2024 F1 Brazilian Grand Prix preview: Sprint race returns

• The Brazilian Grand Prix is round 21 of 2024 F1 season
• The race is held at São Paulo’s Autódromo José Carlos Pace
• Lewis Hamilton will make an exhibition run in Ayrton Senna’s 1990 McLaren MP4/5B

The 2024 Formula 1 World Championship continues this weekend with the Brazilian Grand Prix, the third race of this season’s American triple-header, which also included the United States and Mexican Grands Prix.

The Brazilian round takes place at São Paulo’s Autódromo José Carlos Pace, and this season there will be a standalone Sprint race on Saturday in addition to the main race on Sunday. Brazil will host the fifth sprint race of the season, with one more to follow at the penultimate round in Qatar.

The Autódromo José Carlos Pace, better known to fans as Interlagos, due to it being situated between two lakes, spans a short 2.7 miles, meaning there’s generally quite a lot of overtaking, and drivers also frequently have to go off the racing line.

Like the previous race in Mexico, altitude is a factor teams have to be mindful of. The circuit is situated 2,625 feet above sea level and the thinner air has a bearing on all areas of car performance, particularly aerodynamics and cooling.

In addition, the usually high chance of a safety car and changeable weather make strategy uncertain and hard to plan. This year, new asphalt has been laid down, which will be another unknown factor for drivers and teams.

Apart from the long uphill Arquibancada left-hander, most of those corners are reasonably short, meaning that lateral loads on the tires aren’t too punishing. Pirelli has nominated its softest compounds, the C3, C4, and C5.

Going into the weekend, Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen leads the 2024 Drivers’ Championship with 362 points. McLaren’s Lando Norris is second with 315 points and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is third with 291 points. In the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren leads with 566 points. Ferrari is second with 537 points and Red Bull is third with 512 points. Last year’s winner in Brazil was Verstappen, driving for Red Bull.

As a nod to this year’s 30th anniversary of the death of Brazilian racing legend Ayrton Senna, the McLaren MP4/5B that Senna drove to a title win in the 1990 F1 season will make an appearance in São Paulo. McLaren announced on Thursday that its former driver, Lewis Hamilton, will be behind the wheel for an exhibition run this weekend.