Nelson Piquet

Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born August 17, 1952), known as Nelson Piquet, is a Brazilian former racing driver and businessman. Born as the son of a Brazilian politician, he had a brief career in tennis before losing interest in the sport. Piquet took up karting and hid his identity to prevent his father discovering his hobby. He became the Brazilian national karting champion in 1971-72 and won the Formula Vee championship in 1976. With advice from Emerson Fittipaldi, Piquet went to Europe to further success by taking the record number of wins in Formula Three in 1978, defeating Jackie Stewart's all-time record.

In the same year, he made his Formula One debut with the Ensign team and drove for McLaren and Brabham. In 1979, Piquet moved to the Brabham team and finished the runner-up in 1980 before winning the championship in 1981. Piquet's poor performances in 1982 saw a resurgence for 1983 and his second world championship. For 1984-85, Piquet had once again lost chances to win the championship but managed to score three wins during that period. He moved to the Williams team in 1986 and was a title contender until the final round in Australia. Piquet took his third and final championship in 1987 during a heated battle with team-mate Nigel Mansell which left the pair's relationship sour. Piquet subsequently moved to Lotus for 1988-89 where he experienced his third drop in form. He eventually went to the Benetton team for 1990-91 where he managed to win three races before retiring.

After retiring from Formula One, Piquet tried his hand at the Indianapolis 500 for two years. He also tried his hand at sports car racing during and after his Formula One career. Piquet is currently retired and runs his own company Autotrac, a company that supplies tracking equipment for transport and manages his son Nelson Piquet Jr.

Early life and 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 had two brothers, Alexis, and Geraldo, and a sister Genusa. Piquet was the youngest of the children.

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.

His father wanted Piquet to be a professional tennis player and was given a scholarship at a school in Atlanta. Piquet started playing tennis at the age of 11. He eventually won tournaments in Brazil and eventually took a trip to California to test his skill aganist thougher American players. During his time, he had learned to speak English and greatly mature. His short tennis career saw Piquet to be prized as a good player, but not thought sufficiently exciting for the sport to devote his career to motor racing.

Piquet dropped out of a University two years into an engineering course in 1974. He was subsequentely employed in a garage.

Upon returning to Brazil, Piquet and three friends brought a 20 hp cart and participated 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. After the race, Piquet signed a deal with the McLaren of BS Fabrications to race in the next three races. The deal was negiotated when BS Fabrications employees met Piquet when he was driving at Brands Hatch. His best finish was ninth in Italy.

1978-1985
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.

In 1979, Piquet competed in his first full season in Formula One. He once again drove for the Brabham team, alongside double world champion, Niki Lauda. Season was difficult for the garage, which was accustomed to success. Piquet interrupted during the 15 competition eleven. The first point of his career came at the Dutch Grand Prix, where he finished fourth. Lauda quit driving, before the start of the Canadian Grand Prix, leaving Piquet as the number one driver for Brabham In the final race, the United States Grand Prix East, Piquet left in the front row and took the fastest lap in the race.
 * 1979

In 1980, Piquet took his first win at the United States Grand Prix West by over 50 seconds from Riccardo Patrese. The next two races in Holland and Italy saw back to back wins for Piquet. He finished second in the drivers' standings, 13 points behind title winner Alan Jones.
 * 1980

The season began with the cancellation of the South African Grand Prix from the calendar which was won by Carlos Reutemann with Piquet second, to continue the controversy between FISA (supported by the Italian teams and Renault who defected from the race) and FOCA. He began the season after reaching an agreement that banned the skirts and required a minimum ground clearance, the car, excluding tires of 6 cm.
 * 1981

After a third place in the United States Grand Prix West, Piquet left in pole position in his home race, the Brazilian Grand Prix, but with the wet track pointed to a rapid improvement in the atmospheric and mounted slicks had compromised his race. The next Argentine Grand Prix Brabham got around the rule by adopting a correction of the minimum set-up which, while making it appear the car to regular audits, was lower during the race making it once again become a wing-car. The superiority of the car that was swept to victory Piquet and even his teammate Hector Rebaque, which usually sailed in the rear, managed to retain second place until he was forced to retire. At the San Marino Grand Prix. almost all teams adopted the newness brought to Argentina by Brabham. Piquet won the race despite being caught out by rain.

In the Belgian Grand Prix, after an initial start, a mechanic, which was perilously allowed the presence on the board to repair the car of Riccardo Patrese, the race and Piquet went off again in the lead, but Jones on lap ten made contact, which forced him to retire. with the race having been won by Reutemann. Piquet was able to recover at the French Grand Prix where he dominated until lap 58, when a sudden storm led to the interruption of the race, then the organizers decided to wait until the end of rain to continue the race and after 45 minutes, at the restart, Alain Prost appeared much more competitive after mechanical work performed during the break and won his first Grand Prix with Piquet relegated to third place., in the next race The British Grand Prix, Reutemann finished second reached to increase to a seventeen point lead in the standings.

Piquet won the championship with a great comeback that began when he won the German Grand Prix while Reutemann was opposed within his team. The Brazilian Grand Prix last reached a point behind Reutemann. At the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas. Piquet came fifth and gained the two points needed for the championship, while his team-mate was disappointed to leave motor-racing, and only eighth closed because of tire problems.

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.
 * 1982

During the Italian Grand Prix, Piquet trailed team-mate Riccardo Patrese for the first two laps but came back to win a near-dominant race when he led 49 out of 52 laps. Piquet won his second title at the South African Grand Prix after a long battle with Alain Prost. It also was the first time a turbocharged car won the championship.
 * 1983

In 1984 Piquet again suffered from unreliability, taking pole position nine times but only winning twice.
 * 1984

In 1985, Piquet won a single victory, the French Grand Prix where the reported success after 28 years with a car tire Pirelli. Already in mid-season because of poor results, the permanence of the British team in Brazil was challenged. In fact Piquet was in contact with the team McLaren., but then settle down to the Williams, which offered him an contract worth three times than his Brabham contract. At the end of the year, Piquet left the team, with low confidence in the project and bankruptcy along with the car BT55 for 1986, and broke the perfect agreement between Piquet and coach Gordon Murray.
 * 1985

1986-1987
A move in to Williams saw Piquet becoming the team-mate of one of his fiercest rivals, Nigel Mansell. It was reported that Honda were paying the bulk of his USD $3.3 million contract. 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. Indeed, Piquet left Adelaide following the 1986 Australian Grand Prix fuming that Williams had not honored their contract and had allowed Mansell to win races instead of ordering him to let the Brazilian, as the number one driver, past for wins which would have seen Piquet easily win the championship, instead of Mansell and himself being beaten by Prost in what was an inferior car. Ironically in this season Piquet won one more race (a total of four) than he would in any of his championship-winning campaigns.
 * 1986

Piquet made amends in, using political maneuvering and technical skill to gain the upper hand. At times during the season, the reft between himself and Mansell was evident, as Mansell was showing superior speed in qualifying and races. Piquet had also admitted to "not ever being quite right" after his qualifying crash for Round 2 at Imola. He was ordered by FISA's medical chief, Prof. Sid Watkins, not to race due to the concussion he suffered when his Williams hit the wall at high speed at the Tamburello curve. Despite winning fewer races than Mansell, in 1987 Piquet emerged as world champion. From Round 5 in Detroit, until Round 12 in Portugal, he never finished off the podium, racking up points in what he called his "percentage driving policy" in his successful bid to win his 3rd championship. Piquet announced during practice for the 1987 Hungarian Grand Prix that he had signed with Lotus as the undisputed number 1 driver, a position he claimed was promised at Williams from 1986, but was never honored following Frank Williams' car crash. It was also believed this was a big factor in Honda dropping Williams and moving to McLaren for 1988, despite another year left in the contract. The Japanese, who paid most of Piquet's salary, considered him to be the number 1 and were privately fuming that Williams management didn't reign in Mansell and allow Piquet an easier time.
 * 1987

1988-1989
When Piquet followed the dominant Honda engines to a stagnating Lotus team in, his career took a nose dive. Nelson, who had 20 wins and 3 World Championships following the 1987 season, began to lose his reputation when he had no wins in 1988, losing his number one to fellow Brazilian Ayrton Senna, who won 8 races and the championship for McLaren. He (and team mate Satoru Nakajima) even failed to qualify for the 1989 Belgian Grand Prix, Piquet's first non-qualification since the 1982 Detroit Grand Prix, thanks to Frenchman Olivier Grouillard, who blocked him during his hot lap.

In early 1988 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 insulting his wife's looks), and calling fellow Brazilian Ayrton Senna "the Saõ Paulo taxi driver" and stating that he "doesn't like women". Piquet retracted his comments when both threatened legal action. He also earned the ire of the Tifosi at the San Marino Grand Prix when he said in an interview with Playboy (Brazil) that Scuderia Ferrari might do better as a team if the boss (Enzo Ferrari) was a younger man instead of the 90 year old one who rarely attended races due to his age and failing health. Piquet claims he was mis-quoted in the interview, which also had him questioning Alain Prost's standing as the best driver in the world. On the official FIA video review of the 1988 season, Piquet left no doubts that the atricle got it wrong in his comments about Ferrari, and that he considered Prost to be the world's best.

1990-1991
A payment-by-results deal with Benetton, who had exclusive use of the factory Ford HB4 V8 engine, saw Piquet return to top form in. Despite a handful of lackluster performances, he scored two wins in the last two races of the season. The first in Japan was somewhat inherited after Senna had taken out Prost's Ferrari at the first turn, and both Gerhard Berger (McLaren) and Mansell (Ferrari) retired. The second was just two weeks later at the last race of the season in Australia when after a great drive, Piquet survived a spirited, but fair, challenge from Mansell to win what was the 500th World Championship Formula One Grand Prix. His 18 points from the last two races saw him move from 7th in the standings (25 points) to finishing 3rd in the championship with 43. Piquet and Gerhard Berger both scored 43 points (Nelson had scored 44 but was forced to drop 1 point under the "Best 11" rule of the time), but Piquet's two wins, where Berger won none, saw him finish 3rd.
 * 1990

This was followed by the final win of his F1 career at Montreal in - again at the expense of longtime rival Mansell, who's Williams-Renault stalled past the old pits on the last lap while leading. In late 1991, Piquet's team-mate Roberto Moreno was replaced by Michael Schumacher, who remained for the rest of the season.
 * 1991

Nelson Piquet retired from Formula One at the end of the 1991 season having won 23 races, 3 World Championships, claimed 24 pole positions and setting 23 fastest laps from his 204 grand prix starts.

Indianapolis 500
Piquet was hired by Team Menard to drive in the Indianapolis 500 in 1992. He had looked comfortable at driving at high speeds despite never racing at an oval track. During practice, Piquet's car ran over a metallic part of another car that became detached and drove through turn 3 at full speed but when driving through turn 4, Piquet abruptly took his foot off the pedal to enter the pit lane, which resulted in his hitting the wall. Piquet suffered serious foot and ankle injuries and was forced to sit out the race. He returned in 1993 and started in 13th position, but finished in 32nd, after engine problems allowed him to complete only 38 laps.

Sports car
Alongside Formula One, Piquet took part in the 1000km Nürburgring in 1980 and 1981 driving a BMW M1. He won the 1981 race alongside the German Hans-Joachim Stuck. However, the race had to be stopped because of a crash after 17 laps which had occurred after two hours of driving.

In 1996, Piquet attended Le Mans 24 Hours race and drove in a McLaren F1 GTR with Johnny Cecotto and Danny Sullivan. The trio finished in eighth. In the following year, Piquet took part alongside JJ Lehto and Steve Soper. This time, they did not make the finish.

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”.

Driver management
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.

During the Crashgate scandal, Piquet pleged to use his wealth to find out why his son had been ordered by the Renault team to crash deliberately during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. He and his son were eventually paid a six-figure sum for costs and libel damages.

Business ventures
Upon leaving motor sport, 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.

Personal life
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 Formula One. He remains a competitive driver in sports car racing, albeit more for fun than with serious intent. He was critical of the Monaco Grand Prix by famously stating Monaco was like "riding a bicycle around your living room".

Piquet entered into a first marriage with Maria Clara in 1976 with the marriage lasting for one year. They have one son, Geraldo Piquet (born 17 November 1977) His second marriage to Sylvia Tamsma produced three children, Nelson Angelo Piquet (born 25 June 1985), Kelly Piquet (born 7 December 1988), and Julia Piquet (born 8 May 1992). Laszlo Piquet was born in 1987, but his mother is Katherine Valentin. He is currently married to Viviane de Souza Leão and they have two children, Pedro Estacio Piquet (born 1999) and Marco Piquet (born 2000).

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."

He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2000 and two racing circuits in Rio de Janeiro and in Brasília have been named "Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet".

Helmet
Piquet Sr.'s helmet is white with red and black designs that resemble a Stylised Tennis Ball (possibly due to his father wanting him to be a tennis player) and red or orange drops on its sides and a red or orange circle in the top(the drops were yellow during his Lotus years). His son followed his helmet design.

Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Formula One Non-Championship results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)