ME AND MY LID
Even if the inspiration behind it has been long forgotten, the simple design of Nelson Piquet’s helmet remained basically unchanged
Nelson Piquet’s design inspiration
It’s such a long time ago that I don’t really remember how the design came to me. It was just something I drew myself.
As a kid I played a lot of tennis, and my parents sent me to America to be coached and learn English. That also helped when I started in motor racing, because I worked at the Brazilian Grand Prix as a translator, and it was through that I met a lot of people.
My parents didn’t want me to do motor racing so instead of racing under my own name [Souto Maior] I raced under my mother’s [maiden] name and wrote it as ‘Piket’. The shapes on the helmet are a bit like those on a tennis ball and it was only the sponsors and some of the colours changed down the years I raced in Formula 1. At first I had the name ‘Piket’ written on the side. Then they found out of course… F1 RACING JUNE 2018