Nelson Piquet Souto Maior is a Brazilian former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from 1978 to 1991. Piquet won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in 1981, 1983, and 1987, and won 23 Grands Prix across 14 seasons.
Piquet had a brief career in tennis before losing interest in the sport and subsequently took up karting and hid his identity to prevent his father discovering his hobby. He became the Brazilian national karting champion in 1971–72 and won the Formula Vee Brazil championship in 1976. With advice from Emerson Fittipaldi, Piquet went to Europe to further success by taking the record number of wins in Formula Three in 1978, beating Jackie Stewart's all-time record.
In the same year, Piquet made his Formula One debut with the Ensign team and drove for McLaren and Brabham. In 1979, he moved to the Brabham team and finished the runner-up in 1980 before winning the championship in 1981. Piquet in 1982 was hampered by severe engine unreliability, but he saw a resurgence for 1983 and his second world championship.