Then came Senna, Fabi, Prost, Boutsen, Berger, Warwick, Alboreto and Johansson.

The March team suffered a setback on race morning when it ran out of engines, and so the field was down to 22. At the start, Piquet took the lead from the fast-starting Senna while Mansell made a bad start and had to fight his way back to third. On lap seven Piquet suddenly went into the pits, his car having picked up paper in its radiators. He rejoined back in 11th position, leaving Senna to lead Mansell although the British driver was soon in the pits as well to have his radiators cleared. He ...

After the season-opening race in Brazil there was a three-week gap during which March finished building the first 871 chassis for Capelli. Osella expanded to two cars with the second being run by a youngster called Gabriele Tarquini, while Brundle had the first of Zakspeed's new 871 chassis. Ligier was back in action with Megatron-engined cars for Rene Arnoux and Piercarlo Ghinzani. In addition there was another new team in the form of Gerard Larrousse's Lola-Ford/Cosworth team which had employe...

But come the San Marino Grand Prix held at the fast Autodromo Dino Ferrari in Italy, Nelson Piquet had a huge accident at the flat out Tamburello corner when he suffered a tire failure during qualifying and was forbidden from racing by F1 doctor Sid Watkins. Goodyear decided that in the interests of safety it would fly in new tyres overnight for Saturday qualifying. On Saturday afternoon Ayrton Senna took pole position in his Lotus-Honda with Nigel Mansell second quickest in his Williams-Honda. ...

The high-speed circuit tour kept coming, and next was the Belgian Grand Prix at the magnificent and fast Spa-Francorchamps public road circuit near Liege. The field was much as it had been at the San Marino GP a fortnight earlier, although Osella was back to one car again. Nelson Piquet was back in action after his huge crash at Imola while Zakspeed had two 871 chassis for Martin Brundle and Christian Danner, the German having used an older car in the two previous races. Qualifying saw the two W...

There were no changes in the entry after the Belgian GP and so it was business as usual at Monaco where the three leading Honda-engined cars were at the front as usual with Nigel Mansell taking pole in his Williams, Ayrton Senna second in the Lotus and Nelson Piquet third in the second Williams. Alain Prost was fourth for the McLaren-TAG team with Michele Alboreto fifth in his Ferrari. Sixth place was a surprise in the form of Eddie Cheever's Arrows-Megatron while the top 10 was completed by Ste...

The Canadian Grand Prix had been cancelled due to a dispute over local sponsors Molson and Labatt's; so Detroit was the only North American round in the middle of the European season. This race, on the slowest circuit of the season was generally considered to be the toughest and most demanding race of the season, due to the tight and extremely bumpy downtown Detroit city streets lined with concrete walls. The entry was unchanged from the field that had raced at Monaco three weeks earlier and as ...

At the French Grand Prix held at the Paul Ricard circuit near the French Riviera city of Le Castellet, the battle of the Honda powered cars was interrupted in France by a good performance from Alain Prost's McLaren-TAG which qualified second to Nigel Mansell's Williams. The second row featured Ayrton Senna's Lotus-Honda and Nelson Piquet in the second Williams while fifth place went to Thierry Boutsen (Benetton) with Gerhard Berger (Ferrari), Teo Fabi (Benetton) and Michele Alboreto (Ferrari) fo...

The Mansell-Piquet intra-team battle continued at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone with victory in qualifying going to Nelson Piquet who beat his Williams teammate Nigel Mansell to pole by less than a tenth of a second. Third was Ayrton Senna in his Lotus while Alain Prost was fourth fastest in his McLaren-TAG. The third row of the grid was shared by the two Benetton-Fords of Thierry Boutsen and Teo Fabi while row four was an all-Ferrari affair with Michele Alboreto just ahead of Gerhard Be...

Going into the German Grand Prix at the very fast Hockenheimring with its forested straights, the World Championship was finely balanced at the midseason with Nelson Piquet leading on 39 points, Ayrton Senna second with 35, Nigel Mansell third with 30 and Alain Prost fourth with 26. Qualifying resulted in Mansell beating Senna to pole with Prost third, edging Piquet to fourth. Michele Alboreto was fifth fastest in his Ferrari with Thierry Boutsen sixth for Benetton. The top 10 was completed by A...

The big news at the Hungarian Grand Prix at the Hungaroring in Mogyoród was that Ayrton Senna had informed Lotus that he would not be staying with the team in 1988. Team boss Peter Warr moved quickly and signed Nelson Piquet, who was unhappy that Frank Williams would not give him clear number one status at Williams. Senna was going to join Alain Prost at McLaren. Qualifying for the race at Hungaroring saw Ferrari making a step forward as Gerhard Berger qualified second behind Nigel Mansell's Wil...

Nelson Piquet's win in Hungary gave him a seven-point lead in the World Championship over Ayrton Senna with Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost 11 points behind Senna. At the Austrian Grand Prix, held at the scenic and spectacular Österreichring, the fastest Grand Prix circuit of the year Nigel Mansell was handicapped slightly by the fact that he had had a wisdom tooth removed before practice began and this affected his performance in qualifying, allowing his Williams-Honda teammate Nelson Piquet to t...

The safety of the Austrian track was becoming more of an issue and on race day the problems were underlined again. The narrow pit straight – which had caused problems at Grands Prix for years and one that the organizers had failed to widen – became the center topic of the debate of safety. At the start Piquet got away ahead of a fast-starting Fabi but the race was stopped when Martin Brundle's Zakspeed went out of control, hit a barrier and bounced back into the middle for the track. Rene Arnoux...

The grid was reformed and the field tried to get away again. Piquet went into the lead but Mansell had a problem and was crawling away slowly. Berger too slowed suddenly as he tried to pass the Williams and so there was serious congestion behind with the result that Patrese hit Eddie Cheever (Arrows-Megatron). Johansson hit the back of Cheever and Brundle hit the rear of the McLaren. This resulted in Ghinzani braking and being hit by Alex Caffi's Osella and Ivan Capelli (March), Philippe Alliot ...

Remarkably most of the field was able to take the third start with only Streiff missing, although Brundle, Caffi, Danner and Fabre all started from the pitlane. Prost's McLaren refused to get away and so he jumped into the spare and joined the queue in the pitlane. At the end of the parade lap Alboreto went into the pits to have his steering wheel fixed and so there were sixth cars starting from pitlane. This time Senna stalled but everyone avoided the Lotus and Piquet took the lead from Boutsen...

This would be the last Austrian Grand Prix for 10 years; the race would return to the same shortened venue in 1997.

The field was expanded at the Monza Autodrome near Milan by the arrival of the new Coloni team, fielding Nicola Larini. The Osella team expanded to two cars with the Swiss Franco Forini joining Alex Caffi. Honda had announced that it would not be supplying Williams with engines in 1988, despite the fact the Japanese company still had one year to go on its contract. Honda had decided that it wanted to be with McLaren. This led to questions over whether Honda would treat the two Williams drivers f...

At the Estoril Autodrome near the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, the Coloni team did not reappear in Portugal but Osella continued to run a second car for Franco Forini. Ferrari's progress throughout the summer months was confirmed with Gerhard Berger taking pole position ahead of Nigel Mansell's Williams-Honda, Alain Prost's McLaren and Nelson Piquet's Williams. Ayrton Senna was fifth in his Lotus-Honda and the top 10 was completed by Michele Alboreto in the second Ferrari, Riccardo Patrese's Br...

The Spanish Grand Prix had been moved to being the final Grand Prix in Europe of the year, and at the Jerez circuit near Seville in southern Spain, the Coloni team was back in action and with Franco Forini staying on for a third event with the Osella team the field was up to 28 cars. The battle for pole position was between the two Williams-Honda with World Championship leader Nelson Piquet (in an active Williams) on pole ahead of challenger Nigel Mansell (who chose to use the passive car). The ...

The Formula One circus moved from one Hispanophonic country to another; this time to Mexico 3 weeks after the Spanish round. This race, held at the high-altitude and very bumpy Hermanos Rodriguez Autodrome located within a recreational public park in the middle of Mexico City was the 450th Formula One Grand Prix, and the field was much as it had been all season, the only changes being that Osella had gone back to one car and Larrousse has expanded to two with Yannick Dalmas joining Philippe Alli...

Formula 1 returned to Japan for the first time in 10 years and the circus came for the first time to the twisty, very demanding Honda-owned Suzuka track near Nagoya having been at the very fast Fuji Speedway in 1977. An exciting World Championship showdown between Williams-Honda teammates Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell was on the cards, Piquet was 12 points ahead of Mansell, but already had 11 points results so would not be able to score as easily, meaning two wins for Mansell would give the Br...

The last race of the year was at the demanding and punishing Adelaide street circuit in Australia. With Nigel Mansell out of action with injury after the Japanese GP, Williams did a deal with Brabham to use 1988 signing Riccardo Patrese for the final race of 1987 and Brabham took on youngster Stefano Modena as Patrese's replacement. Otherwise the field was as before. Japanese GP winner Gerhard Berger was on pole position in his Ferrari from Alain Prost's McLaren-TAG/Porsche, Nelson Piquet's Will...

Points were awarded to the top six classified finishers for the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships, while points for the Jim Clark Trophy and Colin Chapman Trophy were awarded to the top six classified finishers running naturally aspirated engines. For the Drivers' Championship, the best eleven results were counted, while, for the Constructors' Championship, Jim Clark Trophy, and Colin Chapman Trophy, all rounds were counted.

Numbers without parentheses are championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored. Points were awarded in the following system:

† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance. * Dalmas was not eligible for points, as he was driving Larrousse-Lola's second car and the team had officially entered only one car for the entire championship.

* Dalmas was ruled to have competed in insufficient events to be eligible for points [ 5 ]

* The second Lola was not eligible for points, as the team had officially entered only one car for the entire championship.

* The second Lola was not eligible for points (see above).