Olá and welcome to Brazil for São Paulo Grand Prix for what will be another adrenaline-pumping race at the iconic Interlagos as it’s another Sprint Weekend.
This will be the fourth year in row that the São Paulo Grand Prix is a Sprint Race weekend, and it always proves popular with the fans and drivers. Last year was huge for the Team. Max won his 17th race of the season, and the Team overtook Mercedes as the team to win the most constructors’ points in a season.
Looking back further, Max won in 2019 as well, but apart from that the Team hadn’t won in Brazil since 2013, when Sebastian Vettel stood on the top step, alongside Mark Webber who signed off his Formula One career in P2 at Interlagos. In fact, Mark and Seb managed three one-two finishes at Interlagos in those double-winning championship years.
The Autódromo José Carlos Pace, or Interlagos as it’s more famously known, is an old circuit originally built in 1938 and therefore has some fantastic racing elements including banked turns, a twisty infield section and long straights with swooping turns and challenging cambers. It’s an old circuit, but one that is much loved by the drivers and the fans who turn up in their thousands to make it a party atmosphere. The current configuration is a 15-turn (10 left-handed, 5 right-handed) 4.309km track with two DRS zones. This all makes for exciting lunges and last ditch overtakes.
There’s only a short run up to turn one, but the longest flat-out section is 1,394m long. The drivers will be at full throttle for 56% of the lap and will change gear approximately 36 times. The Sprint Race will be 24-laps, whilst the Grand Prix consists of 71 rotations. Valtteri Bottas holds the lap record of 1:10.540, which he set in his Mercedes in 2018.
The Bulls will be on track on Friday at 11:30 track time for the first – and only – practice session of the weekend before heading into Sprint Qualifying. Make sure you check back here for all the latest news, videos and action from the track.