Brazil.  Home of the 2016 Summer Olympics, Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello, and my least favorite track on the F1 calendar: Interlagos.

Located in the bad part of São Paolo, F1 team-members have actually been attacked by gangs of ruffians and neer-do-wells outside Interlagos' gates, most recently in 2006.  Despite this, drivers for the most part are quite fond of the circuit.  In recent years, the Brazilian Grand Prix (that's a lot of Grand Prix!) has been the final race of the year, and has brought us some very dramatic moments; last year's race decided the Driver's Championship on the very last turn, after all.

Despite that, though, I despise Interlagos.

Let's look at the map:

The circuit is laid out in a valley between two artificial lakes, which fact gives the track its original name: Interlagos literally means "between the lakes" in Portugese.  The official name is Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, after a Brazilian F1 driver killed in an plane crash. 

It's the lakes that give Interlagos its best-known trait: it's bumpy.  The weight of the lakes causes the land between to wrinkle, causing the asphalt of the track to flex.  Even though there was a resurfacing in 2007, it's still the bumpiest track around.  It's also one of the few on the F1 calendar that runs counter-clockwise, for what that's worth.

It's a relatively low-downforce circuit; while the mickey-mousing from turn 6 to turn 11 calls for a lot of grip, the rest of the track is high-speed and good acceleration is a must.  Because of this, it wouldn't surprise me to see Force India do well here.  It's not as high-speed as Monza or Spa, but it's a quick track to be sure.  It's also easy on the brakes, so no fears on that front.

Bridgestone is bringing the super-soft and medium compound tires to Brazil.  The new surface isn't particularly abrasive, and only turn 14 has much in the way of high-speed g-loading on the tires, so the rubber should last pretty well.

Even the engines should have an easy time of it, as only about 62% of the time is spent at full throttle.  Of course, Seb Vettel is running race-used motors right now, so he's sweating every time he presses down on the gas pedal.

The one saving grace of Interlagos for me is that its basically in the Eastern Time Zone, which means a race at normal times!  I'm sure SPEED's Legendary Announce Team appreciates not having to wake up at 230am for a 6am start, for example.  Friday Practice will be from 12noon to 140pm, and Quals is Saturday from 12noon to 130pm.

The 2009 Grand Prix of Brazil is Sunday, LIVE, from 1030am to 1pm.  It's very possible that we could see BrawnGP win both championships on Sunday, so you've gotta watch!

Oh, and VaucDuck?  I've done a little bit of digging, and Overtime Sports Bar & Grill and Zeke's Sports Bar show the races.  There's also something called the San Francisco Formula 1 Group that gathers together to watch 'em... tell 'em Wonderduck's Pond sent ya!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:53 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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