Nelson Piquet

NELSON PIQUET. Brazilian Formula 1 driver and businessman. Three times World F1 Champion (1981 / 1983 & 1987). Since his retirement, he has been ranked among the greatest Formula One drivers of all time in various motorsport polls. 207 races (23 wins / 60 podiums / 481 career points / 24 poles 23 fastest laps). He became the Brazilian national karting champion in 1971-72 and won the Formula Vee championship in 1976. With advice from Emerson Fittipaldi, he went to Europe to further success by taking the record number of wins in Formula Three in 1978. In the same year, he made his F1 debut with the Ensign team and drove for McLaren and Brabham. In 1979, he 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 F1, he tried his hand at the Indianapolis 500 for two years. He went onto run several businesses in Brazil and manage his sons own motor-racing career ...