Nelson Piquet prized as a good player but not thought sufficiently exciting for the sport, which led him to devote his career to motor racing. Piquet dropped out of a University two years into an engineering course in 1974. He was subsequently employed in a garage to finance his career, since he had no financial support from his family Upon returning to Brazil, Piquet and three friends brought a 20 hp cart and participated in Brazilian go-karting (1971 and 1972 national champion) and in the local Formula Super Vee 1976 championship, on the advice of Emerson Fittipaldi, the first Brazilian Formula One
Nelson Piquet (possibly due to his father wanting him to be a tennis player), and teardrop shapes filling in the round areas on the sides and top. The seam and teardrops were usually red or orange with black trim, but some parts were yellow during his Lotus years due to the Camel sponsorship, and reverted to a deep red when he left Lotus for Benetton. His son followed his helmet design. Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance. Nelson Piquet Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born August 17, 1952), known as Nelson