Nelson Piquet
Edit] BiografiaPiquet was born in Rio de Janeiro and lived most of his childhood and youth in the newly founded capital Brasilia. He is the son of Pernambuco Estacio Gonçalves Souto Maior, a former health minister, who did not approve his motorsport career, so Nelson used the maiden name of his mother, Clotilde Piquet, written erroneously as "Piket" early in his career, to conceal his identity. His mother died in August 2007 at 84 years of age.
The father wanted the son to be a professional tennis player, even being presented with a scholarship to a school in Atlanta, USA. Nelson came to be prized as a good player, but did not think the sport exciting enough to devote his career to this. Still, the taste for tennis as he did take his helmet design of a stylized tennis ball.
Nelson studied mechanical engineering at UNB until the third period.
After years of career, Nelson decided to abandon the competition, Piquet was devoted to the business career. He founded the company in Brasilia Autotrac, a pioneer in the country in monitoring cargo trucks, and also a network of stores Pirelli tires, the tires Piquet, who has already been sold, and a car dealer, BMW (BMW Piquet) which has also was sold. In 1995 leased the racetrack in Brasilia, which bears his name, and created a category of prototype sports cars, with engines and mechanical Beetle BMW-based cars that were used in racing in the state of Ceará, called Espron. His close friend, Marcello Prado (Executive Vice President of BMW Brazil), besides the engine, gave him a BMW 318 vehicle and Nelson Piquet to his incredible creativity and technique, the vehicle used as a template to copy the BMW in fiberglass Espron category. Bearing the logo of BMW cars in all categories and its strong influence on the younger class "A" category Espron was an excellent vehicle for merchandising for the brand BMW, which then settled its Brazilian subsidiary. With the expiration of the lease of the racecourse the administration of it was returned to the Federal District.
After disagreements with the Brazilian Confederation of Motor Sport - CBA, Piquet also tried to establish a parallel organization, the League of Independent Automobile - LIA, which did not work. In the mid-2000s, the triple champion began to devote himself primarily to manage the career of his son, Nelson Angelo Piquet, so that in 2004, Piquet thought about re-run. This time in GP2, and companion of his own son on his team in the category. [1]
[Edit] CarreiraPiquet began his career in karting at age 14 where he was Brazilian champion in 1971 and 1972. and in 1976 he won the Formula Super-See. The following year he tried his luck in Europe, following the path opened by Emerson Fittipaldi. Participating in some of the evidence of the European Formula 3 Championship, finished third, with two wins behind the Italian and Swedish Piercarlo Ghinzani Anders Olofsson.
[Edit] Arrival 1In Formula 1978, Formula 3 in England, became champion and broke the record for Jackie Stewart's most wins in a season. His Formula 1 debut came in a test offered by the now defunct team BS Fabrications, Bob Sparshott, who had a McLaren M23. Shortly thereafter, still in 1978, Piquet actually debuted in a race, the Grand Prix of Germany, Hockenheimring, with a rental car Ensign team. This year, played with three other GPs BS Fabrications McLaren.
With the car's small British team, left the Netherlands and Austria, finishing in ninth place in Italy, who died in the race in the Swedish driver Ronnie Peterson. Anyway, the Brazilian was already seen by many as a promise - his meteoric appearance earned praise and an accurate prophecy of the Chief of Staff BS Fabrications, David Simms. "I bet my money with anyone who will be world champion Nelson Piquet in three years." At the Canadian Grand Prix since making his debut for Brabham, with a third team car then headed by Bernie Ecclestone.
[Edit] Early vitóriasE thus Piquet was soon confirmed as second driver for the 1979 season. In the English team, headed by Bernie Ecclestone and Gordon Murray as a designer, Piquet had as fellow Austrian Niki Lauda, already two-time champion, who left Formula 1 temporarily before the end of the season. Piquet Lauda always gave his learning how to negotiate contracts and communicate their requests to the team engineers and mechanics. The year, however, is marked by several accidents and many breaks - were 11 dropouts in 15 races, only three points and 15th place in the standings.
Just one year later, in 1980, Piquet came in second in the Grand Prix of Argentina and earned his first class victory at the Grand Prix of the western United States, [2] on the street circuit in Long Beach. With two victories in other years, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, and Italy, Imola, Piquet competed directly with the title of Australia Alan Jones Williams, until the penultimate race, the Grand Prix of Canada - but this race, Piquet and Jones collided at the start, and after a second start, Piquet had to abandon an engine failure and runner-up with 54 points
But in 1981 came his first world title after an intense battle with the Argentinian Carlos Reutemann. In the final step in the Las Vegas circuit, also in the USA, Piquet finished in 5th place, but failed to score Reutemann coming in 8th and won the Brazilian championship by just one point difference.
In 1982, as in many years Piquet's career, technical innovations - particularly the adoption of the BMW turbo engine - did not allow a sufficiently competitive performance. With Ford Cosworth Brabham BT49D aspirated V8, Nelson Piquet won the Grand Prix of Brazil in the studied area, but after the race, his victory was annulled, the same happened with the second place, the Finn Keke Rosberg in the Williams FW07C Ford Cosworth V8 also aspirated. In the inspection of cars, the Race Stewards of the suspected role of a strange black box attached to Brabham, so did Williams. The cooling system of the brakes was done with water, leaving the cars in the minimum weight required before the start, but throughout the race, the stored water was used in cars, which left seaters lighter than the the other teams. Since the regulations allowed the replacement of fluids before weighing mandatory, the cars came back to stay within the regulation. Frenchman Alain Prost in the Renault V6 Turbo RE30B, which then ended in 3rd place, was declared the winner of the race with the technical decommissioning of the two cars. The model BT50 BMW Turbo L4 that the team debuted in the first step back to be used permanently from the Grand Prix at Zolder in Belgium until the end of the season.
The league had 10 teams of the boycott, political divisions in the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Brabham, Williams, McLaren, Lotus, Ligier, Arrows, March, Fittipaldi, Ensign and Theodore. The champions failed to qualify for the Grand Prix of the eastern United States in Detroit. A week later, the Brazilian driver won in Montreal, the Canadian Grand Prix, with the model already, and BT50 Turbo engine. The race was marked by death just at the start of the Italian Riccardo Paletti he could not deviate from the Frenchman Didier Pironi Ferrari that did not start. The highlight of the season, Piquet was a tense episode, and the second analysis, hilarious. When he was close to making the tire change and refueling at the German GP at Hockenheim Piquet approached the latecomer Eliseo Salazar and tried to overtake on the Ostkürve, north of the chicane at Hockenheim circuit. Piquet Salazar did not see coming, kept the normal trajectory, and the two hit. After exiting the car, Piquet went to physical aggression against Salazar in front of television cameras in a scene that demonstrates some of its competitive and explosive temperament. "Salazar is not a pilot, is a driver," Piquet said at the time. Interestingly, both had met when they were newcomers to Europe, and many years later, they came together to run in races of Tourism. In a year marked by political problems in the category, accidents and deaths of drivers, Piquet ended the year ranked 11th with 20 points.
Years later, Piquet became aware of a motor engineer who worked with the Brazilian driver in the Brabham team at the time that this famous incident was the best thing that could happen to BMW, because it avoided the shame of the German engine blow up in their own country.
Against the French court: the Renault of Alain Prost and Rene Arnoux and Patrick Tambay Ferrari, in 1983 Piquet gets his second title in the last race, the South African GP at Kyalami. The tactical team was to put a little gasoline for two cars, so he forced the competition to force the pace and stopped to refuel. It was also the first championship won by a turbocharged car in Formula 1.
In 1984, Brabham BMW engine and not even worse. McLaren, under the leadership of Ron Dennis, was the team that came to put order in Formula 1.
The innovations introduced by Gordon Murray at Brabham are not sufficient, although Piquet has won nine poles in the year. Enough to lead by various events, but leaves most of them for mechanical problems.
Piquet had a great victory. Model BT53, revised, go to Canada, in Montreal, with an oil cooler installed on the nose of the car. During the race, the radiator was heating up the Brazilian's foot causing the rider practically abandon the race. But he went on to win brilliantly. At the podium, he showed the toe blisters for Niki Lauda and Alain Prost. The Brazilian tries to win a reaction in Detroit, United States, but it's there. Ends the year ranked # 5 cpm 29 points.
In 1985, a chance to fight in front was prevented when Bernie Ecclestone signed a contract for the supply of Pirelli tires. The Italian tire development was a challenge of gigantic proportions. No results could be charged before two or three years. Piquet gets a victory in years. It was held at Paul Ricard in France. Under a hellish heat, the Brazilian is a race well planned. Exceeds Ayrton Senna's Lotus and Keke Rosberg's Williams. Will open and doing a very good race pace. The top teams in the American rubber Goodyear can not keep pace imposed by the Brazilian driver, because the number 7 Brabham gives no proof that the exchange will, Piquet won with relative ease. It was the last victory in the team category. After this victory, back to reality. The pilot comes to winning the pole last team in Zandvoort, The Netherlands. He finished 2nd in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. In this race, the first time together on the podium, Piquet and Senna, the 3rd place. In Belgium at Spa-Francorchamps, with the wet track after the start, Piquet slips into the first corner La Source, losing several positions, he made a great recovery run and finished 5th. The last three races of the championship, the Brazilian driver has not ended. It was time to change team, Brabham cycle had ended. Last year the team finished in 8th place with 21 points.
[Edit] 1986 Williams-HondaEm Piquet was the team of his two runners-up, Williams, to develop, along with his teammate, Englishman Nigel Mansell, the design of turbo engines from Honda. In the first year, the car proved to be competitive, but a succession of unfavorable results and strategies miscalculated as in the last race of the season (Australian GP), which led Mansell and Piquet to lose the title to Prost. Part of the failure was due to a serious accident suffered by the team owner, Frank Williams, who left the command of the team away for several months, and bound to a wheelchair for life. Frank was responsible for hiring Piquet, while his partner and chief engineer of the team, Patrick Head, Mansell was clearly an advocate of the team [citation needed].
In the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim Piquet who used the trickery, in the 15th round, Nigel Mansell was wrong with the car unstable a screeching off the runway, damaging the performance of your tires. The pilot radioed his team to put new tires in the pits. The team quickly prepares to welcome him, but who appears in the Williams pit No. 6 was the Brazilian driver. Piquet, brilliant, had anticipated his arrest to exchange them. Inside the pit, the radio, Patrick Head announces the British driver not to get this back, forcing him to complete another one with the tires well spent, since the team was committed to running the car of his teammate.
In the first edition of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Piquet held on Ayrton Senna, the excess over what many regard as the most beautiful of all time in Formula 1 - at the end of the pit straight, the outside of a curve of 180 degrees and sliding on all four wheels. The triple world champion Jackie Stewart, commenting on the scene, said it was "how to make a loop with a Boeing 747" [citation needed].
In 1987, Williams dominated the season. Piquet suffered a serious accident early in the year, on a test circuit in Imola, in the same Tamburello corner made famous by the death of Ayrton Senna. "After this accident, my vision was never the same, and I lost a part of the notion of depth," said Piquet years later [citation needed]. Still, Piquet and Mansell played the title race by race - and Piquet, to circumvent the alleged favoritism to the English team, resorted to their familiar antics [citation needed], as testing with a bad configuration of the car, that many times would be copied by mechanical Mansell, and completely change it minutes before a workout or race.
In practice for the Italian GP at Monza, the Brazilian driver debuts active suspension. Can the pole, and also wins. In the next race, the new component is placed British driver in the car, but he can not hit a right. Not to favor one side, the Williams team decides to withdraw the suspension of the two cars. The claim is that the new component was not quite ready to face a race and it would be too risky to put a new technology not yet have a full assurance that it would be better and stronger than traditional suspension. The truth is that Mansell did not understand the correct operation of it, different from Piquet who took full advantage. Result, the finish line, the two cars back to the conventional suspension under equal conditions. GPs in Spain and Mexico, Mansell wins, with Piquet in the fourth and second respectively. Brazilians go to Japan with 12 points. Officers in training at the Suzuka circuit, in their eagerness to overcome the time of his teammate, Mansell suffered a major accident, although it has not caused serious injury left him unable to compete in the race and won the triple champion Piquet world in advance.
In the last race, the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, the British driver does not appear. He was eventually replaced by Italian Riccardo Patrese.
[Edit] Last season at Lotus and Benetton Honda, then consecrated with the best turbo engine of the period, left Williams in 1988 and went on to equip the McLaren and Lotus. For McLaren, managed the hiring of Ayrton Senna, and the place where Senna left Lotus in Nelson Piquet took a million dollar contract. But the legendary team of the yellow car, designed by French engineer Gérard Ducarouge (who worked with Senna in 1985 to 1987 in the team), has proved problematic. Even with the Japanese engine, Lotus had no strength to fight with the same intensity than McLaren. Lotus was 7 km / h slower than the McLaren in a straight Jacarepagua. The Lotus car was 2 seconds slower and increased to 3 in San Marino. The car did not react and the proposed changes experienced by the pilot. The diagnosis of Piquet: excessive twist in the rear of the chassis. According to international automotive press comments, Lotus 100T had the rigid structure of an ice cream cone. The engine was not the problem because of the low yield of the car, but the chassis that Piquet has publicly stated that it was "crap" and fallen out completely with Ducarouge. With means to compete for positions with cars equipped with aspirated engine, the pilot ended the championship in sixth place with 22 points earned.
Without the Honda for the 1989 Lotus hired Frank Dernie, from Williams, but the Japanese driver had left the team of Frank and Peter Warr team closed with the Judd engine that proved to be one of the weakest of the season. The driver could only qualify in the practical tests at the end of the grid positions and play the intermediate block and once in a while you could score some points. To make matters worse, the Brazilian could not qualify for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, as did his teammate, Japan Satoru Nakajima. For the second time in his career that the Brazilian driver was missing a race. No podium, and another year with the squad to compete with intermediate Piquet finished in 8th place in the championship with 12 points.
Disillusioned with the two frustrating seasons at Lotus, Piquet signed a contract with Benetton team for the 1990 season. The lack of power of the Cosworth V-8 was offset by the outstanding balance of the chassis of the car, and after some good races, Piquet wins the controversial Japanese Grand Prix, (that test, seconds after the start that Senna sticks in your car back of Prost's Ferrari to try to make the first bend of the track and the two off the track, eventually decided the championship for McLaren's Brazilian). The victory was even more special taste for Piquet because the runner was his teenage friend of Roberto Moreno, also Benetton, debuting as a substitute for Alessandro Nannini, who had suffered a serious helicopter crash which ultimately withdrew from Formula 1.
Piquet also won the next race, the Australian Grand Prix after a risky maneuver on the last lap - Nigel Mansell, who at the wheel of Ferrari trying to pass the Brazilian was forced to brake hard and turn off the road in more closed circuit, when the Brazilian, simple and deliberately ignored his attempt and followed the normal route. A typical sarcastic bid of Piquet GP number in the history of the 500 category. The beautiful thing, Piquet finished 3rd with 43 pontos1, and ranked ahead of McLaren's and Ferrari.
In 1991, still at Benetton, Nelson got his last win in Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada, and also upon Mansell - Piquet who ironically referred to as "the stupid fast". The Englishman was leading with more than 50 seconds, and on the last lap, waving to fans as he began to walk slowly. Because of this, the alternator does not generate enough energy to power all the electronics onboard the Williams and the car just "die". After the victory, the car passed Piquet Mansell stopped waving to the rival. Later testified that when he saw the British driver's car stopped at that time "almost had an orgasm." That same year, Benetton Roberto Moreno replaced by young talent Michael Schumacher, sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, which had hitherto played only his racing debut in Formula 1. Dissatisfied with the prospects of his team for the 1992 season, as the new Ford Cosworth engine was not powerful enough to make you able to return to fight for titles, Piquet, already with 39 years of age and 204 GPs in the curriculum , decided to leave the top category of motor racing after finishing in 4th place in the rainy Australian Grand Prix. He ended his career in the premier class in 6th place with 05.26 points.
[Edit] After Formula 1In 1992, Piquet decided to run the Indianapolis 500, with a Lola-Buick Menards team. Quickly emerged as the fastest among the rookies. But in one of the training, a slow puncture a tire made the car run at full speed in the curve 4 and shatter on the wall in front of circuit protection. In addition to head injury and chest injury, Piquet suffered multiple fractures in the legs and feet, he lost two fingers. Several surgeries at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis rebuilt the lower limbs, but left no sequels, forcing the Brazilian to leave the categories of single-seaters. Still, Piquet returned to Indianapolis for the 1993 race, by the same team, but was forced out by engine problems.
Since then, Piquet runs just for fun at events like the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, and evidence of Tourism as the Brazilian Thousand Miles, who won twice - the last in 2006, sharing an Aston Martin DBR9 with Helio Castroneves, Christophe Bouchut and Nelson Piquet.
