“People have this stupid mentality that because you are in Formula One you are the best driver. That doesn’t mean anything. A driver always learns more and more. Today I’m learning. Tomorrow I’ll be learning. I’m better than I was two weeks ago. I’m better than I was last year and I’m gonna be better every time I jump in a car.”
In some respects, Nelson Piquet Jnr’s indelicate ejection from Formula One was the best thing that could have happened to him - although like all catalysts it’s rarely acknowledged it at the time. The events surrounding ‘crashgate’ at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix have been played out ad nauseum to indulge further on these pages, but if public perception of Piquet up until that flashpoint was one of an unconscious servant, then the last few months have shattered those preconceptions entirely.
Despite winning a libel case against Renault, the Piquet’s (Nelson’s father and three-time F1 world champion being the chief instigator for the lawsuit) reputation took a bigger hit than the aforementioned manufacturer. As such, Piquet Jnr would have to ply his trade elsewhere in pastures green.
“F1 has been deprived of the best of Nelsinho”, said the Piquet’s lawyer after completion of the hearing. “It is to its detriment that his talent is now being demonstrate elsewhere”.
Such eulogizing is nothing less than what you would expect from a solicitor, yet I doubt even this legal eagle could imagine how prophetic the words typed on his hymn sheet would become.
Like an executive who has found himself working in the mailroom, ‘Nelsinho’ made a quiet retreat back to base camp; starting career 2.0 in NASCAR’s third-tier truck series in the summer of 2010.
The side-step couldn’t have been further away from the dizzy heights of Formula One, but a necessary stride in his personal development. Intriguingly Piquet’s predicament mirrored that of WRC star Andreas Mikkelsen’s.
Having made a spectacular World Rally Championship debut in 2006, the GFC pulled the financial rug from underneath Mikkelsen’s father and chief benefactor, yet being forced to start over in the lower rally categories won Andreas the hearts of Norwegian rally fans and strengthened his resolve upon returning to the premier category.
Image: FIA FORMULA E