Piquet, one of just three Brazilians to win the Formula One world championship, lost his license in June after receiving a slew of speeding and parking tickets. His wife, Viviane, also had her license taken away for bad driving and joined her husband in the mandatory driver awareness course.

"I think we have to pay for our mistakes," Piquet, 54, told local news agency G1. "It's not even just a speeding problem. I got tickets for all kinds of reasons, for things like parking where I shouldn't."

Piquet and his wife, whose 21-year-old son is an up-and-coming test car driver for the Renault Formula One team, will have to attend 30 hours of classes over eight days and pass an exam before regaining their licenses.

Piquet is one of the best-known race car drivers to come out of Brazil, having won the Formula One championship in 1981, 1983 and 1987.