Nelson Piquet career. Piquet is currently retired and runs several businesses in Brazil. He also manages his sons Nelson Piquet Jr. and Pedro Piquet, who are also professional racing drivers. Piquet was born in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, the son of Estácio Gonçalves Souto Maior, a Brazilian physician. His father moved his family to the new capital, Brasília, in 1960 and became Minister for Health in João Goulart's government (1961–64). Piquet had two brothers, Alexis, and Geraldo, and a sister Genusa. Piquet was the youngest of the children. Piquet started kart racing at the age of 14, but
Renault Formula One crash controversy Engineering with Renault F1 having worked for the Benetton team, and having entered Formula One with Benetton's predecessor Toleman Motosport in the early 1980s. Brazilian racing car driver Nelson Piquet Jr. – son of the Formula One triple-world champion Nelson Piquet – joined the Renault F1 team as the second car driver alongside Alonso for the 2008 season, having been their reserve and test driver during 2007. Since October 2006, Piquet Jr. was also personally contracted to Flavio Briatore's management company FFBB. Before the Singapore incident, Renault F1 had not won a race for almost two years (the last Grand