Nelson Piquet Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ensign

Piquet won two National Go-Karting Championships and the Formula Super Vee title in Brazil before moving to the United Kingdom. He proved an immediate success by winning the 1978 British F3 title, breaking Jackie Stewarts record of the number of wins in a season.

He made his Formula One debut for Ensign at the 1978 German Grand Prix. He qualified 21st but would retire with engine problems.

Answer: Dutch Grand Prix

The 1979 Brabham-Alfa Romeo was completely uncompetitive with the heavy and unreliable Alfa Romeo V12 causing numerous problems. When Piquet managed to finish it was generally in a competitive position but points would not be collected until a fourth place finish at the Dutch Grand Prix. He would finish 15th in the World Championship with three points.

Answer: Once

Piquet won the 1981 World Championship at Caesers Palace in Las Vegas by finishing fifth, and finishing on 50 points after Carlos Reutemann lost his head and could finish only 8th to finish on 49 points. But the Argentine driver had led the World Championship for the majority of the season and was only headed by Piquet after the Dutch Grand Prix. Piquet and Reutemann were actually equal on 45 points after this race, but Piquet was considered leader due to his three wins compared to Reutemann's two wins.

Answer: First fuel stop in modern F1

Brabham had started using turbocharged BMW engines at the start of 1982 to counter the threat from Renault and Ferrari. The BMW engine was powerful but thirsty so Brabham had the idea of a mid-race stop for fuel and tyres. The idea was attempted three times in Britain, France and Germany but neither Brabham would make it to the half-way stage at either event due to retirements. But, at the Austrian Grand Prix both Piquet and teammate Riccardo Patrese would stop at the halfway point and collect fuel and tyres. Both cars would retire from the race.

Answer: 9

Piquet was the pole king of 1984 with 9 pole positions, each rewarded with a scooter. He took pole at the South African, San Marino, Canadian, Detroit, British, Austrian, Italian, European and Portuguese Grand Prix. But, Piquet would only win two races, the Detroit and Canadian Grand Prix. Clearly the fastest car, the Brabham-BMW was appallingly unreliable and Piquet suffered numerous retirements while in strong positions.

This caused him to finish only 5th overall in the 1984 Drivers Championship.

Answer: Brazil

After winning only one race in 1985 for Brabham, Piquet was joining a rejuvenated Williams team for 1986 who had won four races in 1985 and the new FW11 Williams-Honda was looking very competitive after preseason testing. Piquet became the first driver to win on his Williams debut by winning the season opening Brazilian Grand Prix.

He would win three other races in 1986 (German, Hungarian and Italian Grand Prix) and would finish third overall in the drivers championship behind Alain Prost and Mansell.

Answer: 9

The season did not start well for Piquet. He finished second in Brazil behind Prost, suffered a bad crash in practice after a tyre failed at the San Marino Grand Prix which caused him to miss the race and then a retirement at the Belgian Grand Prix made for a rather inauspicious start to his season. But, from Monaco to the Portuguese Grand Prix, Piquet was never off the podium.

He finished 2nd at the Monaco, Detroit, French, and British Grand Prix followed with wins in Germany and Hungary, second in Austria followed by another win in Italy and then third in Portugal.

His run of 9 podiums ended when he finished only fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix. He finished on the podium for the 11th time in Mexico.

Answer: Belgian Grand Prix

Piquet had moved to Lotus for 1988 as they still retained Honda engines. But, although pre-season testing was positive it was soon apparent from the start of the season that the McLaren's were near unbeatable. Lotus lost their Honda engines for 1989 and Lotus had to make do with customer Judd V8s.

The season was a near disaster as the new Lotus 101 was uncompetitive, and both Piquet and Nakajima failed to make the grid at the Belgian Grand Prix, the first time in 30 years a Lotus car would not make a Formula One grid.

Answer: 43

After taking much criticism during 1989, Piquet started the 1990 season with a lot to prove. From the start of the season he was competitive with a number of points-scoring positions. With the arrival of the new B190 Benetton Piquet was back at the front of the grid.

He returned to the podium with a 2nd place finish in Canada and would only finish out of the points four times all season, one of those due to a disqualification in Monaco after he was push-started after a spin. Piquet finished the season with back-to-back wins in Japan and Australia, results which lifted him to 44 points.

Answer: Indianapolis 500

With F1 passing him by, Piquet traveled to the United States to take part in the 1992 Indianapolis 500. Driving for Team Menard, Piquet passed his rookie tests with flying colours. He then spent the first week getting up to speed but on 6th day of practice, he suffered a serious accident which ended with serious leg injuries that would take Piquet a year to recover from. Undeterred, Piquet would return in 1993 and would prove to be competitive by qualifying 13th. But, his race ended after only 38 laps with engine failure.