There is no doubt that Kelly Piquet’s father, Nelson Piquet, is a well-wisher of Max Verstappen. The former F1 driver does not leave out opportunities to appreciate the Dutchman’s talent.
In doing so, the Brazillian 3-time world champion drew parallels between Verstappen and his fiercest rival Lewis Hamilton. Piquet said that if the duo were to be in the same machinery, Verstappen would smash Hamilton.
“It is difficult to make direct comparisons between two drivers if they are not on the same team but I believe if Max were driving for Mercedes, I’m sure that he would smash Hamilton. I believe he would come out on top in a side-by-side challenge,” Piquet told Autosport as quoted by Business F1.
Nelson Piquet has biased views on Max Verstappen
The report in Business F1 also claimed that Piquets’s views on the matter are clearly biased since his daughter Kelly Piquet is dating the Red Bull star. Max Verstappen and Kelly Piquet have been together since the end of 2020 after the Brazillian model split up from her long-time boyfriend and former Red Bull driver, Daniil Kvyat.
Kelly and Daniil also had a child who they named Penelope, but ever since the split, the little P spends her family time with the Piquet family and playing with Verstappen. On several of Verstappen’s Twitch live streams, fans have seen Verstappen babysitting Penelope as he plays video games.
The strong bond between the duo strongly indicates that Nelson’s opinions on Verstappen come from a very biased perspective. Furthermore, Business F1 noted that Piquet was not only critical of Hamilton but also demeaned Nico Rosberg by calling him an ‘inferior driver.’
Nelson Piquet is a fake
Piquet won 3 championship titles in the 1980s but was dominated twice by his teammate Nigel Mansell in ‘equal’ cars in 1986 and 1987. But Business F1 noted that Piquet found an excuse for his subpar performance in those seasons as he said, “I wasn’t driving like before, because I had the accident at the beginning of the year and had field depth problems.”
Nevertheless, as Piquet Sr is not a very likable driver in the F1 world many have divulged versions of the truth about Piquet’s championships and underperformance. As per Business F1, many people believe that Piquet got lucky in all his championship-winning years.
The magazine further noted that the first two of Piquet’s championships were won in an illegal car while the third was just out of luck. A former teammate also said, “Nelson’s the luckiest b*****d alive. He should have never been a world champion once, let alone 3 times. Nigel won 11 times in 1986 and 1987. Nelson won only 7. Not in a single year he won the most races. He’s a fake,”
