Nelson Piquet

This article is about Nelson Piquet Souto Maior, former Formula One World Champion. For his son, the former F1 and current NASCAR driver, see Nelson Piquet, Jr. For other uses, see Nelson Piquet (disambiguation).

Nelson Piquet

Piquet at the 1991 United States Grand Prix
Born	17 August 1952 (1952-08-17) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Brazilian
Active years	1978 - 1991
Teams	Ensign, non-works McLaren, Brabham, Williams, Lotus, Benetton
Races	207 (204 starts)
Championships	3 (1981, 1983, 1987)
Wins	23
Podiums	60
Career points	481.5 (485.5)
Pole positions	24
Fastest laps	23
First race	1978 German Grand Prix
First win	1980 United States Grand Prix West
Last win	1991 Canadian Grand Prix
Last race	1991 Australian Grand Prix

Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈnɛwsõ piˈke], born August 17, 1952), known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver. He was Formula One world champion in 1981, 1983 and 1987. He is one of eight drivers to win three or more world championships, the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna (3 each), Alain Prost (4), Juan Manuel Fangio (5), and Michael Schumacher (7). In 1983, he became the only driver to win the F1 championship in a BMW engined car.

Early career

Piquet was born in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, the son of Estácio Gonçalves Souto Maior, a Brazilian politician. His father moved his family to the new capital, Brasília, in 1960 and became Minister for Health in João Goulart's government (1961–64). Piquet started kart racing at the age of 14, but because his father did not approve of his racing career, he used his mother's maiden name Piquet (of French origin and pronounced as "Pee-Kè") misspelt as Piket to hide his identity.

Piquet driving a BMW M1 sports car at the Nürburgring in 1980.

After participating in Brazilian go-karting (1971 and 1972 national champion) and in the local Formula Super Vee 1976 championship, on the advice of Emerson Fittipaldi, the first Brazilian Formula One world champion who sold the chassis for the Brazilian Formula Vee champion car with his brother, he arrived in European motor sports hailed as a prodigy. In the 1978 British Formula 3 season he broke Jackie Stewart's record of the most wins in a season.

Formula One

Piquet made his Formula One debut for Ensign in Germany, where he made an impressive debut starting 21st only to retire on lap 31 with a broken engine. For the next three races he switched to the McLaren of BS Fabrications were he finished ninth in Italy. For the last race in 1978, Piquet moved to the Brabham team; he qualified in 14th and finished 11th. Piquet stayed with Brabham until 1985.

Piquet driving the Cosworth powered Brabham BT49C at the 1981 Monaco Grand Prix.

In 1979 Piquet took his first points in the Dutch Grand Prix finishing fourth. He also took fastest lap in the last race of the season. In 1980 he took his first win at the United States Grand Prix West, and finished second in the drivers' standings, 13 points behind title winner Alan Jones. In 1981 he won the title with three wins, only one point ahead of Carlos Reutemann. The following year, Piquet was fast but his car was unreliable, and he only managed to win in Canada, in BMW's first win in Formula One. The lowpoint of the season was Detroit where he failed to qualify due to an engine failure in qualifying. In Germany, he was leading the Grand Prix until he collided with Eliseo Salazar, after which he physically attacked Salazar at the side of the track. Piquet won his second title in 1983 after a long battle with Alain Prost. It also was the first time a turbocharged car won the championship. In 1984 Piquet again suffered from unreliability, taking pole position nine times but only winning twice. In his last season with Brabham he took one win, in France. It also was the last victory for the Brabham team.

Piquet driving the BMW powered Brabham BT54 at the 1985 German Grand Prix in his last year with the team.

A move in 1986 to Williams saw Piquet becoming the team-mate of one of his fiercest rivals, Nigel Mansell. Both were regarded as highly strung characters with delicate temperaments. Two top drivers in the same team was a recipe for fireworks - and sure enough Mansell and Piquet went head to head for the title. Though the two drove the best cars on the grid, their rivalry caused each to deprive the other of points, allowing Alain Prost to win one of the closest and most fiercely disputed championships ever in F1. Ironically in this season Piquet won one more race (a total of four) than he would in any of his championship-winning campaigns. Piquet made amends in 1987, using political maneuvering and technical skill to gain the upper hand. Despite winning fewer races than Mansell, in 1987 Piquet emerged as world champion. When Piquet followed the dominant Honda engines to a stagnating Lotus team in 1988, his career took a nose dive. He began to lose his reputation when he had no wins in 1988 and even failed to qualify on one occasion in 1989. He resorted to using the media to attack his rivals and gained a reputation as an outspoken "loose cannon", such as attacking Mansell and his wife, calling Mansell "an uneducated blockhead" and stating that fellow Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna "doesn't like women". However, a payment-by-results deal with Benetton saw Piquet return to top form in 1990, with two wins, followed by the final win of his F1 career at Montreal in 1991 - at the expense of longtime rival Mansell.

Piquet driving for Lotus at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix.

After Formula One

Known as a practical joker, Piquet lived a stereotypically playboy racing driver lifestyle, earning and losing and earning again a series of small fortunes in his business dealings. One of the great characters of 1980s F1, he tried his hand at the Indianapolis 500 in 1992, but crashed during practice and was badly injured. He returned in 1993 and started in 13th position, but finished in 32nd, after engine problems allowed him to complete only 38 laps. He remains a competitive driver in sports car racing, albeit more for fun than with serious intent.

Since 2000, he has supported the career of his son, Nelson Piquet, Jr., who drove in the F1-feeder category GP2 for 2 seasons, achieving a best championship result of second with four race wins, and was a test driver for Renault F1 in 2007.

On January 20, 2006 Nelson Piquet won the 50th edition of Mil Milhas Brasileiras (Brazilian 1,000 miles), at the Interlagos racing track. He drove an Aston Martin DBR9 alongside his son, Nelsinho, and drivers Christophe Bouchut and Hélio Castroneves. At the end of the race, an exhausted Piquet was quoted saying to a friend he would “never sit in a cockpit again”.

He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000.

Career in management and business

He founded Autotrac in 1994, a company that provides mobile data messaging and tracking of customers' trucks by satellite (GPS tracking). This business concluded quite successfully as the pioneer because the freight transportation of Brazil depended on trucks.

Piquet founded a racing team, Piquet Sports, in 2000. The purpose was to help the participation of Nelson Piquet, Jr. in Formula Three Sudamericana. It was founded eight months before Nelson Junior turned 16.

Piquet runs some other businesses, based in Brasília.

Helmet

Piquet Sr.'s helmet is white with red or red designs that resemble a Stylised Tennis Ball (possibly, due to his father wanted him to be a tennis player and his interest for tennis) and red or orange drops on its sides. His son inherited his helmet design.

Road violations

On July 31, 2007 Piquet, after repeated speeding and parking offenses, was stripped of his civilian driving licence and ordered by the Brazilian courts to attend a week of lessons in order to "learn good and safe driving conduct", and to then pass an exam. His wife Viviane received the same sentence. "I think we have to pay for our mistakes," Piquet told Brazilian media. "It's not just a speeding problem, I got tickets for all kinds of reasons, like parking where I shouldn't."

Honour

Two racing circuits in Rio de Janeiro and in Brasília have been named "Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet".

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Yr	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1978	Team Tissot Ensign	Ensign N177	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER Ret						NC	0
	BS Fabrications	McLaren M23													AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA 9	USA
	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT46	Alfa Romeo Flat-12																CAN 11
1979	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT46	Alfa Romeo Flat-12	ARG Ret																15th	3
		Brabham BT48	Alfa Romeo V12		BRA Ret	RSA 7	USW 8	ESP Ret	BEL Ret	MON 7	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 12	AUT Ret	NED 4	ITA Ret
		Brabham BT49	Cosworth V8														CAN Ret	USA Ret
1980	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT49	Cosworth V8	ARG 2	BRA Ret	RSA 4	USW 1	BEL Ret	MON 3	FRA 4	GBR 2	GER 4	AUT 5	NED 1	ITA 1	CAN Ret	USA Ret			2nd	54
1981	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT49C	Cosworth V8	USW 3	BRA 12	ARG 1	SMR 1	BEL Ret	MON Ret	ESP Ret	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER 1	AUT 3	NED 2	ITA 6	CAN 5	CPL 5		1st	50
1982	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT50	BMW S4 (t/c)	RSA Ret				BEL 5	MON Ret	DET DNQ	CAN 1	NED 2	GBR Ret	FRA Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	SUI 4	ITA Ret	CPL Ret	11th	20
		Brabham BT49D	Cosworth V8		BRA DSQ	USW Ret	SMR
1983	Fila Sport	Brabham BT52	BMW S4 (t/c)	BRA 1	USW Ret	FRA 2	SMR Ret	MON 2	BEL 4	DET 4	CAN Ret									1st	59
		Brabham BT52B										GBR 2	GER 13	AUT 3	NED Ret	ITA 1	EUR 1	RSA 3
1984	MRD International	Brabham BT53	BMW S4 (t/c)	BRA Ret	RSA Ret	BEL 9	SMR Ret	FRA Ret	MON Ret	CAN 1	DET 1	DAL Ret	GBR 7	GER Ret	AUT 2	NED Ret	ITA Ret	EUR 3	POR 6	5th	29
1985	Motor Racing Developments Ltd	Brabham BT54	BMW S4 (t/c)	BRA Ret	POR Ret	SMR 8	MON Ret	CAN Ret	DET 6	FRA 1	GBR 4	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED 8	ITA 2	BEL 5	EUR Ret	RSA Ret	AUS Ret	8th	21
1986	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW11	Honda V6 (t/c)	BRA 1	ESP Ret	SMR 2	MON 7	BEL Ret	CAN 3	DET Ret	FRA 3	GBR 2	GER 1	HUN 1	AUT Ret	ITA 1	POR 3	MEX 4	AUS 2	3rd	69
1987	Canon Williams Team	Williams FW11B	Honda V6 (t/c)	BRA 2	SMR DNS	BEL Ret	MON 2	DET 2	FRA 2	GBR 2	GER 1	HUN 1	AUT 2	ITA 1	POR 3	ESP 4	MEX 2	JPN 15	AUS Ret	1st	73 (76)
1988	Camel Team Lotus Honda	Lotus 100T	Honda V6 (t/c)	BRA 3	SMR 3	MON Ret	MEX Ret	CAN 4	DET Ret	FRA 5	GBR 5	GER Ret	HUN 8	BEL 4	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 8	JPN Ret	AUS 3	6th	22
1989	Camel Team Lotus	Lotus 101	Judd V8	BRA Ret	SMR Ret	MON Ret	MEX 11	USA Ret	CAN 4	FRA 8	GBR 4	GER 5	HUN 6	BEL DNQ	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 8	JPN 4	AUS Ret	8th	12
1990	Benetton Formula	Benetton B189B	Ford V8	USA 4	BRA 6															3rd	43 (44)
		Benetton B190				SMR 5	MON DSQ	CAN 2	MEX 6	FRA 4	GBR 5	GER Ret	HUN 3	BEL 5	ITA 7	POR 5	ESP Ret	JPN 1	AUS 1
1991	Camel Benetton Ford	Benetton B190B	Ford V8	USA 3	BRA 5															6th	26.5
		Benetton B191				SMR Ret	MON Ret	CAN 1	MEX Ret	FRA 8	GBR 5	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL 3	ITA 6	POR 5	ESP 11	JPN 7	AUS 4

Formula One Non-Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2
1979	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT48	Alfa Romeo Flat-12	ROC 2	DIN
1980	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT49	Cosworth V8	ESP Ret
1981	Parmalat Racing Team	Brabham BT49B	Cosworth V8	RSA 2

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish	Entrant
1992	Lola	Buick	Practice Crash		Menard
1993	Lola	Buick	13th	32nd	Menard

See also

• Nelson Piquet, Jr.
• Ayrton Senna
• Emerson Fittipaldi

External links

• Entry on Nelson Piquet from grandprix.com
• Nelson Piquet Statistics

Sporting positions
Preceded by Derek Daly	British Formula Three Championship BARC Series Champion 1978	Succeeded by Chico Serra (Combined championship)
Preceded by Niki Lauda	Procar BMW M1 Champion 1980	Succeeded by None
Preceded by Alan Jones	Formula One World Champion 1981	Succeeded by Keke Rosberg
Preceded by Keke Rosberg	Formula One World Champion 1983	Succeeded by Niki Lauda
Preceded by Alain Prost	Formula One World Champion 1987	Succeeded by Ayrton Senna
Awards and achievements
Preceded by Keke Rosberg	Autosport International Racing Driver Award 1983	Succeeded by Niki Lauda