Nelson Piquet

Brazilian racing driver

Three titles, two teams, one Brazilian

Nelson Piquet won the championship twice with Brabham and once with Williams across a Formula 1 career that ran from 1978 to 1991.

Nelson Piquet was born in Rio de Janeiro on 17 August 1952. Tennis came first, but karting won out, and he became Brazilian karting champion before taking the Formula Vee title at home in 1976. On advice from Emerson Fittipaldi he moved to Europe, where he set a record for wins in a single season of British Formula Three in 1978.

That same year he made his Formula 1 debut at the German Grand Prix, racing for Ensign, McLaren and Brabham in only five starts. Brabham kept him, and in 1980 he won three races and finished second in the championship. A year later, with three more wins, he was world champion. The turbocharged Brabham BMW carried him to a second title in 1983, sealed with wins in Italy and at the European Grand Prix late in the season.

Piquet joined Williams in 1986 and won four times, taking the title fight with teammate Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost to the final round in Australia. In 1987 he won in Germany, Hungary and Italy and claimed his third championship. Spells at Lotus followed, then two seasons with Benetton, where he won the last two races of 1990 in Japan and Australia and the 1991 Canadian Grand Prix.

He retired after the 1991 Australian Grand Prix with 204 starts, 23 wins, 24 pole positions, 23 fastest laps and 60 podiums. Afterward he entered the Indianapolis 500 in two seasons, raced sports cars, and turned to running businesses in Brazil.

3 world titles, 23 wins, 24 pole positions, 204 starts.

Teams

Victories

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