Max Verstappen is close to winning his first world championship in Formula One. He is 21 points ahead of his rival, Lewis Hamilton, in the championship. As everyone knows, Max has motorsport in his blood as his father, Jos, is a former F1 driver. But not people know he has a connection to F1 from his girlfriend’s side as well. Max’s girlfriend is Kelly Piquet, who is the daughter of former three-time world champion Nelson Piquet.

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Who is Nelson Piquet, the father of Verstappen’s girlfriend?

Piquet is regarded as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time who hails from Brazil. He has raced against the likes of Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, and Ayrton Senna in his career. He won his three world championships in 1981, 1983, and 1987 and also finished runner-up in 1980 to Alan Jones.

Piquet won 23 races in his career with 24 pole positions and 60 podiums. He won his first race at the 1980 United States Grand Prix with Brabham Racing. All throughout his F1 career, Nelson was known for his aggressive and technically superior race craft on the grid in the 80s.

But he garnered a bad reputation for being flamboyant, out-spoken, and difficult to get along with. He had received criticism for his erratic behavior from fellow drivers such as Senna, Mansell, and Prost.

He also garnered attention for not playing by the rules set by then-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. Piquet still remains one of the few drivers to stand up against the strict regime of Bernie.

But many had appreciated his feats on the racetrack. We can see his skills behind the wheel in his race-winning overtake on Ayrton Senna at the 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix, which is regarded as one of the best in the sport’s history.

He won his final world championship in 1987 in the most clinical fashion; he won it on the ‘percentage driving policy’ as he had fewer wins than Mansell that season but had more points.

In his final years in F1, he won 3 races with Lotus with his last win in the 1991 Canadian Grand Prix. He retired after the last race in 1991 in Australia.