Discover more
New FIA Formula E Champion Nelson Piquet Jr received his championship trophy in front of a packed audience at the Natural History Museum in London.
Piquet, who took the first ever major motorsport championship for a Chinese team, was presented his trophy by FIA President Jean Todt, the man who had the vision to create Formula E.
“Thanks to Adrian [Campos] and the guys at the China Racing team for believing in me,” he said. “Thanks to Qualcomm as well for helping us in the beginning. The team did an amazing job, they worked really hard, once we got our first win in Long Beach we realised we had a chance of winning the championship. It’s been incredible.
“This has opened my career again. I was able to show my potential. At NEXTEV TCR we showed that if you put a good group of guys together you are able to fight against manufacturers, you just need to be smart.
“Thank you to Alejandro [Agag] and all the sponsors, without whom we wouldn’t be here tonight.”
Piquet also received the FanBoost award after his record of six FanBoost wins. This was presented to him by Steve Pazol, the GM of Wireless Charging at Qualcomm inc. The Brazilian also picked up the Visa Fastest Lap Award for scoring the most fastest laps during the season. This Award was presented by Marc Antipof, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for Visa Europe.
For the teams’ award, representatives of all 10 teams came on stage to collect their medals from Alberto Longo the deputy CEO of Formula E and two-time Formula 1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi. But the big prize went to e.dams-Renault, who were represented by team co-owner Alain Prost.
“I want to thank all the teams because we had a very competitive season,” he said. “I want to thank Alejandro and the whole Formula E team and obviously Jean Todt and all the people at the FIA working on the series. Sometimes I have been critical but always in a positive way. I think it’s very nice to see what we have today and I think we can work more and more to make it better.
“I want to thank my partner Renault, who are going to be bigger and bigger with us and we want to challenge the China team next year to win again. And a small word to Sebastien [Buemi]… I know what it’s like to lose a championship to a Piquet family member at the last race!”
Buemi was also onstage to collect the Pole Position Award from Gian Rossi, member the Executive Board of Bank Julius Baer & Co Ltd.
The final award was for social media activation, which was given to Virgin Racing. Team Principal Alex Tai collected it on behalf of the team.