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| Nelson Piquet |
Nelson Piquet
Born: 17 February 1952, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Grand Prix Starts: 204
Grand Prix Victories: 23
World Champion: 1981, 1983, 1987
Nelson Piquet is in the all-time top ten for race victories, poles and fastest laps, and in 1987 he became only the fifth man to win a hat-trick of world titles...
Piquet made his F1 debut with Ensign at Hockenheim in 1978, had three outings in a privately entered McLaren then joined Brabham for the final race of the season. 1979 was a disappointing year. When team-mate, Lauda left to join McLaren in 1980, Piquet became the team's no. 1, and finished runner-up to Alan Jones in the championship.
In 1981, Piquet went into the final round, Las Vegas, trailing Reutemann by one point, but fifth place was enough to give him the crown, as Reutemann failed to score. 1982 proved unsuccessful for Piquet, but he and Brabham roared back in 1983, clinching his second title with third place at Kyalami. Piquet won just three races over the next three season, switched to Williams in 1986 and took his third world title the following year. Two indifferent years at Lotus saw him move to Benetton, where he ended his F1 career winning thre final GPs. His 485.5 point career haul has been bettered only by Schumacher, Prost and Senna.