Nelson Piquet developed a reputation for being an outspoken 'loose cannon' but Alastair Caldwell recalls his brilliance he was.

Nelson Piquet was great fun, Nelson was a fantastic person: happy, a brilliant road driver who loved cars, mad on cars. Anything with an engine he’d drive like a lunatic. He had a Mercedes which he bought himself: a 5SL saloon with a big engine. He drove it sideways all the time just to be naturally fantastic.

He’d go through the little streets Knightsbridge on opposite lock whooshing down the street. People would jump for cover in doorways, cars pulled off the road because they thought he was out of control. He wasn’t out of control at all: he was just yacking away. Fantastic road driver, so confident and so quick: just brilliant. Excitable about cars and life in general. Good bloke.

When he came to us he had a little Brazilian wife who he married when he was about nineteen. And then he came across Sylvie, who changed his whole everything. Bernie and Gordon were jealous of Sylvie. Nelson used to live close to the factory, a bit like Hamilton, right next to the factory. He came in every day and talked about cars and stuff for a while. Then Sylvie came along and suddenly he was off to Monaco and buying a flat in Monaco and no longer coming in the factory every day. They were jealous of her. She was a very confident young lady.

• 1943 Alastair's early years
• 1955 Licence to drive
• 1957 Alastair's High School years
• 1959 Evading the police
• 1960 Becoming a mechanic
• 1966 The Tasman series
• 1966 Leaving New Zealand
• 1967 Joining McLaren
• 1967 CanAm Door Catches
• 1967 Monza
• 1968 South Africa
• 1968 CanAm
• 1969 Driving the Formula 1 Cars
• 1973 Fittipaldi joins McLaren
• 1973 McLaren Team manager
• 1974 Montezemolo
• 1975 Hunt replaces Fittipaldi
• 1975 Hunt gets paid little
• 1976 Inventing the Air-Starter
• 1976 Six-speed Gear Boxes
• 1976 Misbehaving in Canada
• 1976 Japan
• 1977 Adidas Uniforms
• 1977 Changing Tyres
• 1977 Leaving McLaren
• 1979 Nelson Piquet
• 1980 Skirts on Formula 1 Cars
• 1981 Leaving Formula 1
• 1982 Making Lists
• 1982 Signing on
• 1982 Creating Space Station
• 1991 Highland Fling
• 1991 Classic Marathon
• 1992 Getting the Austin A35
• 1992 El Salvador
• 1993 Carerra Panamerica
• 1993 Centre of attention
• 1993 Nicest car in rally
• 1993 LeJog
• 2000 London to Sydney
• 2000 Porsche Racing
• 2000 Porsche Crashing
• 2001 Ferrari
• 2001 Inca Trail
• 2004 Berlin - Moscow - Berlin
• 2005 World Cup Rally
• 2007 Norway
• 2008 Liège-Brescia-Liège
• 2008 An Icelandic Odyssey
• 2008 North & West Africa
• 2009 West Coast America
• 2009 London to Casablanca
• 2010 New Zealand Festival of motor racing
• 2010 New Zealand Big Sky Adventure