Five Things to Know About the São Paulo GP

We're back in Brazil for the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix as the season end draws near.

Few nations can rival the passion that the Brazilian fans have for motorsport, with so many legendary F1 names hailing from the nation.

Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet, and Emerson Fittipaldi took the iconic green, yellow, and blue flag to championship glory, with even more Brazilian racers taking Grand Prix victories.

There's a long F1 history here, and we've got five things you might not know about the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Well, that’s true for engine cover. After we ran yellow on one of our cars for the first time in 31 years last weekend, it will return for one last outing in Brazil.

There will be one small tweak in Interlagos as Mercado Libre will be amended to the Portuguese Mercado Livre.

Blue and yellow in Brazil will make quite the impression around this fabled venue, and we can’t wait to see it out there.

The race has become a bit of a chameleon over the years, with multiple names meaning the same thing to create a little confusion.

Many know the circuit as Interlagos, or Autódromo de Interlagos, to give it its full name, and this has persisted since an official renaming nearly four decades ago.

Autódromo José Carlos Pace has been the correct moniker since 1985, honouring the late Brazilian racing driver José Carlos Pace, who lost his life in 1977.

A more recent change came in 2021 when the Brazilian GP name left in favour of the São Paulo GP after a change in its promoter.

No matter what it's called, racing around this circuit is one of the highlights of any season.

This will be as close to a home race as Franco Colapinto can get in Formula 1, and as such, it’s expected that thousands of fans will make the trip to back our No.43.

It’s also the first time since his time in karting that Franco has raced in South America, so it is set to be a memorable weekend in Sao Paulo.

Speaking in his race preview, Franco shared “I’ve spent most of my life racing in Europe, so to be able to race in South America this weekend marks a special moment in my career.”

For all of the victories we at Williams Racing have in our long history of visiting Brazil, it's interesting to note we've never had a repeat winner.

Argentine driver Carlos Reutemann delivered our first triumph here in 1981, leading Alan Jones in a 1-2 finish for his third Brazilian win, but the only one driving our car.

Nelson Piquet's 1986 triumph was a Brazilian dream, with he and Lotus' Ayrton Senna locking out the top two positions in qualifying and the race.

Nigel Mansell delivered another 1-2 finish for us in 1992 on his way to the championship before Damon Hill (1996) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997) also scored a Brazilian win in their title-winning seasons.

Finally, Juan Pablo Montoya ended his four-year spell for Williams Racing on a high, taking the 2004 victory by one second ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.

São Paulo is a special place for Nico Hulkenberg, with the veteran German scoring his sole pole position in Formula 1 at the track for Williams Racing back in 2010.

He and teammate Rubens Barrichello tackled the drying conditions to reach Q3, with Nico's best lap time coming in over a second clear than P2.

With Rubens grabbing P6, the four championship challengers found themselves in an FW32 sandwich in the season's penultimate round.

Nico's current teammate, Kevin Magnussen, proved Brazil can be a prime spot for first-time pole sitters after his qualifying lap in 2022, too.