Arrows A10 - 1987

1987

As BMW announced to pull out officially at the end of 1986, the Arrows team brokered a deal with support from its primary sponsor, USF&G, to continue the use of the upright BMW engines under the name of USF&G subsidiary Megatron, Inc., founded by long-time F1 aficionado John J. Schmidt, who coined the phrase "Horse racing may have been the sport of kings, but auto racing is the sport of corporations". The engines were serviced by the team's long time engine guru Heini Mader from Switzerland, the former mechanic of Jo Siffert.

For 1987 the engines were fitted with a FIA approved pop-off valve which was mandatory for all turbo engines in the season with turbo boost restricted to 4.0 bar (previously turbo boost was restricted only by what the engineers felt the engines could handle). Power from the straight 4 cyl engine, which always had the ability to handle high boost settings, was still estimated to be over 1,000 bhp (746 kW; 1,014 PS) for qualifying and around 850 bhp (634 kW; 862 PS) for races with the cars also restricted to just 195 litres of fuel per race.

In 1987 the team improved from its 10th place in 1986 to finish in 7th place in 1987. Englishman Derek Warwick scored 3 points for the year with a 5th in the British Grand Prix, and 6th in Hungary, while his American team mate Eddie Cheever managed to score 8 points from a 4th in Belgium, 6th in Detroit and Portugal and another 4th in Mexico, in what was his comeback year after missing most of the 1986 season when racing Sportscars for Tom Walkinshaw Racing's Silk Cut Jaguar team. His only Formula One race in 1986 was in Detroit for the Haas Lola team.

The car scored 11 points for the season leaving them in 7th place in the Constructors' Championship.

Read more about this topic:  Arrows A10