Nelson Piquet Jr

The younger Piquet completes a trio of sons of former Grand Prix drivers all currently competing together in the 2008 season. Of the three, Nelshino appears to have arrived in Formula 1 under the most pressure in having to live up to in emulating his triple-world champion father.

Born in Heidelberg, the young Piquet’s early years were spent in Europe with his mother, his parents being separated soon after his birth. However, at he age of eight Nelson Jr moved to Brazil to be with his father, and was soon immersed in learning the Brazilian way of life.

It was perhaps natural the Nelsinho should hanker after a taste of motor sport, and by 1993 the youngster was taking his first tentative steps in the karting world. In his early years, he was often racing with just the help of a mechanic whilst his father was busy building up his various business interests.

By 2001 he was ready to move in the Formula three Sudamerican series, and his father was able to put together the Piquet Sports team for the fledgling racer to start his single seater career. In his first season the rookie took a win and a pole in just seven starts, so he was well fancied to be a contender in his sophomore year. In fact, he was the dominant force, storming to the championship taking 13 wins and 16 pole positions from his seventeen starts.

Obviously, the youngster had to head to Europe to build his burgeoning career, and he chose to contest the BRDC British Formula 3 championship. Despite his unfamiliarity with the tracks and having to adapt to Avon control tyres, the youngster soon got to grips with the competition and grew ever stronger as the season progressed. The title rightly went to the more experienced Alan van de Merwe, but Piquet took six wins and eight pole positions on his way to third place in the series. He further enhanced his reputation with a pole position, and a second place finish behind the F1 bound Christian Klien in the prestigious Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort.

He was a heavy favourite to take the title outright in 2004 and perhaps, taking a leaf from the book of father, Nelson Jr’s calculated approach brought podiums aplenty. But it was the eighth race of the season that finally produced the first of his six wins with Piquet eventually finishing comfortably clear of the dogged Adam Carroll in the Championship standings.

For 2005 Piquet and his team moved up into the GP2 series and for a while he looked out of his depth, particularly with some very experienced and some extremely talented opposition, such as eventual champion Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen. His only win of the year at Spa was the highlight, but it was somewhat tainted by an incident in witch he eliminated another contender. The end of term report was no doubt something along the lines of: Shows promise, but must do better…

Indeed he was right on the pace the following year, and a win in the opening race in Valencia bode well, but he was to soon to come against the stunning talent of Lewis Hamilton who quickly began to dominate the series. Indeed it was to the Brazilian’s credit that carried the fight for the GP2 crown to final round in Monza, having won both races at the Hungaroring and added another in Istanbul. In the end Hamilton’s had enough of a points cushion to close out the championship, but Nelsinho had given him a good run for his money and the two youngsters were the series’ outstanding talents.

His performances were impressive enough to earn him a place as the test driver at Renault for 2007. Unfortunately the Championship team had lost their way with the R27 chassis and the young Brazilian was often left in the garage as drivers Fisichella and Kovalainen strove to bring the car back to some sort of competitive edge. It was to be a stressful time for Nelsinho as he was forced to wait patiently to see if he was to be offered a race seat for the 2008 season. In the both incumbents were released and Piquet was given the chance to partner the returning Fernando Alonso.

His long awaited Grand Prix debut came in Melbourne was a huge anti-climax, qualifying poorly and then suffering accident damage in the race. However, a solid effort a week later in Malaysia put things into perspective, with the young Piquet bringing the car home unlapped in eleventh place.

If his career record is anything to go by we can expect the serious-minded Piquet to consistently improve as he beds himself into Formula 1, hoping to maximise his big chance at a top team.