NIGEL ROEBUCK’S FORMULA ONE HEROES
PICTURES
AFTER WINNING KARTING AND FORMULA VEE… championships in his native Brazil, Nelson Piquet came to Europe in 1977, winning innumerable F3 races before making his F1 debut with Ensign at Hockenheim the following year. After further grands prix in a privately entered McLaren, there came an invitation to drive a factory Brabham-Alfa at the final race, Montréal. It was the start of a long love affair.
Piquet was always a maverick in F1, as also was Bernie Ecclestone’s team: over the next seven seasons there were 13 victories, and twice Nelson won the world championship.
Rarely do you come across a relationship between team and driver like this one. For one thing, there was a
