The Posillipo circuit took its name from the elevated promontory and neighbourhood on the western fringe of Naples overlooking the Bay of Naples. Racing in the area predates the specific Posillipo configuration — the Coppa Principessa di Piemonte, held in honour of Marie-José of Belgium, had been run in 1933 on the Circuito Province Meridionale before the renamed Grand Prix of Naples moved to the Posillipo road layout the following year. From 1934 the race ran on the 4,100-metre circuit defined by the Via A. Manzoni and Via Nuova Parco, threading through the roads of this elevated coastal district.
Racing was interrupted during the Second World War. When the Gran Premio di Napoli was revived in 1948, it did so on the same Posillipo circuit, now running under post-war Formula Two regulations.
The post-war editions of the Grand Prix of Naples on the Posillipo circuit built a reputation as one of the more colourful stops in the European racing calendar. Beginning in 1948 under Formula Two rules, the event attracted top-line European drivers and the works teams of the era. From 1954 the race alternated between sports car and non-championship Formula One formats, depending on the prevailing regulations and commercial arrangements in any given year.
The circuit's winding, narrow roads through the Posillipo neighbourhood placed extreme demands on car preparation and driver skill. As a temporary street circuit, it shared the fundamental characteristics of other postwar Italian road races — tight corners defined by stone walls or natural cliff faces, minimal run-off, and the permanent presence of the urban environment pressing against the racing surface. The 4.1-kilometre layout and its elevation changes overlooking the bay gave the circuit a particularly dramatic character.
The last race was held in 1962, ending an era that had stretched across nearly three decades of Neapolitan motorsport. The urban environment of Posillipo, its narrow roads, and evolving safety expectations made continuation of a modern racing event there increasingly impractical.
In 1998, a historic revival event — the Rievocazione Storica Gran Premio di Napoli — was organized at the Naples circuit, celebrating the heritage of the original race in a commemorative format. The designation "Gran Premio di Napoli" has since passed to a cycling event, leaving the motorsport legacy of the Posillipo circuit in the hands of historical memory rather than active competition.
The Circuito di Posillipo remains one of the representative examples of the street-circuit culture that defined Italian motor racing in the first half of the twentieth century — a period when the country's enthusiasm for the sport made temporary road courses in provincial cities and urban neighbourhoods a viable and widely attended format for top-level racing.