Nelson Piquet

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Nelson Piquet
Formula One Career
Nationality	Brazilian
Active years	1978 - 1991
Team(s)	Ensign, McLaren, Brabham, Williams, Lotus, Benetton
Grands Prix	207
Championships	3 (1981, 1983, 1987)
Wins	23
Podium finishes	60
Pole positions	24
Fastest laps	23
First Grand Prix	1978 German Grand Prix
First win	1980 United States Grand Prix West
Last win	1991 Canadian Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix	1991 Australian Grand Prix

Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (born August 17, 1952), more commonly known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian racing driver who was Formula One world champion in 1981, 1983, and 1987. He is one of the few men to win at least three world championships in the history of Formula One (the others being Juan Manuel Fangio (5), Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost (4), Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher (7)).

[edit] Career

Piquet, born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was the son of a Brazilian government minister who did not approve of his racing career, and for this reason he was forced to use his mother's maiden name Piquet (of French origin and pronounced as "Pee-Kay") mispelt as Piket to hide his identity.

After succeeding in Brazilian go-karting (1971 and 1972 national champion) and local super-V 1976 championship, he arrived in european automobilism being considered a prodigy in British Formula 3 during the 1978 season when he broke Jackie Stewart's record of most wins in a season, and his promotion to Formula One heralded one of the great careers in the sport. A proof of Piquet's unique talent is that since 1980 he and the seven-time champion Michael Schumacher are the only two drivers between 1980 and 2000 to have won world titles racing for teams other than McLaren and Williams - undoubtedly the two reigning forces in those decades. Together with the Brabham team, including team boss Bernie Ecclestone and chief designer Gordon Murray, he became a consistent challenger for the world title, and was the first driver to win a title with a turbo engine in 1983.

Piquet driving towards his second WDC in 1983.

A shift in 1986 to the Williams team saw Piquet in direct competition with one of his fiercest rivals, Nigel Mansell. Both had highly strung characters and 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 steal one of the most fiercely disputed championships in F1 ever. 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 occasion in 1989. He resorted to using the media to attack his rivals and gained a reputation as an outspoken "loose cannon." 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 long time rival Mansell.

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 qualifying 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 Angelo "Nelsinho" Piquet, who was a leading GP2 driver for the last 2 seasons and has been pegged by the F1 media as a future star, being signed on by Renault as test driver for the 2007 season.

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

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

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Team	WDC	Points
1978	Ensign	ARG	BRA	SAF	USAW	MON	BEL	ESP	SWE	FRA	GBR	GER Ret	AUT Ret	DUT Ret	ITA 9	USA	CAN 11	Brabham
1979	Brabham	ARG Ret	BRA Ret	SAF 7	USAW 8	ESP Ret	BEL Ret	MON 7	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 12	AUT Ret	DUT 4	ITA Ret	CAN Ret	USA 12		Brabham	15th	3
1980	Brabham	ARG 2	BRA Ret	SAF 4	USAW 1	BEL Ret	MON 3	FRA 4	GBR 2	GER 4	AUT 5	DUT 1	ITA 1	CAN Ret	USA Ret			Brabham	2nd	54
1981	Brabham	USAW 3	BRA 12	ARG 1	SMR 1	BEL 2	MON Ret	ESP Ret	FRA 3	GBR Ret	GER 1	AUT 3	DUT 2	ITA 6	CAN 5	LAS 5		Brabham	1st	50
1982	Brabham	SAF Ret	BRA DSQ	USAW Ret	SMR DNP	BEL 5	MON Ret	USAE DNQ	CAN 1	DUT 2	GBR Ret	FRA Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	SWI 4	ITA Ret	LAS Ret	Brabham	11th	20
1983	Brabham	BRA 1	USAW Ret	FRA 2	SMR Ret	MON 2	BEL 4	USAE 4	CAN Ret	GBR 2	GER 13	AUT 3	DUT Ret	ITA 1	EUR 1	SAF 3		Brabham	1st	59
1984	Brabham	BRA Ret	SAF Ret	BEL 9	SMR Ret	FRA Ret	MON Ret	CAN 1	USAE 1	USA Ret	GBR 7	GER Ret	AUT 2	DUT Ret	ITA Ret	EUR 3	POR 6	Brabham	5th	29
1985	Brabham	BRA Ret	POR Ret	SMR 9	MON Ret	CAN Ret	USAE 6	FRA 1	GBR 4	GER Ret	AUT Ret	DUT 8	ITA 2	BEL 5	EUR Ret	SAF Ret	AUS Ret	Brabham	8th	21
1986	Williams	BRA 1	ESP Ret	SMR 2	MON 7	BEL Ret	CAN 3	USAE Ret	FRA 3	GBR 2	GER 1	HUN 1	AUT Ret	ITA 1	POR 3	MEX 4	AUS 2	Williams	3rd	69
1987	Williams	BRA 2	SMR Ret	BEL Ret	MON 2	USAE 2	FRA 2	GBR 2	GER 1	HUN 1	AUT 2	ITA 1	POR 3	ESP 4	MEX 2	JPN 15	AUS Ret	Williams	1st	73
1988	Lotus	BRA 3	SMR 3	MON Ret	MEX Ret	CAN 4	USAE Ret	FRA 5	GBR 5	GER Ret	HUN 8	BEL 4	ITA Ret	POR Ret	ESP 8	JPN Ret	AUS 3	Lotus	6th	22
1989	Lotus	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	Lotus	12th	12
1990	Benetton	USA 4	BRA 6	SMR 5	MON Ret	CAN 2	MEX 6	FRA 4	GBR 5	GER Ret	HUN 3	BEL 5	ITA 7	POR 5	ESP Ret	JPN 1	AUS 1	Benetton	3rd	43
1991	Benetton	USA 3	BRA 5	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	Benetton	6th	26.5

[edit] External links

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

Champions (1970-1989)*

Complete List | Champions (1950-1969) | Champions (1990-)