The Brazilian Grand Prix (), currently held under the name São Paulo Grand Prix (), is a Formula One championship race which is currently held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos neighborhood, Cidade Dutra, São Paulo. The inaugural Brazilian Grand Prix, held in , was held as a non-championship event, with all races from the Brazilian Grand Prix onwards held as a championship event. Previously, the race was held at Jacarepaguá from to , before returning to Interlagos in , where it has since been held.
Origins
Motor racing started in Brazil before World War II, with races on the Gávea street circuit in Rio de Janeiro starting in 1934. In 1936 construction began on Brazil's first permanent autodrome in the São Paulo neighborhood of Interlagos and was finished in 1940. Brazil held Grands Prix during the early parts of WWII at Interlagos and Gavea. Interlagos, a circuit inspired in layout by the Roosevelt Raceway in the United States quickly gained a reputation as being a tough and demanding circuit with many challenging corners, elevation changes, a rough surface, and little room for error.
Formula One
Interlagos, São Paulo A Brazilian Grand Prix was first held in 1972 at Interlagos, although it was not part of the Formula One World Championship. Typical of European motorsports at the time, this race was done as a test to convince the FIA if the Interlagos circuit and its organizers could capably hold a Grand Prix. Like most major circuits used for Grands Prix in Latin America such as the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome in Mexico City, Interlagos was (and still is) located in the confines of a sprawling urban neighborhood in a very large city. The following year, however, the race was first included in the official calendar, and it was won by defending world champion and São Paulo native Emerson Fittipaldi. In 1974, Fittipaldi won again in rain soaked conditions, and the year after, another São Paulo native, Carlos Pace, won the race in his Brabham, followed by Fittipaldi. 1977 was won by Reutemann, but the drivers began complaining about Interlagos's very rough surface, and the event was then relocated for a year to the new Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio de Janeiro.
After a year in Rio, the race returned to Interlagos, with new and upgraded facilities for the next two seasons; this race was won by Jacques Laffite to complete his and Ligier's conquest of the opening South American rounds in Argentina and Brazil. But the Interlagos surface was still very bumpy. The original arrangement from 1978 onwards was to alternate the Brazilian Grand Prix between the São Paulo and Rio circuits; the 1980 race was originally supposed to be held at Jacarepaguá but parts of that circuit (which was originally built on a swamp) were beginning to sink into the soft ground and the circuit disintegrated badly, so the 1980 Grand Prix was to be relocated to Interlagos. But by this time, the population of São Paulo had risen from 5 to 8 million over the space of 10 years; the area surrounding the track was becoming increasingly run-down and the circuit did not look good for Formula One, which thanks to worldwide television exposure was becoming something of a glamorous spectacle. Formula One was originally supposed to come back to Interlagos for the 1981 season after the track surface there had been repaved; it turned out that F1 came back a year too early. The drivers were dissatisfied with the safety conditions of the very bumpy Interlagos circuit which had not been changed after the previous year's improvements. The ground-effect wing cars of that year had a tendency to bounce up and down thanks to the suction created by the cars' wing-shaped underbodies, and they were more stiffly suspended than before; so these fragile cars were barely tolerant of such a rough track and were very unpleasant to drive. The bad surface was so rough that the bumps caused mechanical problems for some cars. Also, the barriers and catch-fence arrangements were not adequate enough for Formula One. Jody Scheckter attempted to stop the race from going ahead but this did not work and the race ended up being won by Frenchman René Arnoux. With Formula One's more glamorous image being better suited to the better-looking city of Rio de Janeiro, the F1 circus went back to Rio again and the circuit went on to host the 1980s turbo era.
Jacarepaguá, Rio de Janeiro In the Brazilian Grand Prix moved to Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro. Argentine Carlos Reutemann dominated in his Ferrari, which was equipped with Michelin tyres. This proved to be the French company's first victory in Formula One. Reutemann was followed by home favorite Fittipaldi and defending champion Niki Lauda.
After the emergence in 1980 of Rio de Janeiro racer Nelson Piquet, the decline of Interlagos and the retirement of Fittipaldi, Brazilian fans lobbied to host the Brazilian GP in Piquet's home town. The flat Jacarepaguá circuit, like Interlagos before it, proved to be extremely demanding: most corners were long and fast, some were slightly banked and the track had a very abrasive surface. Due to the FIA calendar, which invariably had the Brazilian GP at the beginning of the season thus in the Southern hemisphere summer and the tropical weather of Rio, most races were held under very high temperatures and high humidity. Due to all of those circumstances, Grands Prix at Rio were highly demanding and most drivers who won it were exhausted in the end.
In 1981, Carlos Reutemann disobeyed team orders to let his teammate Alan Jones by and took the victory (the only time it rained during the Rio race); the following year Piquet finished first and Keke Rosberg finished second but because of the FISA–FOCA war, Piquet and Rosberg were both disqualified for being underweight of minimum required in post-race scrutineering, and the race victory was given to third placed Alain Prost, who would go on to win at Jacarepaguá four more times (thus earning the nickname "the King of Rio"). The race also saw Italian Riccardo Patrese retire due to physical exhaustion (a very rare occurrence in F1, but quite common at Rio). Piquet won in 1983 and 1986, and the 1988 race was particularly notable, as up-and-coming star Ayrton Senna started from the pit-lane in his first race for McLaren; he began a furious charge that brought him up to second behind his teammate Prost; but he was disqualified for switching to his spare car after the parade lap had begun. The 1989 event was the last race at Jacarepaguá. It was won by British driver Nigel Mansell in his Ferrari, in the first Grand Prix won by a car with a semi-automatic gearbox, and it also saw German Bernd Schneider and American Eddie Cheever collide, and Cheever collapsed twice after he exited his car due to exhaustion.
Return to a new Interlagos (1990–2019, 2021–present) Driven by the Formula 1 success of São Paulo native Ayrton Senna, city officials undertook a $15 million investment of renovation of the Interlagos track to shorten and re-surface the track. In , the Brazilian Grand Prix returned to the shortened, reconfigured Interlagos, where it has been held continually since. The circuit has since been the site of many memorable and championship-deciding races in F1 history, and is frequently cited by drivers and analysts as one of the more challenging circuits on the F1 calendar.
The first race at the new Interlagos in 1990 was won by Alain Prost, who won his 40th career race (the most ever at that point in time) and his sixth Brazilian Grand Prix. It wasn't a popular win, as the events of the previous year's Japanese Grand Prix were still fresh in the minds of many Brazilians: Prost was seen as having been given the Drivers' title by FIA president Jean-Marie Balestre at Senna's expense after Senna was disqualified from that race in Japan. The Brazilian, a home favorite, finished third in Brazil after leading much of the race but then hitting his backmarker ex-teammate Satoru Nakajima in a Tyrrell. 1991 saw the patriotic Senna emotionally win his first Brazilian Grand Prix. His McLaren's manual gearbox was losing gears quickly and close to the end, he only had sixth gear left. This made the car much more difficult and physically demanding to drive, especially as weather conditions worsened (although, under normal conditions, Senna was a wet track specialist), but he still eventually won holding off Williams driver Riccardo Patrese. His exhaustion was so high that had to be extricated from his car, hitching a ride in the safety car (driven by the former driver and former team boss Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior), and almost didn't lift the trophy on the podium. 1992 saw Mansell dominate the weekend and the rest of the season. 1993 was a race of variables; it began to rain heavily early into the race and Prost, now driving a Williams, had a rare accident on the main straight and retired. Senna went on to win in a McLaren from Prost's teammate Damon Hill. 1994 saw Senna, now driving for Williams, spin his recalcitrant car going through Juncao late into the race. He was running in second, trying to catch German Michael Schumacher, who went on to win. Senna would lose his life in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix a little over a month later. 1995 was a very controversial race that initially had the cars of race winner Michael Schumacher and Britain's David Coulthard excluded for apparently using illegal fuel during the race, but then reinstated. 1996 saw Damon Hill win the second race of his championship-winning season. 1997 saw an accident at the start that involved four cars, and Canadian Jacques Villeneuve went off the course at the first corner; the race was stopped and restarted, and Villeneuve jumped into the spare car and won the race. 1998 saw a controversy surrounding McLaren – Ferrari had protested about their braking system, and it was then banned from the Brazilian Grand Prix, although it had been approved four times by FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting. It didn't matter much: Finnish McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen won the race anyway. 1999 saw local Rubens Barrichello lead for some time until the engine in his car failed, and Hakkinen won again. In 2000, Barrichello had joined Ferrari and was running second behind his team mate Schumacher (who won at the circuit for the third time) before retiring with a hydraulic failure.
The 2001 Grand Prix was notable for marking the explosive arrival of Juan Pablo Montoya onto the Formula One scene. The Colombian driver stunningly muscled his way past Michael Schumacher early on and led easily until an incident in which Arrows's Jos Verstappen ran into the back of his Williams-BMW and ended his race. Montoya did eventually laid to rest the ghost of this event by winning the 2004 race in his final Grand Prix for Williams before moving to McLaren, holding off his future teammate Kimi Räikkönen to take a hard-fought victory. The 2001 race is also notable for two brothers, Michael and Ralf Schumacher, sharing a row on the starting grid for the first time. In 2002 they finished in first and second with Ralf chasing Michael for the victory towards the end of the race.