The now infamous Nelson Piquet Jr (or Jr Jr as per Grace) will make his return to internal combustion engine-powered single-seater formula car racing this weekend on the Streets of Toroto. Piquet takes over the #14 Carlin Indy Lights seat vacated by Max Chilton as Chilton heads to Le Mans in preparation to race the new Nissan LMP1 racer.
“I’m really looking forward to my Indy Lights debut with Carlin. I’ve been competing in a broad range of racing over the past few years and this will be another new experience for me. I love open wheel racing but haven’t yet tried it in a US based series, so Toronto is going to be interesting. I can’t wait to get in the car and see what we can do.” — Nelson Piquet, Jr. #14 Carlin
Having had experience in Formula 1 and Formula E, street races will be no stranger to Piquet, but this will certainly be a level of equipment beyond that to which he’s been accustom lately. Aside from his recent Formula E experience, Piquet has been wheeling tin-tops around ovals in the various NASCAR levels and hooning in parking lots in the Global Rallycross. All three forms of motorsport have their own challenges and thrills, but they’re not quite the same as blasting a 450-hp, turbo-charged, formula car through narrow and bumpy city streets. Hopefully, Nelsinho can familiarize himself with the IL-15 chassis and Mazda power quickly. Toronto is very unforgiving and mistakes get expensive quickly.
