WEC | Ferrari: the history of the races held at Interlagos

A track that belongs to the collective imagination of all motor enthusiasts: the circuit named after “Carlos Pace”, better known as Interlagos, is located at the gates of the metropolis of São Paulo; it was built starting in 1938 and inaugurated two years later.

The FIA ​​WEC returns to Brazil ten years after its last appearance and, for the first time, in the era of the new top class Hypercar.

For the Ferrari 499P, the fifth round of the world championship on South American soil represents an absolute debut, considering that the Le Mans Hypercars from Maranello have never undergone tests on the 4.309 kilometres of the Sao Paulo circuit.

The layout of the old Brazilian circuit included a wide oval with high-speed banked corners. Over the decades, the GP track, which originally measured almost eight kilometers, underwent several modifications until reaching its current configuration.

Nowadays, the track that hosts the Endurance World Championship, which includes 15 curves (10 left and 5 right), measures, as anticipated, 4.309 kilometres and is characterised, in addition to the iconic ups and downs, also by a main straight of 1.393 kilometres.

In the mid-twentieth century, the cars of the Maranello company achieved some successes on the São Paulo track. In 1957, I. Ferreira won the second Prêmio Cinqüentenário ACB with the Ferrari 750 Monza – the prototype that had made its racing debut on the Italian track of the same name in 1954, and in the same year, the third, fourth and fifth of the same Prêmio – in the Sports class – was won by Celso Lara Barberis with the 500 Mondial, a car powered by a 1984 cm3 four-cylinder engine capable of delivering 125 kW and reaching a top speed of 236 km/h.

The Brazilian facility returns to the spotlight of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship ten years after its last appearance.

Previously, in fact, Sao Paulo had hosted the world championship in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 seasons. In these years Ferrari obtained two successes with the cars derived from the series. In LMGTE Pro, Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni with the 458 Italia GT2 of AF Corse climbed to the top step of the podium in both 2012 and 2013.

Furthermore, in the third millennium, always with racing cars derived from the series, Ferrari obtained victory in the Interlagos 500 Kilometers, valid for the Brazilian GT Championship, in 2009 with the F430 GT3 driven by Francisco Longo and Daniel Serra.

The history of the Brazilian facility is dominated by Formula 1 Grand Prix: Scuderia Ferrari has raced 50 times at Interlagos, making its debut in 1973 with Arturo Merzario and Jacky Ickx who finished fourth and fifth respectively; the Maranello-based company has also achieved 11 victories – the first in 1977 with Carlos Reutemann, the last in 2017 with Sebastian Vettel – and 32 podiums on the Sao Paulo circuit.

#51 AF Corse, Ferrari 458 Italia GT2: Giancarlo Fisichella, Gianmaria Bruni

Photo by: Ferrari