Here are all the facts and statistics you need to know about the Interlagos circuit ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix!
Track length: 4.309km
Race length: 305.879km
Laps: 71
Turns: 15
Circuit opened: 1940
F1 first visited: 1973
Races held: 40
Track Record: 1:07.281, Lewis Hamilton, 2018
Lap Record: 1:10.540, Valtteri Bottas, 2018
RACE WINNERS
Since 1973, 40 F1 races have been held at the Interlagos circuit as a round of the World Championship. The Brazilian Grand Prix has been held here 37 times, with the event changing its name to the Sao Paulo Grand Prix from 2021 onwards.
From the 40 World Championship races held at Interlagos, there have been 25different winners of the race.
Schumacher has won the most Interlagos races
Michael Schumacher has had more victories at the circuit than any other driver, with four.
From the current grid, there are three previous winners of Grands Prix held at Interlagos. Lewis Hamilton have won here the most times from drivers on the current grid, with three victories. Max Verstappen won his first Brazilian Grand Prix in 2019 before adding a second Interlagos victory to his tally in 2023, while George Russell took his maiden Grand Prix victory at Interlagos in 2022.
German drivers are the most successful here, with nine wins between them.
Emerson Fittipaldi, Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Juan Pablo Montoya and Nico Rosberg are the five drivers who have taken back-to-back wins at Interlagos. No driver has taken more than two wins in a row here.
The longest streak of different winners at Interlagos came between 1974 and 1992, when there were no repeat winners in all of the nine races held in the period.
Two Grand Slams have been recorded in Sao Paulo
Two drivers have recorded Grand Slams at the Interlagos circuit. Jacques Laffite took pole, set the fastest lap and led every lap on his way to victory at the 1979 Brazilian Grand Prix, while Mika Hakkinen achieved the same feat at the 1998 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Ferrari have the most wins of any team at Interlagos
Ferrari are the team with the most wins at Interlagos, with nine – one ahead of McLaren.
Mercedes are the most successful engine manufacturer at Interlagos, with a Mercedes-powered car winning here for the 11th time in 2022.
There have been 10 occasions on which a team has recorded a 1-2 finish at Interlagos. It most recently happened in 2022, when Mercedes’ drivers finished first and second. Mercedes share the record for most 1-2 results at the track with Red Bull.
Ferrari, Benetton, Williams, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes are the six teams who have taken successive victories at Interlagos. No team has taken more than three consecutive wins at the circuit.
Two Interlagos races have been by less than a second
The smallest win margin at Interlagos came in 2002, when Michael Schumacher took victory by just 0.588 seconds, while his win here in 1994 was won by over a lap; both the largest win margin seen at the track and the penultimate time any Grand Prix was won by over a lap.
15 races here have been won by less than five seconds, including three of the last six Grands Prix at Interlagos.
From the last ten races at Interlagos, the average win margin is 6.173 seconds.
ON THE PODIUM
49 different drivers have finished on the podium at Interlagos.
Schumacher has had the most podium finishes in Brazil
Michael Schumacher has had more top three finishes here than any other driver, with ten podium appearances.
Eight drivers on the current grid have previously finished on the podium at Interlagos. Despite never winning here, Fernando Alonso has finished on the podium on nine occasions. Lewis Hamilton has seven podiums here, Max Verstappen has five, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz each have two, while Pierre Gasly, George Russell and Lando Norris have each taken one top three finish at the track.
Lando Norris’ podium at the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix saw Britain equal Germany’s record of most podiums for a nation at Interlagos. Both nations have had 23 top three finishes at the circuit.
Ferrari have the most podium finishes of any team
Ferrari lead the way in team appearances on the podium at Interlagos, with 28.
The furthest back podium at the track came from 20th on the grid
The driver who started from pole position has gone on to finish on the podium at Interlagos on 27 occasions, including in all of the last ten races at the track.
The furthest back grid slot to score a podium finish at the circuit is 20th, which happened in the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix, when Carlos Sainz finished third having started from the back of the grid.
Podium finishes from outside the top three positions on the grid have become increasingly common at Interlagos in recent years. Of the last 15 podium finishes, eight have come from 4th or further back on the grid.
The 1980 and 2003 Brazilian Grands Prix are the only races at Interlagos in which none of the top three qualifiers have finished on the podium.
There have been five races here where all of the top three qualifiers have gone on to finish on the podium, including three times in the last nine races at the track.
There have been three occasions – 1979, 2014 and 2015 – on which the top three have finished in the order in which they started at this circuit.
LEARN MORE ABOUT INTERLAGOS
POLESITTERS
In the 40 races held at Interlagos, 24 different drivers have started from pole position.
Five drivers share the record for most Sao Paulo poles
Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton are all tied as the most successful qualifiers here, with three poles each.
There are six drivers on the current grid who have previously taken pole at this circuit. Lewis Hamilton has done so a record-equalling three times so far, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen have taken pole twice, while Fernando Alonso and Kevin Magnussen have each taken pole position at Interlagos once.
While Magnussen took pole in Friday qualifying at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, it was George Russell who lined up at the front of the grid for Sunday’s race as a result of winning the Saturday Sprint race.
The Sprint format was also used at the 2021 Brazilian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton was fastest in Friday qualifying but was disqualified due to a DRS infringement. Max Verstappen therefore started from the front of the grid for the sprint event, but Valtteri Bottas secured pole position for the Grand Prix.
James Hunt, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill, Mika Hakkinen, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg are the seven drivers who’ve taken back-to-back poles at the Interlagos circuit.
Mika Hakkinen and Felipe Massa share the record for most consecutive poles here; Hakkinen took three in a row between 1998 and 2000 and Massa did the same between 2006 and 2008.
Brazilian drivers have had more poles at this event than drivers from any other nation, with home drivers Ayrton Senna, Rubens Barrichello, Felipe Massa and Emerson Fittipaldi sharing ten poles for the country.
McLaren have the most poles of any team at the track
McLaren are the team with the most poles at Interlagos, having set the fastest lap time in qualifying on nine occasions.
McLaren, Williams, Ferrari and Mercedes are the only teams to have taken successive poles at Interlagos. The record for most consecutive team poles at the track is six, recorded by Williams between 1992 and 1997.
There have been 13 occasions on which a team has locked out the front row of the grid at Interlagos. At the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Mercedes became the first team to do so since 2016.
Mansell is the only driver to take pole by over a second
The largest pole margin at Interlagos came in 1992, when Nigel Mansell set the fastest time by 1.191 seconds. It’s the only time pole has been decided by more than a second here.
Pole has been decided by less than a tenth of a second on ten occasions, including seven times in the past 13 races. The smallest pole margin was in 2003, when Rubens Barrichello took the fastest time by just 0.011 seconds.
From the last ten races at the circuit, the average pole margin in conventional qualifying at Interlagos has been 0.155 seconds.
SATURDAY TO SUNDAY
18 races here have been won from pole, including seven of the last nine, while 30 have been won from the front row of the grid.
Since 2004, the 2007 and 2021 Brazilian Grands Prix are the only two to have been won from lower than second on the grid.
The polesitter has finished on the podium without winning the race nine times at Interlagos.
The furthest back win at the track came in 2021, when Lewis Hamilton won from tenth on the grid. The previous record was from 2003, when Giancarlo Fisichella won for Jordan from eighth on the grid.
There have been 13 occasions on which the polesitter did not lead at the end of Lap 1 at Interlagos. Since 2005, this has happened only three times.
There have been only two occasions on which the polesitter has not crossed the line within the top three positions at the end of Lap 1. It happened in 1973, when Ronnie Peterson crossed the line fourth and in 2002, when Juan Pablo Montoya crossed the line only 20th, after needing to pit for a new front wing.
SUNDAY STATISTICS
So far, 2,601 Grand Prix racing laps have been completed at the Interlagos circuit.
In 2023, Fernando Alonso surpassed Michael Schumacher as the driver to have raced the most Grand Prix laps at the track, having lapped the circuit 1,282 times on Sunday afternoons.
From the 918 cars which have entered a Formula 1 race at the Interlagos circuit, 887 have qualified for races and all but six of those have started the race. From the 881 cars which have started races here, 569 have reached the chequered flag. That gives an overall finish rate of 64.6%.
The highest number of drivers to finish a race at the track is 23, which happened in 2010. The 1977 Brazilian Grand Prix saw fewer finishers here than at any other Interlagos race. Just seven of the 22 starters reached the chequered flag.
The most drivers to finish all the laps of a Brazilian Grand Prix is 16, which happened in both 2016 and 2022. 1975, 2009, 2016 and 2022 are the only races at Interlagos where ten or more drivers have finished on the lead lap.
Schumacher holds the record for most fastest laps at the track
Michael Schumacher has taken more fastest laps at Interlagos than any other driver. He’s set the Sunday pace on five occasions.
McLaren have the most fastest laps of any team at Interlagos, with nine.
Schumacher has led more laps at Interlagos than any other driver
Michael Schumacher holds the record for most laps led in Sao Paulo, having spent 236 laps at the front of the field.
42 drivers have led a lap at the track in total, including 17 drivers who’ve led laps but never won a race at the circuit.
Rubens Barrichello holds the unwanted record of most laps led at Interlagos without a victory. In total, he spent 60 laps of his home event at the head of the field.
There have been only six Interlagos races in which the winner has led every lap of the race.
There have been eight races at Interlagos in which the winner has not been the driver who led the most laps of the race.
Giancarlo Fisichella holds the record for the fewest laps led en route to victory at Interlagos. He led only a single lap of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix before being declared the winner.
The highest number of different drivers to lead a lap in a race at Interlagos is five, which happened at the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Red Flags and Safety Cars in Sao Paulo
14 of the last 22 Brazilian Grands Prix have featured a Safety Car. The highest number of Safety Car periods in one race at the track is five, which occurred in 2016.
Nine races at Interlagos have been affected by rain.
Five races here have been red-flagged. It happened in 1974, 1997, 2003, 2016 and 2023. The 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix was red-flagged twice.
The 1974 and 2003 Brazilian Grands Prix are the only races at Interlagos which did not run to their scheduled distance.
CHAMPIONSHIP GLORY
There have been six occasions on which a World Champion has been crowned at Interlagos, including in five consecutive seasons between 2005 and 2009. Sebastian Vettel is the driver to have been crowned champion most recently at the track, having taken the honours in 2012.
Interlagos has also seen the Constructors’ Champions crowned five times, most recently in 2018 when Mercedes won their fifth successive title.
The winner of the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos has gone on to win the title in the same season on 16 occasions. The polesitter at Interlagos has also won that season’s title on 16 occasions, though this has happened only five times in the last 21 races at the circuit.
The leader of the Drivers’ Championship after the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos has gone on to win the title on 27 occasions. Since the race moved to a later slot in the calendar in 2004, Fernando Alonso in 2010 is the only driver to have failed to go on to win the title having led after the Interlagos race.
There have been just eight occasions on which the team leading the Constructors’ Championship after a race at Interlagos have failed to take the championship. In every year since 2006, the leaders of the Constructors’ Championship after the Brazilian Grand Prix have gone on to win the title.
There have been eight dead rubber races held at this track. Both titles had already been decided prior to the Interlagos race in 2004, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023.