Nelson Angelo Tamsma Piquet Souto Maior (born July 25, 1985), also known as Nelson Piquet Junior or Nelsinho Piquet, is a Brazilian stock car racing driver and former Formula One and Formula E driver where he was champion in the 2014–15 season, and also races a Rebellion R-One LMP1 in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The son of three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet, he was signed as test driver for Renault Formula One team for the 2007 season, and was promoted to the race team for 2008, before being dropped midway through the 2009 season. After losing his drive, it emerged that he had, under instruction from senior members of the team, crashed deliberately at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help his teammate, Fernando Alonso, win the race. The resulting scandal became one of the most significant in motor sport history, and ultimately saw a permanent end to Piquet Junior's career in Formula 1. Piquet also finished runner-up in the 2007 GP2 Series, fourth in the 2014 Global Rallycross Championship, and seventh in the 2012 NASCAR Truck Series.

Personal details

Piquet Jr., born in Heidelberg, West Germany, is the son of three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet, one of Brazil's most successful F1 drivers. Piquet's parents separated soon after he was born, and he lived in Monaco with his Dutch mother, Sylvia Tamsma, until he was eight years old, when his parents separated again. He then moved to live in Brazil with his father. "They kind of swapped me. My mother wanted me to get to know my father, she wanted me to know Brazil and the language, and she realized life in Brazil would be better for a child." Piquet has two sisters, Kelly and Julia, and four half-brothers, Geraldo, Laszlo, Pedro, and Marco.