(born
August 17 ,
1952 ), more commonly known as '''Nelson Piquet''', is a
Brazil ian
Racing Driver who was
Formula One world champion in
1981 ,
1983 , and
1987 . He is one of the five triple world champions in the history of Formula One (the others being Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, and Ayrton Senna).
Piquet, born in
Rio De Janeiro , 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.
Piquet was a youthful prodigy in
British Formula 3 during the late
1970 s 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. In 1986 Piquet moved to Williams, and in 1987 he became the first driver to lead the Honda engine to a driver's world title.
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 with such large egos 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 history. 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
Indy 500 in
1992 , but crashed during qualifying and was badly injured. Undaunted, he returned in
1993 with respectable results. He remains a competitve 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 is a leading British F3 driver has been pegged by the F1 media as a future star.
In January 20th, 2006, Nelson Piquet won the 50th edition of Mil Milhas Brasileiras (Brazilian 1000 miles), at
Interlagos racing track. He drove an
Aston Martin DB9R alongside his son, Nelsinho, and drivers
Christophe Bouchut and
Helio Castro Neves . At the end of the race, an exausted 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 .
