This article is about the former Formula One World Champion. For his son, also a racing driver, see Nelson Piquet Jr. For other uses, see Nelson Piquet (disambiguation).
In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Piquet and the second or paternal family name is Souto Maior.
Nelson Piquet
Piquet in 2022
Born
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (1952-08-17) 17 August 1952 (age 71) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation:[ˈnɛwsõpiˈke], born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman who won the World Drivers' Championship three times in the years 1981, 1983 and 1987.
Piquet had a brief career in tennis before losing interest in the sport and subsequently 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 Brazil 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, beating 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 in 1982 was hampered by severe engine unreliability, but he 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 teammate 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.[2]
After retiring from Formula One, Piquet tried his hand at the Indianapolis 500 for two years. He also had a go at sports car racing at various points during and after his Formula One career. Piquet is currently retired and runs several businesses in Brazil. He also manages his sons Nelson Piquet Jr. and Pedro Piquet, who are also professional racing drivers.
^Cite error: The named reference droppedpoints was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Nelson Piquet Profile". grandprix.com. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
NelsonPiquet Souto Maior (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈnɛwsõ piˈke], born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian retired racing driver and businessman...
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place at Brabham was taken by the highly regarded but inexperienced NelsonPiquet, who had driven for them at the final race of last season. Tyrrell attracted...
Ayrton Senna but also NelsonPiquet and Nigel Mansell. In 1986, at Adelaide in the last race of the season, he beat Mansell and Piquet of Williams to the...
One figures (including Gerhard Berger, Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, NelsonPiquet, Jean Alesi, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard, Nico...
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Janeiro racer NelsonPiquet, the decline of Interlagos and the retirement of Fittipaldi, Brazilian fans lobbied to host the Brazilian GP in Piquet's home town...
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only after teammate NelsonPiquet Jr. deliberately crashed to cause a Safety Car period which helped Alonso's strategy. When Piquet admitted this to the...
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