The Brazilian Grand Prix has been a staple of the Formula 1 calendar since its first edition held in 1973 at Interlagos, the scene for all but 10 races staged at the Jacarepagua track in Rio between 1978 and 1989.
For over 30 years it was a fixture of the opening rounds of the season, holding the curtain-raiser in 1976, between 1983 and 1990, and 1994-1995. It has also hosted the final round in 2004, from 2006 to 2008, and again from 2011 to 2013.
Along the way there have been some truly momentous races, such as Nigel Mansell securing the first win for a semi-automatic gearbox with John Barnard’s groundbreaking Ferrari 640 in 1989, Ayrton Senna finally ending his home jinx in 1991 despite a failing gearbox and perhaps F1’s most famous title-decider, as Lewis Hamilton snatched the 2008 championship away from Felipe Massa by passing Timo Glock at the final corner.
That made it a tricky task for Autosport’s pool of writers to devise a list of our favourite Brazilian Grand Prix. Here’s what we came up with.
1973, Fittipaldi delivers home crowds a treat – Richard Asher
Fittipaldi scored a home triumph in the first world championship Brazilian Grand Prix to begin his title defence
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Sergio Perez probably won’t believe this, but sometimes the script runs exactly the way it should in your home grand prix. Maybe even on its first appearance on the world championship calendar.
Here’s the set-up. Emerson Fittipaldi had become Brazil’s first grand prix winner in 1970 and its first world champion in 1972. But while neighbouring Argentina already had a long association with F1, Brazil had never featured on the championship schedule. Fittipaldi’s success had increased the clamour to change that, which led to a non-points Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos early in Emerson’s first title-winning season. The home hero, who’d grown up right there in Sao Paulo, duly took pole. But his retirement late in the race had left an Argentinean, Carlos Reutemann, to win for Brabham.
That brings us to the first world championship Brazilian GP the following February. ‘Emmo’ arrived back in his home town not only as world champion, but as winner of the opening round of his title defence in Buenos Aires. It’s fair to say there was a fair degree of anticipation in the crowd overlooking the crazy switchbacks of the original, 4.946-mile Interlagos circuit.
As that year’s John Player Motorsport Yearbook put it, he had been…
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