Interlagos
São Paulo Grand Prix
Is the São Paulo Grand Prix Good for Racing?
Very much so, and the 2025 race proved it. Max Verstappen started from the pit lane after Red Bull changed his setup, picked up a puncture early on and still finished third, 0.362s behind Kimi Antonelli.
The layout does a lot of the work. Norris’s pole lap on the right was flat out for 59% of its length and needed only seven braking zones, and the uphill drag to the line feeds straight into the Senna S. F1 counted 72 overtakes in 2024, in a wet race.
Interlagos
Strategy Factors
2025 São Paulo Grand Prix
What to Look Out for at the São Paulo Grand Prix
Expect the Safety Car. It came out in 86% of the seven Grands Prix before 2025, and last year’s restart on lap 5 went wrong at Turn 1 when Oscar Piastri clipped Antonelli into Charles Leclerc. Leclerc retired and Piastri took a 10-second penalty.
A green-flag stop costs about 20.8s, so an interruption at the right moment rewrites the order. The start is short, with pole only 200m from the first braking point. Rain is the other wildcard here, and the 2024 Grand Prix was run in the wet.
Current circuit length, lap count, race distance and the 1:10.540 race lap record.
Verstappen's pit lane start and puncture, the lap 5 restart collision and Piastri's 10-second penalty.
São Paulo Grand Prix Tire Strategy
Two stops won in 2025. Seven of the top 10 stopped twice, and Lando Norris did it from pole on a medium, soft, medium plan of 30, 20 and 21 laps. Pirelli had gone one step harder to C2, C3 and C4, a year after the resurfaced track produced rear graining and high wear in dry running.
The hard barely featured. Verstappen’s opening seven-lap stint was the only time it appeared in the top 10. Liam Lawson was the outlier, stopping once early and running 52 laps on mediums to finish seventh, and Nico Hulkenberg made one stop work too.
Pit loss, the seven-race Safety Car sample and Pirelli's reasons for going one step harder in 2025.
Stint lengths and compounds for the top 10 finishers of the 2025 race, used in the chart.
Interlagos Sector by Sector and Corner by Corner
Every speed, gear and braking point in this section is from Lando Norris‘s 1:09.511 pole lap in 2025 qualifying. He was at full throttle for 59% of the lap and spent 12.4 seconds on the brakes across seven braking zones. He reached 336 km/h on the main straight before Turn 1, and the slowest point was 85 km/h at Bico de Pato, Turn 10.
FastF1 timing data for Lando Norris's 1:09.511 pole lap, used for the speeds, gears, braking points and sector figures
Turn 1 deceleration and pedal load, and Brembo's rating of it as the hardest stop
The 40m drop to Turn 4 and the 1.2km full-throttle climb from Turn 12 to Turn 1
The bumpy track on unstable ground and the 2024 resurface
History of Interlagos
Interlagos opened in 1940 and has hosted Formula 1 on two very different layouts. The long original lap gave way to today’s 4.309km circuit in 1990, when the race came back from Rio.
Promoter history covering 1972 and 1973, the shortening to 4.3km, Senna's wins and the 2021 name change.
Corner names in lap order, the 1985 renaming after José Carlos Pace and the 2007 resurfacing.
Opening in 1940 and the layout changes that separate the modern lap from the original circuit.
How Much Does Interlagos Cost?
The original cost of building Interlagos isn't on record, but the city-financed upgrade that gave it a new pit complex for 2015 cost a reported $80m. The hosting fee is about $25m a year, according to media estimates, and F1 has never confirmed it. F1 signed the current deal with the City of São Paulo and promoter MC Brazil Motorsport, which is backed by Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, and it runs to 2030.
How Much Did Interlagos Cost to Build?
The original cost isn't on record. Building began in 1938, and the City of São Paulo pays for upgrades to the circuit. The main one was an $80m program in 2014-2015, reported by Autosport and financed by the local government, which resurfaced the track, modified the pit entry and replaced the cramped old pits with a larger F1 pit complex for the 2015 race. The track was fully resurfaced again before the 2024 race, and Mayor Ricardo Nunes' administration has made what F1 described as significant investment to host concerts and other events. No cost has been reported for either.
How Much Is the São Paulo Grand Prix Hosting Fee?
F1 hasn't published it. RacingNews365 listed Interlagos at $25m a year in February 2023, and its contracts page and Speedcafe's 2024 estimates give the same figure, so the sources agree even though none is official. Promoter MC Brazil Motorsport pays it, while the City of São Paulo funds upgrades to the track, and no verified figure for the city's own yearly contribution has been found. The 2020 deal that kept the race at Interlagos over a proposed new circuit in Rio de Janeiro was extended in November 2023 to 2030. No escalator has been reported.
The $80m upgrade program with the new pit complex, financed by the local government
The full resurfacing before the 2024 race
The $25m fee estimate for Interlagos in 2023
The same $25m fee on the contracts page
The $25m fee estimate for Interlagos in 2024
The 2020 deal that kept the race at Interlagos ahead of a Rio de Janeiro project
The extension to 2030, the Mubadala-backed promoter and the city's investment in the venue
How Much Are São Paulo Grand Prix Tickets?
The cheapest ticket is a three-day seat in Sector G, an uncovered stand at the end of the back straight, for BRL990 ($191), so the cheapest ticket and the cheapest grandstand are the same. Sector B over the grid tops the regular grandstands at BRL5,290 ($1,021). Hospitality starts at BRL2,480 ($479) on the Heineken Village Gramado lawn, which is for over-18s. That makes São Paulo the 5th cheapest of the 23 races in our ticket price table.
Interlagos and São Paulo Grand Prix Questions
Interlagos returned in 1990 as a much shorter, substantially rebuilt track, and the race moved back from Rio to São Paulo. The downhill Senna S was part of that rebuild, and the modern 4.309km lap still follows the 1990 layout rather than the original circuit F1 used between 1973 and 1980.
At Interlagos the last infield corner, Junção, leads onto a climb that stays flat out through Café, Subida dos Boxes and Arquibancadas all the way to the line. Speed lost at that exit costs time over the whole climb and decides whether a car can attack into Turn 1.
No, the São Paulo Grand Prix’s reported 303,627 admissions for 2025 add every day of the weekend together. That’s a cumulative total of entries, not the number of people Interlagos can hold at once, so it shouldn’t be read as the circuit’s capacity.
The São Paulo Grand Prix isn’t a Sprint weekend in 2026, so the November 6-8 event runs a standard schedule with one race on Sunday. That changes in 2027, when Interlagos is one of the ten announced Sprint venues for its November 5-7 weekend.
The Senna S matters at Interlagos because it’s the first braking zone after the long uphill run to the line, which makes it the main overtaking spot. It’s a downhill left then right where the front-left locks easily, and a clean exit feeds Curva do Sol and the back straight.
The promoter pays a reported $25m a year to host the São Paulo Grand Prix. F1 has never confirmed the figure, but RacingNews365 and Speedcafe both use it. The deal is with the City of São Paulo and promoter MC Brazil Motorsport, which is backed by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, and it runs until 2030.
There’s no published figure for the original build, which began in 1938. The main modern investment was a reported $80m upgrade in 2014-2015, financed by the local government, which resurfaced the track, modified the pit entry and replaced the old pits with a larger complex for the 2015 race.
