Oliver WhiteInterlagos, home of the Brazilian Grand Prix and this weekend’s race, has reached agreement with Bernie Ecclestone to continue hosting the race through to 2014. The deal had been rumoured last season, but Ecclestone wanted to wait until the promised $15m of improvements had been finalised for the pit and paddock complex, the medical centre and the grandstands. With Ecclestone happy with the planned improvements, the deal has now been signed.
The circuit, one of the older venues on the Formula One calendar, has hosted the Brazilian Grand Prix since 1990, although the track also hosted the race between 1973 and 1977 as well as the ’79 and ’80 events. The track is actually called Autódromo José Carlos Pace, but is commonly called Interlagos due to it’s location between two reservoirs – Interlagos means between lakes.
Interlagos, although slightly narrower than some of the more modern tracks, has hosted some great races and is often used as the final race of the season. From 2009 onwards though, Abu Dhabi appears to have been given the season finale. In 2003, Interlagos was brought forward on the calendar and hosted the race in early April. It was generally considered a disaster as the race was run in very wet conditions. The result also caused a little controversy when Kimi Raikkonen was initially awarded the win, but after looking at the video evidence, Giancarlo Fisichella was actually the winner. An accident involving Fernando Alonso bought the race to an early end, and after counting back two laps – as per the rules – Fisichella was actually in P1. The McLaren and Jordan drivers swapped trophies later in the week.
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I remember hearing something about this towards the end of last season, just as I was beginning to get into following F1. Makes sense for sure- this was the first event I had seen run at Interlagos and it appeared to be a great track from what I could tell. The only negative- and it is a big one- are the incidents of crime that occur away from the track, but I did not hear anything regarding this during the festivities this season and hopefully this will be the norm from now on.
Now that we will all be in off-season mode, I am really hopeful that some news will break soon on the future of both the Canadian and United States Grands Prix. I remember hearing something earlier last week syaing that a decision on Canada for 2009 was due out any day, but have not heard anything yet. As for here in the U.S., nothing has come across my radar since Peter Windsor’s questions to Bernie on the grid at Shanghai, which porduced the answer of “nothing new” from Mr. E