Nelson Piquet is not one of the F1 drivers who is liked by many on the paddock. The Brazillian driver won 3 championship titles in the 1980s, but many believe that he just got lucky.
Piquet recently caught the spotlight when he made racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton in an interview in 2021. Following the controversy, he was even fined by the Brazilian government and was banned from ever entering the F1 paddock.
The 70-year-old, who is the father of Max Verstappen’s girlfriend Kelly Piquet, also claimed that the Red Bull star would smash Hamilton if the two drivers were on the same team. His choice of language in all of his interviews has upset a lot of people who adore F1.
Nelson Piquet’s brand-new excuse
While drawing parallels between Hamilton and Verstappen, Piquet also labeled the Briton’s former rival Nico Rosberg an “inferior driver.” Speaking about outperforming a rival in equal cars, Piquet was asked about his own experiences of underperforming against Nigel Mansell in similar machinery in 1986 and 1987.
Business F1 said that Piquet came up with a brand new excuse for why he was dominated in those years. “I wasn’t driving like before, because I had the accident at the beginning of the year and had field depth problems,” Piquet is quoted by the magazine. The media outlet also claimed that it is the first time that Piquet has come up with this excuse.
Nelson Piquet deemed lucky to have won 3 titles
A lot of people in Formula 1 believe that the Brazillian driver just got lucky and won the 3 championship titles in the 1980s. Business F1 claimed that Piquet won the first two of his championships in an illegal car and the last one because he had “incredible luck’ over his teammate.
One of Piquet’s former teammates even said, “Nelson’s the luckiest b**tard alive. He should have never been world champion once, let alone three times. Nigel won 11 times in 1986 and 1987. Nelson won only 7. In not one of his years of racing did he win the most races. He’s a fake.” (as quoted by Business F1)
