Nelson Piquet

Nelson Piquet Souto Maior or as most people know him, Nelson Piquet, was born on August 17, 1952 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nelson’s father was a Brazilian government minister and did not approve of his son’s racing career, and so forced his son to use his mother’s maiden name Piquet instead.

Nelson Piquet is a Brazillian racing driver who was a successful Formula One world champion in 1981, 1983 and 1987. There are very few other racing drivers who have been able to win at least three world championships in all of Formula One’s history. Other then Nelson there was Juan Manuel Fangio (5), Jackie Stewart, Jack Brabham, Alain Prost (4), Niki Lauda, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher (7).

Nelson was Brazilian go-karting national champion in 1971 and 1972 as well as local super-V 1976 champion. After succeeding there he took British Formula 3 on and was considered a prodigy during the 1978 season when he broke Jackie Stewart‘s record of wins in one season. From there he was promoted to Formula One. Piquet was indeed talented.

In 1986 Piquet saw himself in direct and intense competition with his rival, Nigel Mansell. Both had similar characters, highly-strung and delicate temperaments. As top drivers in the same team there was indeed intense competition for the title to the point that they would deprive each other of points rather than working together. This led to Alain Prost winning the most ferociously disputed championships Formula One had ever had.

Since 2000 Nelson Piquet has helped and supported his son Nelson Piquet Jr. in his racing career. The racing star was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in the year 2000.

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