The Buenos Aires Grand Prix began as a sportscar event in 1930 at the Costanera circuit, moving to the Retiro circuit in 1941. After a six-year break, racing resumed in 1947 under Formula Libre regulations with the start of the South American "Temporada" Grand Prix series. Italian Luigi Villoresi won all 1947 Temporada events. The race regularly attracted Brazilian and European drivers alongside Argentine competitors such as Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán González. For 1948 the race moved to Palermo, remaining there until 1950. In 1951, the Costanera Norte circuit hosted its last three Grand Prix events before completion of the Autódromo 17 de Octubre, a purpose-built circuit that hosted the championship Argentine Grand Prix from 1953 to 1960, 1972 to 1981, and 1995 to 1998.
Built in 1952 on swampland just outside Buenos Aires, the facility featured a white archway dedicated to the memory of Admiral William Brown. The track opened in March 1952 with the fifth edition of the "Perón Cup," won by Juan Manuel Fangio. It offered four configurations for Grand Prix racing. From 1953 to 1960 the Argentine Grand Prix was held on the "No. 2" layout, run clockwise each year except 1954, when it was run counterclockwise. From 1971 to 1973 the "No. 9" configuration was used — similar to No. 2 but with a shortened straight after Tobogan and a tighter Horquilla turn. From 1974 to 1981 the race moved to the longer "No. 15" circuit, combining two very fast banked corners, a 0.91 km straight leading into a flat-out 180-degree corner called the Curvon Salotto, and a 1.2 km straight. Cars were flat-out for 45 whole seconds through the lake loop. For the 1995–1998 return the tight "No. 6" infield section was used, featuring an S-shaped chicane named after Ayrton Senna.
The 1953 race saw Juan Manuel Fangio retire his Maserati after 36 laps with a transmission failure. Alberto Ascari's victory for Ferrari was overshadowed by an accident that killed nine people and injured many others due to overcrowding — around 400,000 people were believed to have attended. In 1954 the circuit ran anticlockwise and Fangio took his first Argentine Grand Prix victory. He won the next three editions as well, including the 1955 race, run in extreme heat of 40°C (104°F) with track temperatures reaching 51°C (122°F). Driving for Mercedes, Fangio was the only driver to complete all 96 laps without handing his car to another driver, though one of his legs was badly burned by a chassis tube heated by the exhaust, forcing a three-month recovery.
In 1958, Stirling Moss won the race — the first Formula One championship victory for a rear- or mid-engined car and the first for a privateer. New Zealander Bruce McLaren won in 1960. With Fangio's retirement and that of José Froilán González, combined with political instability following the exile of Perón in 1955, the Argentine Grand Prix disappeared from the calendar in 1961.
A non-championship Formula One race was held at Buenos Aires in 1971, won by Chris Amon over two heats. In 1972 the Argentine Grand Prix returned to the World Championship. Carlos Reutemann emerged as the new home favourite, taking pole position on his world championship debut — only the second driver to achieve that feat. The race was won by world champion Jackie Stewart. In 1973, Emerson Fittipaldi took victory in the closing stages from Frenchman François Cevert.
For 1974 the faster No. 15 circuit was introduced. Reutemann nearly won in front of his home crowd, but ran out of fuel after his Brabham mechanics did not put sufficient fuel in his car; victory went to veteran New Zealander Denny Hulme. In 1977, South African Jody Scheckter won in the Walter Wolf team's first ever Grand Prix in extremely hot weather. In 1978, Mario Andretti won for Lotus, beginning his domination of that season. In 1979 a large accident at the opening esses, involving Scheckter and John Watson in a McLaren, eliminated nine cars. The race was restarted; Jacques Laffite won for Ligier, with Reutemann, now driving for Lotus, finishing second.
In 1980, drivers led by Emerson Fittipaldi attempted to boycott the race over the deteriorating track surface, which was breaking up from the heat and the suction of ground-effect cars. The race went ahead after repairs that proved insufficient. Alan Jones won for Williams, followed by Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg recording his first podium. Alain Prost scored one point in his debut Formula One race, driving for McLaren. The 1981 race was a Brabham procession: designer Gordon Murray found a way to circumvent new regulations with a hydropneumatic suspension that lowered the car closer to the ground; Piquet took victory with Reutemann second and Prost third.
The 1982 round was cancelled. Fallout from the drivers' strike before the South African Grand Prix caused the event's sponsors to withdraw, and Argentina's brief war with the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands within a predominantly British sport led to the organizers' contract being terminated. An attempt to revive the race in 1986 failed.
A private consortium purchased the Buenos Aires track in 1991 and began upgrading it. The modernized Argentine Grand Prix returned in 1995, with victory going to Damon Hill. Hill won again in 1996 during his championship season. In 1997, Jacques Villeneuve won in his own championship year. Financial difficulties struck the organizers, and the 1998 race — won by Michael Schumacher for his ninth Ferrari victory — proved to be the last. A race scheduled for 1999 was cancelled before the season, leaving a five-week gap in the championship calendar.
In February 2012, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced that negotiations were nearing conclusion for a return by 2013 at a street circuit in Mar del Plata. Contracts expected in May 2012 were never signed. Commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone stated: "we are open to racing in Argentina when I can deal with serious people."
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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