Adam Rosales, who finally ticked Brazil off his F1 bucket list last year, shares his experience and tips after attending the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix.
Interlagos is a special place. I know I’ve said this about other circuits but Interlagos is old school in the best ways possible. It’s right in the middle of a residential neighborhood (similar to Indianapolis motor speedway), but within the fourth most populated city in the world.
Grandstand D
I bought my 3-day ticket directly from the circuit (via Eventim) for Grandstand D, which cost approx. $660 USD. Grandstand D is a covered grandstand that’s located on the outside of Turn 1 and also has views of the Senna S curves. In common with the Mexico City Grand Prix, you are limited to your ticketed section at Interlagos. It’s a bit disappointing not to be able to explore other parts of the circuit, but here I was lucky to be in the middle of a prime sector with lots of track action. The view from Grandstand D allows you to see part of the pit lane and starting line, and all the way down the hill to Turn 3. I was able to witness several drivers making errors into both Turn 1 and Turn 3. Some of the impacts were brutal, like when Albon hit the wall at Turn 1. It felt like the whole grandstand shook. It was LOUD and I was so close that I could see him raging in the cockpit of his Williams.
One unique aspect of Grandstand D (and apparently all grandstands at Interlagos, apart from M) is that there is no reserved seating. This was surprising, especially at such a high price point. Even though there are enough seats for everybody, it pays to arrive early and claim your spot. I was there around 9am every day and managed to find great seats. Travelling solo helped. I introduced myself to fans seated nearby and everyone was friendly. We took turns looking after each other’s seats during food, drink and bathroom runs. I did see a few seat arguments in other parts of the grandstand, however. There were even a couple of drunken fights (likely the result of the ‘free beer’ being served, more on that below), but fans around them were quick to shut them down. Security was on the scene quickly, too. The security presence was high and I felt safe at the track all weekend.
The track action here is incredible. It’s easily one of the best places on the calendar to watch an F1 race, and last year was especially action packed. From the sprint to qualifying and then Max Verstappen’s epic drive during the race itself, there was no shortage of action. The heavy rain during qualifying and the race also contributed to lots of driver mistakes. Another highlight was seeing Lewis Hamilton get behind the wheel of Ayrton Senna’s McLaren MP4/5B from the 1990 F1 season. The sound was absolutely epic, even at slower speeds. It was raining, but Hamilton still got on the throttle hard out of Turn 3 and the sound echoed beautifully as he made his way down the straight to Turn 4.
The crowd was lively and remained passionate throughout the weekend, despite the inevitable rain showers. Thankfully, Grandstand D was covered. For example, during one of the red flag periods there was a guy that decided he was going to run ‘laps’ back and forth at the bottom of the grandstand. People nearby began cheering him on and before long, the whole grandstand was involved. It was hilarious!
Grandstand D has TVs at the bottom of the stand that show the live feed and you could also see a larger screen at the bottom of the hill by Turn 2. The audio is in Portuguese, but with the covering above the stand and cars on track it was often difficult to hear the commentary above the noise. Heavy rain on Saturday afternoon saw qualifying postponed until Sunday morning at 7:30am. Gates opened earlier at 7am. I arrived at the circuit at 6:30am, but didn’t make it inside until 7:45am due to the long entry lines. I was lucky as my section of the circuit wasn’t very big. Many fans in other parts of the circuit ended up missing out on qualifying altogether due to huge entry delays. The organizers did their best to change the schedule at short notice, but there were inevitable delays getting everyone through the gates at such an early hour.
Food & Drink
The Grandstand D ticket price included food and drink. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. Next time, I’d rather get a cheaper ticket and buy my own food and drink. Beer was included in the free drinks, but was supposed to be limited to two drinks per person. This rule seemed to be selectively enforced, though, as I saw several people being given 4-5 cups of beer while I was denied both beer and water on several occasions. The ‘free beer’ also contributed to really long lines. There were no water refill stations, so you had to join the long queue even if you only wanted water. Between on-track sessions, it was tedious and annoying to have to queue up for 20-30 minutes each time. When it was raining or there was an active F1 session, you could get served pretty quickly. Not having all-inclusive food and drink would likely have helped ease the lines, and also cut down on some of the drunken fights in the grandstand.
Food options included a rotating menu of breakfast breads, pao de quijo (baked cheese rolls), pastries and smaller snacks in the morning and for lunch, hot dogs and burgers. Vegan options were available as well. (Check the menu here.) Lines formed for the non-vegan options at peak times while the vegan options were sitting at the serving area and easy to obtain. Sandwiches, chips, ice cream and other snacks were also served and included with the cost of the ticket.
Organization & Safety
Speaking honestly, one of the main reasons I hadn’t attended the São Paulo Grand Prix before was due to safety concerns. You hear a lot of stories in the media about how unsafe Brazil is and how the teams have been victims of robberies and muggings in the past. For me, the safety levels in Brazil were similar to the race in Mexico City. There was a large security and police presence around Interlagos, and barricades were set up in strategic areas to guide fans to and from the Autódromo metro station. There was a constant stream of people walking and the area was lined with vendors selling bootleg merchandise, souvenirs and food/drinks. I typically enjoy buying some of this bootleg merch as gifts for friends or family. It’s a good idea to carry a bit of cash for these transactions, though some vendors did have card readers.
Even though the vibes were good and everybody was in positive spirits, I still kept my guard up and didn’t use my phone too much on the street. I didn’t see anything sketchy myself. Some fans I spoke to on Sunday mentioned that they had to walk away from the circuit and into the local neighborhoods in order to request an Uber, which could be risky. The organizers encourage fans to use the Metro to get to and from the circuit.
The organization at the entry gates to Interlagos could be improved. For example, a lot of people from Grandstand G were stuck in line at the entrance gate for several hours on Sunday morning. My own experience at the entrance gates was that many fans were unable to scan their tickets from their smartphones.There would often be two or three failed attempts to scan before the gate employee asked for their phone and adjusted it in a certain way for the ticket to scan. It would help if everybody had a paper or physical ticket. I always print mine and keep it in a ziploc bag through the weekend because of this exact scenario. This prevents any damage and also keeps it dry when it rains, which it did a lot this weekend.
Security was a simple bag check. The list of prohibited items was communicated in advance on the circuit website, so it was a fairly streamlined process. Once inside the circuit, you’re limited to your section so there isn’t a whole lot to explore. A new fan zone was launched at last year’s race, and entry was included with some tickets, like Grandstands G & R. I didn’t purchase access, but I heard it was fairly standard with driver interviews in the morning and concerts in the evening. The entry for Grandstand G was shared with the fan zone, which probably exacerbated the entry issues on Sunday morning for this section. Regardless of what section you are in, I would recommend arriving early each day. If you don’t want to deal with big queues, aim to arrive at least two hours before the first F1 session.
Getting to Interlagos
The race promoter offers two main options to get to the circuit, an express bus or the metro (the metro also has an express option). Traffic in São Paulo is notoriously bad and you can expect lengthy delays near the circuit when traveling by road. Driving estimates from Google Maps can become very unreliable when there’s traffic delays, but you can expect a one-way trip from central areas of São Paulo to take 1-2 hours or even longer on race weekend. The express buses departed from four dedicated locations within the city and only cost 4.40 BRL ($0.70 USD). I was planning to use the express buses, but changed my mind after arriving in the city and seeing how bad the traffic was.
I opted for the metro instead. Trains on the regular Esmeralda Line 9 leave every few minutes, and it only takes about thirty minutes from Pinheiros station, for example. This service is crowded and you are unlikely to get a seat without some luck. The circuit also organizes an express metro from two stations, and this was the service I decided to use. The express metro begins at Pinheiros and only stops once at Morumbi-Claro before arriving at the Autódromo. Travel time was about twenty minutes from Pinheiros. Trains do become quite crowded, but I was able to find a seat each day by walking towards the end of the train.
The express service requires a separate ticket, which costs 30 BRL (just under $5 USD). At Pinheiros, there was a dedicated entrance with staff on hand to make sure you had the correct express ticket. After verifying my ticket with the staff, I was given a wristband, which is used to speed things up on the return journey. The express trains ran on a platform that was sectioned off from the others and was only for express ticket holders, and free water bottles were available.
When returning from the Autodromo station at the end of each day, I was able to take a specific entrance on the side that bypassed a majority of the fans using the regular metro trains. After showing my wristband, I was guided through a side hall and up a ‘private’ escalator to a dedicated waiting area on the platform. It was crowded and the normal trains also stopped at this section of the platform. I could have taken one of these, but opted to save time and wait for the next express metro.
Having the express ticket likely saved me at least an hour of waiting outside the station, and I definitely recommend buying these tickets on race weekend. Depending on where you decide to stay in São Paulo, it shouldn’t be too difficult to take an Uber, bus or metro to one of the ‘express’ stations. I stayed in Jardim Paulista and I took an Uber to and from Pinheiros station, which took about twenty minutes in the morning and a bit longer at the end of the day.
Rio de Janeiro
My wife and I also visited Rio de Janeiro. It was our first time in Brazil (and South America) and we wanted to explore Rio. We stayed in an Airbnb next to Copacabana beach for the first few days and then moved to a nice hotel, Copacabana Palace, for the last two nights to celebrate my wife’s birthday. The Airbnb we stayed in overlooked the beach and cost $260 USD per night. Not cheap, but it was spacious (2 bed / 2 bath) and it had an excellent view. Having read various online guides and seen some YouTube videos, we were initially a bit nervous about walking around the area. But it felt totally safe. We did of course exercise precautions such as keeping our belongings tucked away and not using our smartphones in the open on the street.
Knowing I’m from the states, someone compared Rio to Miami and São Paulo to New York City, which felt pretty accurate. Rio is very tourist friendly and offers lots of outdoor activities like forest hikes, paragliding or just hanging out at the beach. We booked a forest hike through Viator to experience some nature, and it was great. The native vegetation is beautiful in this part of the world, and we also saw some lemurs and monkeys. If you don’t want such a strenuous activity, the BioPark of Rio (botanical garden) is another great way to experience Brazil’s beautiful nature. The area nearby was also home to plenty of cool beachside bars and restaurants. A local friend that I met at Zandvoort also recommended Boteco Boa Praça, which was perfect. Safe area, good drinks and very tasty food. The nearby sidewalk was lined with vendors and we bought some hand made jewelry to support the local artists and bring back as gifts.
After three nights at the AirbnB, we moved to Copacabana Palace and had a very nice stay. The staff was friendly and welcoming, and the on-site restaurants were excellent. The hotel also had dedicated staff at the beach offering chairs and umbrellas, who were also happy to keep an eye on your stuff if you wanted to go for a swim. Food and drink stalls were also located along the beach, making it easy to enjoy a couple of caipirinhas. Copacabana Beach is not the most relaxing beach we’ve ever been to, however, as we were constantly being interrupted by vendors offering drinks, fruit, massages and even hair braiding services. We ended up spending more time at the hotel’s pool, but it was still cool to experience Copacabana Beach.
São Paulo
We flew from Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo. There are a ton of daily flights between the two cities, but it’s worth remembering that both cities have two main airports. São Paulo is a massive city. I honestly didn’t realize how big it would feel. When arriving by air, it seems like it goes on forever and in every direction. I can see how you can compare São Paulo’s intense traffic and crowded downtown intersections to New York City. Getting around is fairly cheap with Uber, but the metro is even cheaper and doesn’t get delayed by traffic jams. I only took the metro to and from the circuit but it was clean and efficient. We never felt unsafe exploring the city, but stuck to more upmarket areas such as Paulista, Itaim Bibi and Pinheiros.
Osteria Generale – Jardim Paulista is recommended for fantastic Italian food. Our dinner there was one of the best of the entire trip. Being busy at the track most of the time, I didn’t really get to explore São Paulo as much as I would have liked. My wife and I did manage to visit Beco de Batman on Monday morning after the race. This is an area that showcases local artists and features cool wall murals. I found some really cool gifts and clothing in some of these. It’s definitely worth a trip to wander the alleyways and check out the large murals.
Compared to Rio, São Paulo can be a bit more difficult for those who don’t speak any Portuguese. It definitely helps to learn some basic phrases. Most locals understand Spanish, which is my first language, but they’ll reply in Portuguese. Either way, I managed to get by with Spanish and some basic Portuguese phrases.
Final Thoughts
Experiencing Formula 1 in Brazil had been on my bucket list for years and I’m really happy I was finally able to make it happen. I definitely recommend this race and visiting Brazil. The people we met in both cities were really welcoming and nice. The race itself is such a fun experience. The crowd is fantastic, prices are reasonable and access to the circuit via the express metro is relatively easy. Interlagos never disappoints when it comes to exciting racing and it definitely created some special memories for me last year. Try to give yourself a little more time to explore before or after race weekend, even if you stay in São Paulo. I can’t wait to return to Brazil, and I’ve already got my trip planned for the 2025 São Paulo Grand Prix.
Cost Summary
- Return Flight: Austin – São Paulo = 56,000 Delta Skymiles plus $40 USD
- Return Flight: São Paulo – Rio de Janeiro = $170 USD
- 3-Day Race Ticket: Grandstand D = 3,880 BRL ($650 USD)
- 3-Night Stay: Airbnb at Copacabana Beach = $860 USD
- 3-Night Stay: Copacabana Palace Hotel = 7,300 BRL ($1,460 USD)
- 5-Night Stay: Airbnb in São Paulo = $523 USD
