Formula 1

About the season

At the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Nigel Mansell broke the track record eleven times in the closing laps to catch and pass teammate Nelson Piquet at Stowe corner, a drive still remembered as "Mansell mania." The Mansell-Piquet rivalry within the Williams-Honda team grew so bitter, with Piquet feeling the team had failed to protect him, that it contributed to Honda's decision to leave Williams after the season and take its engines to McLaren instead. Mansell suffered a heavy crash in Friday qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix while chasing Piquet's time, ruling him out of both the Japanese and Australian races, which meant Piquet clinched his third World Championship before the race had even started. 1987 also saw the official introduction of the 3.5-litre normally aspirated category as an alternative to turbo power, beginning the gradual transition toward the mandatory NA era from 1989. Nelson Piquet won the 1987 Drivers' Championship with 73 points (Williams), 12 points ahead of the runner-up. Williams won the Constructors' Championship with 137 points, 61 points ahead of the runner-up. Across 16 completed races this season, there were 239 retirements. 5 different drivers won a race this season. Nigel Mansell took the most race wins, 6 in total. Prost won the season-opening race, the Brazilian Grand Prix. The season's biggest upset win came from Prost at the Belgian Grand Prix, starting from grid position 6. Streiff made the biggest gain of the season at the French Grand Prix, from grid position 25 to finishing 6 (up 19 places). The most dominant win of the season came at the German Grand Prix, with a margin of 99.6 seconds. The German Grand Prix saw the most retirements of the season, with 20 drivers failing to finish. The closest finish of the season came at the Italian Grand Prix, with a gap of just 1.806 seconds. Berger won the Australian Grand Prix, the final race of the season.