The Detroit Grand Prix hammered home the same message we have been hearing since the start of the 1987 season — namely that there are now three distinct categories within Formula One: non-turbos, turbos and Hondas. It was not simply the fact that Nigel Mansell took his fifth pole position in six races which was so impressive, but the real index of the collective mastery of Williams, Lotus and Honda was that the gap between Nelson Piquet’s Williiams FW11B (third on the grid behind Mansell and Ayrton Senna’s Lotus 99T, and fourth man Thierry Boutsen’s Benetton-Ford B187 was a staggering 1.1sec!
Nelson Piquet in his Williams FW11B.
Honda had produced yet another update of its successful V6 engine — officially and curiously dubbed the ‘GE two-step’ — incorporating an improved combustion chamber design to offer more power, even further improved economy and better flexibility.
