Sixteen races, two Williams-Honda FW11Bs sharing the fastest car on the grid, and a championship decided not by pace but by reliability and a Suzuka crash. Nelson Piquet (73 pts) took his third World Championship beating teammate Nigel Mansell (61 pts), despite Mansell winning six Grands Prix to Piquet's three.

The Williams That Couldn't Lose

Williams-Honda dominated: 137 constructors' points to McLaren's 76 and Lotus's 64. Between them, Piquet and Mansell won nine of the sixteen rounds. Piquet played the long game — points every race, fewer DNFs, and a major practice accident at Imola that shook him physically but not in the standings, as half-points rules and Mansell's own errors kept the gap narrow.

Suzuka and the Decisive Moment

The championship was decided at Suzuka, round 15. Mansell, still chasing, suffered a heavy accident in Friday qualifying, injuring his back and forcing him out of the remaining two races. Piquet clinched the title without turning a wheel in anger. Gerhard Berger won that weekend for Ferrari — his first victory since 1986 — and followed up by winning the Australian finale, signaling Ferrari's slow return toward the front.

Senna's Lotus-Honda and the Turbo Twilight

Ayrton Senna, in the second Honda-powered car (Lotus 99T with active suspension), finished third in the drivers' standings with 57 points and two wins at Monaco and Detroit — his narrow-street speciality. His season became a long audition for McLaren, who signed him for 1988. Prost won three with McLaren-TAG but without Honda power was in a different fight. The turbo era was in its penultimate year; power outputs were being throttled (4-bar boost), and for 1988 they would be capped at 2.5-bar before disappearing entirely in 1989. Piquet's title was the last won by a champion benefiting from an in-season teammate collapse — and it closed the most successful chapter of his career.

Race Calendar

Rnd	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date	Winner
01	Brazilian GP Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet	Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet	12 Apr 1987	ProstMcLaren
02	San Marino GP Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari	3 May 1987	MansellWilliams
03	Belgian GP Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	17 May 1987	ProstMcLaren
04	Monaco GP Circuit de Monaco	Circuit de Monaco	31 May 1987	SennaTeam Lotus
05	Detroit GP Detroit Street Circuit	Detroit Street Circuit	21 Jun 1987	SennaTeam Lotus
06	French GP Circuit Paul Ricard	Circuit Paul Ricard	5 Jul 1987	MansellWilliams
07	British GP Silverstone Circuit	Silverstone Circuit	12 Jul 1987	MansellWilliams
08	German GP Hockenheimring	Hockenheimring	26 Jul 1987	PiquetWilliams
09	Hungarian GP Hungaroring	Hungaroring	9 Aug 1987	PiquetWilliams
10	Austrian GP Red Bull Ring	Red Bull Ring	16 Aug 1987	MansellWilliams
11	Italian GP Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	6 Sept 1987	PiquetWilliams
12	Portuguese GP Autódromo do Estoril	Autódromo do Estoril	20 Sept 1987	ProstMcLaren
13	Spanish GP Circuito de Jerez	Circuito de Jerez	27 Sept 1987	MansellWilliams
14	Mexican GP Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez	18 Oct 1987	MansellWilliams
15	Japanese GP Suzuka Circuit	Suzuka Circuit	1 Nov 1987	BergerFerrari
16	Australian GP Adelaide Street Circuit	Adelaide Street Circuit	15 Nov 1987	BergerFerrari

P	Driver	Pts	W
	Nelson Piquet	73	3
2	Nigel Mansell	61	6
3	Ayrton Senna	57	2
4	Alain Prost	46	3
5	Gerhard Berger	36	2
6	Stefan Johansson	30	0
7	Michele Alboreto	17	0
8	Thierry Boutsen	16	0
9	Teo Fabi	12	0
10	Eddie Cheever	8	0
11	Jonathan Palmer	7	0
12	Satoru Nakajima	7	0
13	Riccardo Patrese	6	0
14	Andrea de Cesaris	4	0
15	Philippe Streiff	4	0
16	Derek Warwick	3	0
17	Philippe Alliot	3	0
18	Martin Brundle	2	0
19	Ivan Capelli	1	0
20	René Arnoux	1	0

Data via Jolpica/Ergast · Telemetry not available