Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (born 17th August, 1952 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a Brazilian former racing driver best known for his appearances in Formula One and IndyCar.
Formula One
1978: Arrows, Hesketh & March
Piquet's Formula One bow came about at the Monaco Grand Prix when regular driver Gianfranco Brancatelli was ruled out of the weekend with illness. Piquet was selected when a group of Arrows mechanics vouched for him on the back of an impressive British F3 season. Piquet was unfortunately unable to progress from Pre-Qualifying despite setting the third best time in the session because his teammate Keke Rosberg had issues.
Piquet got a second opportunity with Arrows at the non-championship BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone. The next time the Brazilian entered a Grand Prix it would not be with Arrows however; with Brancatelli back at the Poole team, Piquet would replace Stephen South in a one-off appearance in the second Hesketh seat for the Dutch GP, again failing to make the grid with the struggling team. Luckily, a more competitive seat opened up two races later when Robert Kagan was injured in the German GP; March, having loaned regular driver Tom Pryce to Tyrrell to replace Kagan, hired Piquet to fill in for the next three races. While he did make the race for two of these, Piquet ultimately did not make it to the finish in any race he started in 1978, and was out of a seat by the end of a disjointed and disappointing debut year.
Complete Formula 1 Results
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Warsteiner Arrows Racing Team | Arrows A1 | Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | ARG | RSA | USW | ESP | BEL | MON DNPQ |
— | 0 | |||||||||||
| Hesketh Racing | Hesketh 308E | Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | FRA | TUS | GBR | SUI | NED DNPQ |
GER | ||||||||||||||
| March Engineering | March 781 | Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | AUT DNPQ |
ITA Ret |
CAN Ret |
USA | ||||||||||||||||
| 1979 | Parmalat Racing Team | Brabham BT46C | Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | ARG Ret |
BRA 15† |
11th | 10 | |||||||||||||||
| Brabham BT47 | RSA 11 |
USW Ret |
ESP 6 |
BEL 7 |
MON 7 |
EUR Ret |
SMR 9 |
FRA 5 |
GBR Ret |
GER 5 |
AUT 5 |
NED C |
ITA 14 |
CAN 6 |
USA 5 | |||||||
| 1980 | Parmalat Racing Team | Brabham BT48 | Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8 | ARG 1 |
BRA Ret |
USW 1 |
ESP 1 |
BEL 2 |
MON Ret |
MEX Ret |
SMR 3† |
FRA 3 |
GBR 1 |
GER Ret |
AUT Ret |
ITA Ret |
CAN 2 |
CPL 2 |
DUB Ret |
3rd | 62 |