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 three entries, 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.