1987 Formula One season

The 1987 Formula One season was the 41st season of Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1987 FIA Formula One World Championship for Drivers and Constructors which commenced on 12 April 1987 and ended on 15 November after sixteen races. This championship also encompassed the Jim Clark Trophy and the Colin Chapman Trophy which were contested respectively by drivers and constructors of Formula One cars powered by naturally aspirated engines.

The 1987 World Championship featured a season long duel between the two Williams drivers: Brazilian two-time champion Nelson Piquet and British driver Nigel Mansell. The pair won nine of the season's sixteen races in their Williams FW11Bs, although they had only one win from the first five races. Their mid-season dominance eliminated all competition however. Mansell took six wins compared to the more consistent Piquet with three. The increasingly antagonistic duel came to a premature end at the Japanese Grand Prix when Mansell crashed heavily in practice incurring a back injury that put him out for the two races left in the season.

The battle for third in the championship was also resolved late in the season, with Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna driving a Lotus 99T finished nine points clear of outgoing world champion Frenchman Alain Prost (McLaren MP4/3).

Williams-Honda dominated the Constructors' Championship, claiming 137 points compared to McLaren-TAG on 76 points. Lotus-Honda claimed third in the points resisting a late season charge from Ferrari led by Austrian driver Gerhard Berger who won the final two races of the year in Japan and Australia.

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