Photo: Sutton
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Nelson Piquet
Memories of a Champion
By Ricardo Pereira
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior was born on August 17, 1952 in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. Nelson, son of Clotilde Piquet and the late Est�cio
Souto Maior, Health Minister during the Jo�o Goulart regime,
lived much of his life in Bras�lia following the city's founding
in 1960.
Nelson was hesitant about his future when he was young. He
thought of engineering, tennis and motorsport. However, from the
age of 14 he was participating in kart races and desired to be a
part of racing in the future. It was following a tennis victory
over his father that he decided to compete in kart.
In the beginning, Nelson worked for Camber, an Alex Dias Ribeiro
(the former Grand Prix driver) enterprise. During that time
Piquet rebuilt a prototype for Ribeiro to compete in Division 3,
Class A. In a Volkswagen Nelson won 7 out of 8 races in the Brazilian
prototype championship.
Piquet was crowned Brazilian kart champion in 1971 and 1972. His
racing debut was kept secret from his family. Because of that, he
put the name Piket instead of Piquet on his car, so as to not be
recognized by the family.
In 1976 Piquet was crowned Brazilian Champion of Formula Super
Vee. The year following, he tried his luck in Europe thanks to
the Prado family. In 1978, he raced in British F3, where he
became BP champion and Vandervell runner-up (to Derek Warwick)
having established a record of seven consecutive victories in the
category. In the same year, he established his first contact with
an F1 car in Silverstone, testing for McLaren. He made his F1
debut in an Ensign-Cosworth in the German Grand Prix. Then he
raced three more GPs with McLaren before finally joining Brabham
in Canada.
Bernie Ecclestone, owner of the Brabham team, immediately signed
Nelson. And he had four good reasons: his speed, his mistake-free
driving, his revolutionary ideas in British F3 and a three-year
deal with a low salary even for that time. At Brabham Piquet
learned a lot from Niki Lauda, his team mate. When the Austrian
retired near the end of the 1979 season Piquet became the team's
number one driver.
In 1980, he lost the championship to Alan Jones (Williams-Ford)
after a long and tough battle. It was in 1980, in the US West
Grand Prix (Long Beach) that Piquet scored his first F1 victory.
In 1981, still with Brabham, he earned his first World
Championship crown, beating Carlos Reutemann by a single point.
Piquet likes to remember a chapter involving Carlos Reutemann in
1974. When Piquet was working as an odd-job man for Brabham he
cleaned Carlos Reutemann's helmet. After Nelson had finished his
job, the Argentinian said: "Kid, you don't know even how to
clean a helmet!" When Piquet obtained his first world
championship at the expense of Reutemann, Nelson had these words
for Carlos: "I wasn't worthy to clean your helmet but maybe
you can clean mine now that I am World Champion!"
The 1982 season was a development season for Brabham and BMW,
preparing to clinch the 1983 title. However, there was time for a
slapstick moment at Hockenheim when Nelson was leading the GP and
about to lap Salazar at one of the chicanes, when suddenly the
Chilean shut the door and put Nelson out of the race.
Clearly Piquet was remembering Didier Pironi's
accident in the qualifying session in which the Frenchman was
lifted to hospital with several injuries. Besides that, he had
seen his friend Gilles Villeneuve die at Zolder, in a time when
Nelson criticized the Ferrari for being a "coffin on wheels".
After the accident Nelson was walking back to the pits when
suddenly a van arrived to pick him up. However, when he found out
that one of the van's passengers was the hapless Salazar, Nelson
refused to share the ride. Immediately, the argument between the
two flared up again. To solve their differences the van driver
got out. But before he was able to talk to both of them, Piquet
jumped behind the wheel and left both Salazar and the driver
behind...
Ten years later a BMW engineer unveiled to Nelson that his engine
would have called it a day within two laps of the collision.
Nelson's reaction was remarkable: he said the accident was the
best thing that could have happened to BMW because it had avoided
the shame of a blown engine at their home Grand Prix. Immediately
Piquet tried to get Salazar on the phone to tell him the story
and get him off the hook...
When he won his second World Championship in 1983, Piquet became
the first champion using a turbo engine.
It's a curious fact that in 1981 as well in 1983, Piquet had to
cover lost ground on his rivals before reversing the situation at
the final race of the season. Again, the Championship wasn't
gifted to him as his main opponent Prost put Nelson out of the
Dutch GP.
In 1984, Piquet was clearly the fastest driver around but
recurring reliability problems with the BMW engine put him out of
title contention despite claiming nine pole positions. The 1985
season was a disappointment, Nelson scoring a single win in the
French GP when at least his Pirelli tyres were the ones to have,
the Italian rubber enduring the heat to last the distance.
During the season, Piquet signed a contract with Williams-Honda
to drive for them in the 1986 season. However, after the tragic
road accident of Frank Williams, the team lost direction and
leadership. Ultimately, the 1986 title went to Alain Prost in his
McLaren-TAG Porsche, the Williams drivers stealing away too many
points from each other to see off Prost's dark horse challenge.
The following year things ultimately went according to plan:
Piquet won his third World Championship by a big margin over team
mate Nigel Mansell, who was his favourite joke target, a practice
that generated several conflicts between the two, on and off
track. One time Nelson stole all the toilet paper from the
bathroom just before Mansell had to go. Nigel must have felt
pretty uncomfortable...
Piquet's other target of practical jokes was FIA president Jean-Marie
Balestre. During a briefing at Paul Ricard, while Balestre was
busy making a speech, Nelson sneakily approached the president
and carefully dropped a bottle of mineral water down Balestre's
left pocket. Even Balestre couldn't suppress a smirky laugh while
the other F1 drivers were rolling on the floor for some time
after that.
Despite the funny moments, Piquet had to fight Mansell hard
during 1987, and even found enemies within his own team, Nelson
suspecting they wanted a British champion. Nelson's accident in
practice for the San Marino GP didn't help him either. However,
with all his talent and courage he put everything behind him and
won the title in great style.
Another funny chapter occurred after he had that accident at
Imola. On Saturday Piquet left the hospital on his own and went
to talk with professor Sid Watkins in the pits, with the request
to allow him to race. The following conversation then ensued:
Prof. Sid Watkins: "Nelson, you can't drive because you have
a brain injury."
Piquet: "How do you know?"
Prof. Sid Watkins: "Nelson, you have put on only one shoe
and you forgot the other."
Piquet: "I didn't, I can't put it on because my foot is
bloated."
Piquet made a big mistake signing for Lotus for 1988 and '89
despite a multi-million dollar deal. It was the first season
since 1980 that he did not win a single race. He tasted victory
again in 1990 driving a Benetton-Ford in the Japanese Grand Prix.
This was a historical win because it was the first time that
Benetton scored a double, with Roberto Moreno in second place. At
the next Grand Prix, in Australia, he won again, and it was
another historical victory: Piquet became the 500th F1 Grand Prix
winner. In 1991, again with Benetton-Ford, he completed his final
season in F1, scoring a single win in Canada.
Nelson Piquet's role in F1 was twofold: winning, and developing
winning cars, in addition to all the records he set in his 204
GPs. He invented the famous tyre warming covers, the regulation
of brakes and bars inside the cockpit, and he was FIA F1 World
Champion three times, each one with different engines: Ford, BMW,
Honda.
After he departed from F1, Piquet set his sights on a new
challenge: the Indianapolis 500 in 1992. But in a training
session a mecanical failure put the Team Menard Lola-Buick into
the wall. Nelson suffered a concussion and several injuries to
his lower legs. It seemed to be the end of a brilliant career,
but one year later, after a slow and painful recovery, he came
back to the same track to try again. That time the Buick engine
blew during the race. In 1993 he launched an F3000 campaign for
his prot�g�, Monegasque driver Olivier Beretta.
Since 1993, Nelson Piquet only races for fun in events like the
Spa and Le Mans 24 Hours and some Brazilian touring car races.
The BMW connection is almost always there. He also took part in 'Temporada'
GT racing in a McLaren-BMW F1-GTR and had some fun in the SudAm F3
championship, driving at 'his' circuit in Bras�lia. His main job
now is to develop the Brazilian motorsport scene and transmit all
his knowledge to young drivers. Another one of Nelson's current
activities is managing the Autotrac, a satellite system for
trucks. Recently he created the Espron Formula in Brazil, with
the main goal being to promote races with low costs. He also
manages an autodrome in Bras�lia named Nelson Piquet, of which
there is another one in Rio Janeiro. Now which way will Nelson
follow?
The Piquet dynasty in motorsport has not run its course. Nelson's
talented son Nelson �ngelo Piquet is already in F1.
Named as one of the best F1 drivers of all time, Nelson Piquet
showed his talent, speed and knowledge in tracks all over the
world for decades, leaving millions of spectators delighted. His
magic moments will never be forgotten...