Nelson Piquet Net Worth (Kelly Piquet Father)
Nelson Piquet has a net worth of $200 million as of 2022, he is a former racing driver and businessman. Since his retirement, Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been ranked among the greatest Formula One drivers in various motorsport polls.
Piquet is the owner of the yacht Pilar Rossi and the jet (PR-JAQ) Cessna Citation. His current source of wealth is from his own founded company; Autotrac. Nelson is one of the richest Race Car Drivers & listed as the most popular Race Car Driver.
Nelson Piquet Career
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (Portuguese pronunciation: [nws pike], born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian former racing driver and businessman best known as Nelson Piquet. Piquet, a three-time World Champion, has been voted among the best Formula One drivers in various polls since his retirement.
Piquet had a brief tennis career before losing interest in the sport and switching to karting, concealing his identity to keep his father from finding out about his new hobby. In 1971–72, he won the Brazilian national karting championship, and in 1976, he won the Formula Vee championship. With the help of Emerson Fittipaldi, Piquet went to Europe and continued his success, winning the most races in Formula Three in 1978, breaking Jackie Stewart’s record.
He made his Formula One debut with the Ensign team in the same year and later drove for McLaren and Brabham. Piquet joined the Brabham team in 1979, finishing second in 1980 before winning the championship in 1981.
Piquet’s poor performance in 1982 resulted in a comeback in 1983, when he won his second world championship. Piquet had lost chances to win the championship in 1984–85, but he did manage to win three games during that time.
In 1986, he joined the Williams team and was a title contender until the final round of the Australian Grand Prix. In 1987, Piquet won his third and final championship after a tense battle with teammate Nigel Mansell that soured their relationship.
Piquet then moved to Lotus for the 1988–89 season, where he suffered his third drop in form. He later joined the Benetton team for the 1990–91 season, winning three races before retiring.
Piquet tried his hand at the Indianapolis 500 for two years after retiring from Formula One. Throughout and after his Formula One career, he also dabbled in sports car racing. Piquet is now retired and owns and operates several businesses in Brazil. Nelson Piquet Jr. and Pedro Piquet, both professional race drivers, are managed by him.
Nelson Piquet Age Now
Piquet is 70 years of age as of 2022, he was born on 17 August 1952, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has been celebrating his birthday every year together with his family and friends.
| Year | 2022 | 2023 |
| Nelson Piquet Souto Maior Age | 70 years | 71 years |
Nelson Piquet Family
Piquet was born on August 17, 1952, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s capital at the time. He was the son of Brazilian physician Estácio Gonçalves Souto Maior (1913–1974). In 1960, his father relocated his family to Brasilia, the new capital, and served as Minister of Health in Joo Goulart’s government (1961–64). Alexis and Geraldo Piquet had two brothers and a sister, Genusa. Piquet was the smallest of the group.
Piquet began kart racing at the age of 14, but because his father disapproved of his racing career, he hid his identity by misspelling his mother’s maiden name Piquet (of French origin and pronounced “Pee-Ké”) as Piket.
Piquet’s father wanted him to be a professional tennis player, and he received a scholarship to a school in Atlanta to pursue his dream. Piquet began playing tennis when he was 11 years old.
He won tournaments in Brazil and later traveled to California to put his skills to the test against more experienced American players. He had greatly matured and learned English during his time there.
Piquet’s brief tennis career saw him praised as a good player but not considered exciting enough for the sport, leading him to pursue a career in motor racing.
In 1974, two years into an engineering program at a university, Piquet dropped out. Due to the lack of financial support from his family, he was forced to work in a garage to fund his career.
On the advice of Emerson Fittipaldi, the first Brazilian Formula One world champion, who sold the chassis for the Brazilian Formula Vee champion car with his brother, Piquet and three friends returned to Brazil and competed in Brazilian go-karting (1971 and 1972 national champion) and the local Formula Super Vee 1976 championship.
He arrived in European motor sports hailed as a prodigy. He broke Jackie Stewart’s record for most wins in a season in the 1978 British Formula 3 season.
Nelson Piquet Wife and Personal Life
Piquet, who was known as a practical joker, led a stereotypically playboy racing driver lifestyle, earning, losing, and then earning again a series of small fortunes through his business dealings. He is still a competitive driver in sports car racing, though he does it more for fun than for profit. He was never a fan of street circuits (except in Australia), and he famously said that winning in Monaco was like “riding a bicycle around your living room,” but that “a win there was worth two anywhere else.”
Piquet’s first marriage, to Brazilian Maria Clara, ended in 1976 after only a year together. Geraldo Piquet is their only child (born 1977). Nelson Angelo Piquet (born 1985), Kelly Piquet (born 1988), and Julia Piquet are his three children from his second marriage to Sylvia Tamsma (who had previously dated Elio de Angelis) (born 1992). Laszlo Piquet was born in 1987, but his mother is Katherine Valentin (Piquet’s girlfriend when he was separated from Sylvia for a short time). He is married to Vivianne de Souza Leo of Brazil, with whom he has two children, Pedro Estacio Piquet (born 1998) and Marco Piquet (born 2000).
After multiple speeding and parking violations, Piquet’s civilian driving license was revoked on July 31, 2007, and he was ordered by Brazilian courts to attend a week of lessons in order to “learn good and safe driving conduct,” as well as pass an exam. Viviane, his wife, received the same sentence. Piquet told Brazilian media, “I think we have to pay for our mistakes.” “It’s not just speeding; I’ve gotten tickets for a variety of things, including parking where I shouldn’t.”
In 2000, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, and two racing circuits in Rio de Janeiro (formerly the Jacarepaguá Circuit) and Brasilia were named “Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet,” though the Rio circuit has since been demolished to make way for venues for the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro. Piquet has been regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers since his retirement. In 2009, Autosport ranked him 13th, and in 2012, BBC Sport ranked him 16th.
Piquet revealed in a 2012 interview with former Williams teammate Nigel Mansell on Brazilian television that he had never been the same since his accident at Imola in 1987.
He lost 80% of his depth perception in the crash and had to visit a hospital in Milan every two weeks for the rest of the season, fearing that if he told his team, they would not let him drive.
He went on to say that he should have won the championship in 1986 and Mansell should have won in 1987, and that he only raced for money after 1987 because his condition prevented him from leading races from the front (each of his six wins following his Imola accident were inherited from others dropping out late).
Piquet underwent heart surgery on November 11, 2013, and made a full recovery.