Autódromo José Carlos Pace

How it began

The circuit in the south of São Paulo opened on 12 May 1940. Its name, Interlagos — “between the lakes” — comes from its location between two reservoirs. Since 1985 it has officially been called Autódromo José Carlos Pace, after the Brazilian driver who won the Grand Prix here in 1975 and died in a plane crash in 1977.

The Brazilian Grand Prix joined the World Championship in 1973: Emerson Fittipaldi won the first race for Lotus on 11 February 1973, when the lap was almost eight kilometres long. In 1978 and from 1981 to 1989 the round was held at Jacarepaguá in Rio de Janeiro, and in 1990 the race returned to Interlagos on a shortened layout; it has been held here every season since, except 2020. Since 2021 the round’s official name has been the São Paulo Grand Prix.

The track

The 4.309 km lap with fifteen corners runs anticlockwise — there are not many such tracks on the calendar. After the main straight the cars plunge downhill into the Senna S, and at the end of the lap they make a long climb through Junção up to the finish straight.

The track lies at an altitude of about 800 metres, the weather here changes quickly, and rain has turned the race upside down more than once. The grandstands are close to the track, the crowd is one of the loudest of the season, and from 2021 the round was a sprint weekend for several seasons in a row.

Memorable races

On 24 March 1991 Ayrton Senna won his home race for the first time, driving the final laps with his gearbox stuck in sixth; he had to be helped out of the car. The race on 6 April 2003 was stopped in a downpour after a series of crashes; Kimi Räikkönen was declared the winner at first, and a few days later the win went to Giancarlo Fisichella in a Jordan.

The title has often been decided here. On 2 November 2008 Lewis Hamilton became champion by passing Timo Glock at the last corner of the last lap, while Felipe Massa won the race in front of his home crowd. Räikkönen became champion here in 2007, Button in 2009 and Vettel in 2012, recovering after a spin on the first lap.

On 13 November 2022 George Russell took the first win of his career. On 3 November 2024 Max Verstappen won in the rain from seventeenth on the grid.

The 2026 season

The 2026 race is scheduled for 8 November; the sprint, held here since 2021, is not part of this weekend’s programme. The season runs under the new rules: new power units with about half of their power coming from electricity, active aerodynamics and eleven teams — Cadillac joins the championship, and Sauber is taken over by Audi.