Motor racing began in Brazil before World War II, with events on the 11.161 km Gávea street circuit in Rio de Janeiro from 1934. Construction of Brazil's first permanent autodrome started in 1936 in the São Paulo neighbourhood of Interlagos and was completed in 1940. The circuit's layout was inspired by the Roosevelt Raceway in the United States; it quickly acquired a reputation as tough and demanding, with challenging corners, elevation changes, a rough surface, and little margin for error. Brazil held Grands Prix during the early part of World War II at Interlagos and Gávea.
The first Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos in 1972 was a non-championship event, run as a test to convince the FIA that the circuit and its organisers could capably host a Grand Prix. The following year the race entered the official calendar and was won by defending world champion and São Paulo native Emerson Fittipaldi. Fittipaldi won again in 1974 in rain-soaked conditions. In 1975, fellow São Paulo native Carlos Pace won in his Brabham, with Fittipaldi finishing second. The 1977 race was won by Carlos Reutemann, but drivers' complaints about Interlagos's rough surface led to the race being relocated to Jacarepaguá for 1978.
At Jacarepaguá in 1978, Argentine Carlos Reutemann dominated in his Ferrari, shod on Michelin tyres — the French company's first victory in Formula One. Reutemann was followed by home favourite Fittipaldi and defending champion Niki Lauda. After a year at Rio, the race returned briefly to Interlagos for 1979–1981 with upgraded facilities; Jacques Laffite won in 1979, completing Ligier's sweep of the opening South American rounds. The 1980 race was moved back to Interlagos because sections of Jacarepaguá, built on a former swamp, were sinking. By 1981 the Interlagos surface was again criticised; ground-effect cars of that season were stiffly suspended and highly sensitive to bumps, and the barriers were deemed inadequate. Jody Scheckter attempted to prevent the race from going ahead; it was ultimately won by René Arnoux.
Formula One then moved permanently to the flat Jacarepaguá circuit. The rise of Rio de Janeiro racer Nelson Piquet, combined with the decline of Interlagos and Fittipaldi's retirement, led Brazilian fans to lobby for the race to remain in Piquet's hometown. Jacarepaguá's corners were long and fast, some slightly banked, and its surface highly abrasive; the Brazilian summer heat and humidity made races physically gruelling. In 1981, Reutemann defied team orders to let teammate Alan Jones through and took victory — the only wet race at Rio. In 1982, Piquet finished first and Keke Rosberg second, but both were disqualified in post-race scrutineering for being underweight; victory was awarded to third-placed Alain Prost, who went on to win at Jacarepaguá four more times and earned the nickname "the King of Rio." Italian Riccardo Patrese retired from the same race through physical exhaustion. Piquet won again in 1983 and 1986.
The 1988 race was particularly notable: Ayrton Senna started from the pit lane in his first race for McLaren, charged through to second behind teammate Prost, but was disqualified for switching to his spare car after the parade lap. The 1989 event — the last at Jacarepaguá — was won by Nigel Mansell in a Ferrari, the first Grand Prix victory for a car fitted with a semi-automatic gearbox.
Ayrton Senna's success prompted São Paulo city officials to invest $15 million in revamping Interlagos — shortening and resurfacing the circuit. The race returned in 1990 to a shortened layout. Prost won that first race back, his 40th career victory; it was not a popular result in Brazil given the controversy surrounding the previous year's Japanese Grand Prix, in which Senna had been disqualified while leading. In 1991, Senna won his first Brazilian Grand Prix in emotional circumstances: his McLaren's manual gearbox was losing gears and by the finish he had only sixth gear remaining, yet he held off Williams driver Riccardo Patrese. He had to be extricated from the car and hitched a ride in the safety car — driven by former driver and former team boss Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior — and barely managed to lift the trophy on the podium. Senna won again in 1993 in a McLaren from Prost's Williams teammate Damon Hill. In 1994, Senna, by then driving for Williams, spun at Juncao while chasing Michael Schumacher, who won; Senna lost his life at the San Marino Grand Prix a little over a month later.
The 1995 race initially had the cars of race winner Schumacher and Britain's David Coulthard excluded for illegal fuel before being reinstated. Damon Hill won in 1996. The 1997 race began with a multi-car accident at the start; Canadian Jacques Villeneuve went off at the first corner, the race was stopped and restarted, and Villeneuve jumped into the spare car and won. The 1998 race featured a controversy over McLaren's braking system, which was banned despite having been approved four times by FIA technical delegate Charlie Whiting; Finnish McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen won regardless, and won again in 1999.
In 2000, Schumacher won at Interlagos for the third time, with Rubens Barrichello — now his Ferrari teammate — retiring with a hydraulic failure after running second. The 2001 race marked the explosive Formula One debut of Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, who overtook Schumacher early and led comfortably until Arrows driver Jos Verstappen ran into the back of his Williams-BMW. The 2001 race also saw brothers Michael and Ralf Schumacher share a starting grid row for the first time; in 2002 they finished first and second, with Ralf chasing Michael. Montoya exorcised the 2001 ghost by winning the 2004 race — his final Grand Prix for Williams before moving to McLaren — holding off Kimi Räikkönen.
The 2003 race produced one of Formula One's most chaotic results. Heavy rain caused tyre-selection problems for most teams; Giancarlo Fisichella of Jordan unexpectedly led when an accident involving Renault's Fernando Alonso brought out the red flag. Under the rule applying at the time, the order two laps before the stoppage was used, initially giving the win to Räikkönen. Days later, the FIA Court of Appeal in Paris overturned the decision after new evidence confirmed Fisichella had crossed the finish line in the lead for a second time before Alonso's accident. At the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix, Alonso became the youngest Formula One World Champion, his third place behind race winner Montoya and title rival Räikkönen being sufficient to clinch the title with two races remaining.
In 2006 the race closed the season — Schumacher's first farewell to the sport. Starting tenth, he fell to nineteenth after a puncture caused by contact with Fisichella, then recovered to fourth through a series of overtakes including one on Räikkönen. The championship was decided in favour of Alonso, who needed only one point. Brazilian Felipe Massa won from pole, his second career victory. In 2007, Räikkönen won both the race and his first and only Drivers' Championship, beating Alonso and Lewis Hamilton by a single point.
In 2008, a late-race rain shower transformed the final standings: Hamilton needed fifth place to become champion. German Toyota driver Timo Glock — who had stayed out on dry-weather tyres — lost grip and was passed by both Sebastian Vettel (in a Toro Rosso) and Hamilton on the final lap. Massa won the race in his Ferrari, but Hamilton took the fifth place he needed to become the youngest Formula One World Champion at that point. Jenson Button secured his only Drivers' Championship at the 2009 race by finishing fifth; Mark Webber won from pole-sitter Robert Kubica. In 2010, German Nico Hülkenberg drove an outstanding lap to put his uncompetitive Williams on pole in wet qualifying; Vettel won the race, giving Red Bull the Constructors' Championship and setting up a four-way Drivers' title fight at the Abu Dhabi finale.
In 2011 Webber beat Vettel — who had already secured his second title in Japan — in a Red Bull one-two. The 2012 race was another classic: Vettel made a poor start, dropped to twenty-second, and climbed back to sixth, enough to claim his third consecutive Drivers' Championship over Alonso. It was also Michael Schumacher's last Formula One race; he had returned with Mercedes in 2010 but did not win a single race during that comeback. In 2013, Vettel won his ninth consecutive race of the season, a new record; that record stood until Max Verstappen won his tenth consecutive race at the 2023 Italian Grand Prix. The 2014 race saw the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Hamilton finish one-two; Rosberg won again in 2015 and Hamilton in 2016. The 2016 race was overshadowed by heavy rain, multiple accidents, and a drive by Dutch teenager Verstappen — son of Jos Verstappen — who advanced from sixteenth to third in fifteen laps after a tyre strategy error by his Red Bull team.
The scheduled 2020 race was cancelled by Formula One Management due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Formula One returned to Interlagos in 2021 under the new title São Paulo Grand Prix. Hamilton, starting from the back row after a disqualification from qualifying for a technical infringement, won the main race. In 2022, Hamilton's then-incoming teammate George Russell won at São Paulo. Verstappen won both the 2023 and 2024 races. The 2024 edition was held in treacherous, changing conditions with numerous incidents, safety cars, and red flags. Verstappen — who had qualified twelfth but started seventeenth after a five-place grid penalty for a new engine component — won nineteen seconds ahead of second place, the first time a driver had won from that grid position since Räikkönen at the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix, ending a ten-race winless streak. Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finished second and third for Alpine, the team's first double podium since Lotus achieved the same feat at the 2013 Korean Grand Prix with Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean; the result lifted Alpine from ninth to sixth in the Constructors' standings.
The race's contract for Interlagos runs to 2030. An earlier proposal to build a new circuit in Rio de Janeiro's Deodoro neighbourhood to return the race there was scrapped after the newly elected Mayor of Rio confirmed in early 2021 that no suitable alternative site had been identified.
Five Brazilian drivers have won the Brazilian Grand Prix: Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, and Felipe Massa each won it twice, and Carlos Pace won it once. The record for most wins belongs to Frenchman Alain Prost with six victories, including five at Jacarepaguá. Argentine Carlos Reutemann and Michael Schumacher have each won four times.
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