The area around Estoril has a motor racing history stretching back to the 1930s, when a 2.8 km street circuit was used in 1937 for a local race. The permanent circuit was completed in 1972 on elevated terrain about 9 km inland from the town of Estoril, featuring two hairpin turns, noticeable elevation changes, and a long 0.986 km start/finish straight. The original perimeter measured 4.349 km with a maximum gradient approaching 7%.
The circuit's early years were occupied mainly by national races and occasional Formula 2 events. However, the owning company was nationalised between 1975 and 1978, leaving the facility without the investment needed to maintain international standards. After a significant redevelopment effort, Estoril returned to the international calendar in 1984.
The Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril produced some of the most memorable moments in Formula One history. In 1984, Niki Lauda clinched his third and final world championship by finishing second to McLaren teammate Alain Prost — winning the title by just half a point, the smallest margin in the championship's history. The following year, 1985, saw Ayrton Senna claim his first Formula One victory at the circuit.
The 1989 race is remembered for Nigel Mansell receiving a black flag for reversing in the pit lane and subsequently colliding with Senna in a confrontation that became one of the era's most notorious incidents. In 1992, Riccardo Patrese was launched nearly backward into the air after a collision with Gerhard Berger on the main straight. The final Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, in 1996, featured Jacques Villeneuve executing a celebrated overtake on Michael Schumacher around the outside of the final turn.
Throughout the Formula One years, the circuit faced recurring safety concerns and failed inspections on more than one occasion. Following Ayrton Senna's fatal accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, a chicane was added at Estoril, extending the layout to 4.360 km. Estoril was also valued by teams as a winter testing venue due to its relatively mild climate, though strong winds were a persistent challenge.
The circuit was dropped from the Formula One calendar for the 1997 season but continued to host top-level competition across other disciplines. Events such as the FIA GT Championship, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, and the World Series by Renault kept the facility active in the years that followed. In 2000, a redesign of the parabolica turn reduced the circuit length to its current 4.182 km, allowing the venue to obtain FIM homologation for motorcycle racing.
The circuit hosted its first Portuguese motorcycle Grand Prix on 3 September 2000, an event that continued annually until 2012. In 2005, the third round of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix season was held at Estoril, with both races taken by the French team. Superleague Formula used the venue in 2008 and 2009.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought additional international events back to Estoril in 2020, including the final round of the Superbike World Championship — the circuit's first appearance in that series since 1993 — and the conclusion of the FIM Endurance World Championship season.
Estoril occupies a unique place in European motorsport as one of the handful of circuits where decisive championship moments accumulated across generations. The 1984 half-point finish between Lauda and Prost, Senna's maiden victory in 1985, and the various collisions and controversies of later years gave the circuit a character woven into the storytelling of the sport's most competitive era. Even after losing Formula One, the Autódromo Fernanda Pires da Silva has continued operating as a national and international venue, retaining its identity as one of Portugal's two historic racing facilities alongside Portimão.