Interlagos through the eyes of a Formula One master
Aston Martin invites the racing world into the character and chaos of Brazil's most storied circuit, that peculiar theatre between the lakes where drama unfolds at every apex and caution flags bloom like tropical flowers.
AI-assisted voice playback. Starts only when you choose Play.
The Brazilian flag catches the wind against a ceasefire sky, palm fronds rising behind it in that distinctive São Paulo light. Interlagos, the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, sits 800 metres above sea level, only Mexico climbing higher among Formula One’s venues, and the altitude lends the air a particular clarity that feels almost accusatory as the season reaches its crescendo. The circuit has hosted the World Championship since 1973, and Brazil has motorsport ingrained in its culture; the country held its first Grand Prix races back in the 1930s.
This is not a circuit for the faint hearted. Interlagos is a very old style circuit, very bumpy, and the car feels alive at the track, moving around all the time as drivers push relentlessly. The fans are very close to the circuit and incredibly loud, turning what might elsewhere be a clinical racing laboratory into something altogether more visceral, more human. It is a small circuit but there is a lot of character to it.
For Aston Martin, the São Paulo Grand Prix brings both memory and ambition. Strong pace from Fernando Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll at Interlagos saw the duo secure third and fifth to inject much needed optimism back into the team. The circuit rewards precision and courage in equal measure, where qualifying separates the thoughtful from the merely quick. The run to the first corner is short, with drivers braking hard into the Senna S and accelerating as early as possible for a launch through Curva do Sol and onto the following DRS straight. Safety cars bloom frequently here, reshaping strategy and fortune in the span of a lap.
Through the insight of those who know this place intimately, Aston Martin draws back the curtain on what makes Interlagos unlike any other place on the Formula One calendar. A circuit of bumps and character, of roaring crowds and racing that refuses to be tamed, where the Brazil that gave the world Emerson Fittipaldi and Ayrton Senna still pulses through the tarmac.
Imagery courtesy of Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team (@astonmartinf1).