One of the best drivers in F1 history during the 1980s was Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet, who has won three world champion titles, driving the Brephem and the Williams. Piquet was a public favorite and one of the people who marked the era of turbo engines in Formula 1.
He was born on August 17, 1952 in Rio de Janeiro as Nelson Souto Maior. He grew up in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, because his father was a politician and health minister in the Brazilian government. In his youth he showed a great passion for the sport of racing, but that did not meet the approval of his father. He spent a year at university in California, where he completed an auto mechanic course. After returning to Brazil he began to compete in the Brazilian Karting Championship. In a Formula 1 race held in Brazil in 1976, which was not driven by winning championship points, Pike found his first job in Formula One. He washed the car parts at the Brabham team. At that time no one could imagine that he would later become Formula 1 world champion driving for that team.
He entered the championship in 1978. That year, Pike became British Formula 3 champion, and Bernie Ecclestone, who was the owner of the Brabham team, quickly noticed.
Soon, Nelson Pike won the first championship in 1981. Two years later, he won his second title also driving for Brabham. That second title in 1983 was significant in that Pike became the first driver to win the title with a turbo engine. Turbo engines have marked the rest of the decade.
In the late eighties Pike moved to the Williams team, with which he won the championship in 1987. At that time, there was a great rivalry between him and his teammate, the English driver Nigel Mensell. Both, and MekLaren drivers Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, marked the second half of the eighties in F1 history.
He retired from racing without major incident, although he has started more than 200 races. In 1992, at the Indy 500 race in Indianapolis, he had an accident in which he seriously injured his legs.