#Formula1 @Heineken Grande Premio De Sao Paulo 2022 Preview. #F1 #BrazilGP

2022 Brazil GP Preview –

After newly-crowned two-time world champion Max Verstappen cruised to a dominant victory at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico to claim the record of most race wins in a single season with 14, the penultimate round of the 2022 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the popular Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the Formula 1 Grande Premio Heineken De Sao Paulo 2022. This marks the 49^th running as a round of the world championship since its inception in 1950 and the 38^th event to be held at Interlagos. This is also the final double-header in the 2022 schedule alongside the season-closing Abu Dhabi GP and this weekend is the final Grand Prix that will feature the F1 100km Sprint Format this season.

 

 

2022 Brazil GP Preview – A look at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace

 

 

The Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, known by its former name Interlagos is a permanent racing circuit located in the city of Sao Paulo in the neighbourhood of Interlagos. The circuit was renamed after Brazilian Formula 1 driver Carlos Pace who was tragically killed in a plane accident.

 

In 1938 a huge plot of land was bought in Sao Paulo by two property developers whose intention was to build accommodation. Following difficulties partly due to the 1929 stock market crash and one part of the land not being suitable for housing, they decided to build a racing circuit instead. Construction began in 1938 and the track opened in 1940. Sao Paulo grew at a rapid rate and the circuit was quickly surrounded by houses.

 

In the 1970s when legend Emerson Fittipaldi began to have international success, the Brazilians wanted to host a Grand Prix. In 1971 and 1972 Interlagos hosted non-championship races but in 1973 the track staged its first Grand Prix as part of the world championship.

 

The track quickly became the locals’ lucky charm, with Fittipaldi and Carlos Pace claiming victories in the 1970s. Interlagos was the scene of Pace’s first and only Formula One victory and following his death in a plane crash the circuit was renamed in his honour.

 

In 1978 it moved to the Jacarepaguá circuit in Rio de Janeiro, but in 1979 Interlagos reclaimed the race back for a couple of years. By 1981 however, Rio de Janeiro had taken the Grand Prix back. When an agreed $15m investment to shorten and smoothen the circuit was made due to recent success of Sao Paulo native Ayrton Senna, the race made its return to Interlagos in 1990 and has stayed as the home of the Brazilian Grand Prix ever since.

 

The Autodromo Jose Carlos Paces’ natural contours provides a challenging combination of technically demanding medium and low-speed turns linked with high-speed straights and bends. The topography of the circuit means many of these are off camber, increasing the challenge.

 

A major car setup consideration is the altitude. At 800m, Interlagos is the second highest altitude circuit of the year after the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico and the thinner air in the past led engines to produce 7-8 per cent less power but the 1.6L turbocharged V6 hybrid powertrains have the advantage over its naturally aspirated predecessors due to the turbochargers being able to spin faster to compensate for lower atmospheric pressure at higher altitudes. The altitude levels also effect aerodynamic performance too as such teams will run higher downforce packages to cope with inefficiencies. The lack of aerodynamic grip also means that the importance of good mechanical grip is emphasised. The other variable is the weather and conditions at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace which can be hard to predict at times.

 

The Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace is 4.309km (2.677 miles) in length with 15 corners and runs in an anti-clockwise direction.

 

Race distance is 305.909km (190.067 miles) in length with 71 laps in total.

 

Valtteri Bottas holds the fastest lap record at the circuit with a 1:10.540 set at the 2018 event in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W09 EQ Power+.

 

Four-time World Champion Alain Prost holds the record for most Brazilian Grand Prix victories with six.

 

McLaren are the most successful constructor at the Brazilian Grand Prix with 12 victories.

---

2022 Brazil GP Preview – Onboard lap of the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace

 

 

Here is the onboard pole lap of the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace set at the 2021 event by Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team F1 W12 E Performance, with the Briton posting a solid 1:07.731 that put him P1 on the grid for the F1 Sprint Race but later lost his effort due to a technical infringement. The technical delegate’s report stated that Hamilton’s DRS’s opening slot was larger than the permitted 85 millimetres (3.3 inches). The rear wing assembly of Hamilton’s F1 W12 was removed and impounded pending investigations. The Briton was later disqualified from qualifying, forcing the Mercedes driver to start at the back of the grid for the 100km sprint qualifying. You can watch the onboard lap video right here at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiTdrHl60Io

---

2022 Brazil GP Preview – The Last Five Winners

 

 

2021: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2020: Not Held. 2019: Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing. 2018: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1. 2017: Sebastian Vettel, Scuderia Ferrari. 2016: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1.

---

2022 Brazil GP Preview – Tyres

 

 

Sole-tyre supplier Pirelli will be bringing with them to Brazil the C2 white side-walled Hard rubber, the yellow-marked C3 P-Zero Medium tyres and the C4 red-branded Soft compounds along with the green-branded Intermediate and blue-marked Full Wet tyre compounds in case of rain.

 

There will be two sets of C2 Hards, four C3 Mediums and six sets of C4 Soft tyres for all drivers.

---

2022 Brazil GP Preview – DRS Zones

 

There will be two DRS Zones at Interlagos. The first detection point is at the apex of turn two, with the activation point 20 metres after turn three. The second detection zone is 30 metres after turn 13 with the activation point 30 metres after the final corner.

---

2022 Brazil GP Preview – Pitlane Speed Limits

 

Pitlane speed limits will be 80km/h during practice, qualifying and the race.

---

ICYMI: Verstappen cruises to dominant Mexico City GP victory

 

 

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen passed the record for most wins in a single season with a dominant victory at the Mexico City GP ahead of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton who was second and team-mate Sergio Perez who completed the top three.

 

Verstappen lead from start-to-finish with a solid drive, finishing a comfortable 15.584 seconds clear of Hamilton for his 34^th F1-career victory as his soft-medium strategy worked to perfection and Perez was a further 18.097 behind in third at his home Grand Prix.

 

The other Mercedes F1 W13 entry of George Russell finished a distant fourth taking the fastest lap bonus point as both Ferrari drivers had a race to forget with Carlos Sainz a distant fifth and Charles Leclerc sixth in his 100^th Grand Prix start.

 

When the 71-lap Mexico City GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen starting on softs, launched well in-front of Russell and swung ahead of the Silver Arrows on the very long run to the opening corner – with Russell gaining from the Red Bull’s slip-stream to run ahead of Hamilton and Perez.

 

Just before they braked before the first turn, Russell moved left to the outside line, but ended up following the leading Dutchman through the right-hand corner and deep towards the grass run-off on the outside.

 

As Verstappen made his way through not threatened, Russell hopped over the kerbs at the second corner, with Hamilton by this time alongside his Mercedes team-mate and got his way ahead with a better drive out of turn three.

 

There Russell came along Hamilton but ran out of room and had to jump over the kerbs, losing momentum and being overtaken quickly by Perez into turn four at the end of the second straight.

 

Verstappen immediately moved out of DRS range at the end of the opening tour with a 1.232 second gap over Hamilton, with the Briton chasing the newly-crowned two-time world champion having started on the yellow-marked C3 medium compounds, as did Russell, compared to the softs fitted to both Red Bull RB18 entries.

 

Over the next phase of the Grand Prix, the gap between the leaders slightly fluctuated, but generally held around the 1.5 second range as Perez and Russell ran a few seconds further off and falling more adrift over the course of the opening stint.

 

Approaching the end of the Grand Prix’s opening quarter, Verstappen stepped-up his pace in an attempt to break the slip-stream to the Mercedes, but Hamilton was able to hang on just over two seconds behind before the leader’s softs began to degrade.

 

From a maximum lead of 2.4 seconds, Verstappen’s gap was down to 1.6 seconds by the time he pitted on the end of lap 25 – one tour after team-mate Perez had stopped and suffered a soft left-rear tyre change that left him halted for five seconds.

 

Running the more durable compound, Mercedes left Hamilton out – his mediums showed none of the darker wear patches that had been evident on Verstappen’s front-left soft before be pitted.

 

But Hamilton remained out for another four tours before he was brought in for a set of the C2 white side-walled harder tyres, with the Silver Arrows instead leaving Russell out to complete a longer opening stint.

 

The Briton therefore lead until the end of lap 34, Verstappen cycled back to the front at halfway through the race with a near seven-second gap and Hamilton under more pressure from Perez close behind – the Mexican having cleared the off-paced Ferrari duo after his slow stop.

 

Hamilton suggested the harder compounds were not performing as well as the mediums he had gotten rid of, with the Silver Arrows in-turn implying the performance drop-off logged at the end of his first stint could give him the opportunity to catch Verstappen in the latter stages.

 

This looked a mighty challenge 15 tours into Hamilton’s second as he faced a near 10-second gap to the dominant race leader, but at least able to keep Perez at bay just a few seconds behind.

 

Indeed proceedings remained stable, and Hamilton questioned whether his hard tyres was the right choice to be on and Mercedes insisted that it was due to his added durability on a one-stop strategy.

 

But with Verstappen continuing to pull away by a few tenths each tour as the leaders made their way through the traffic, with 15 laps remaining, the Dutchman had a lead of 12.1 seconds.

 

As it turned out, Mercedes hoped for a dramatic pace drop-off from the Red Bulls, but it never happened and Verstappen flew to a solid Mexico City GP victory by 15.584 seconds and the record of 14 race wins in a single season, completing a huge 46 laps on the medium compounds.

 

A late race stoppage for Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, who was running comfortably in seventh before an engine problem caused him to lose pace and eventually pulled off at the turn one run-off area and did not cause much of a disruption other than a short virtual safety car period on laps 65-66 as the A522 racer was removed behind the barriers.

 

Perez wound up 2.9 seconds behind Hamilton having dropped further behind shortly before the virtual safety car, with Russell fourth and also frustrated at running the hards on his second stint.

 

This ended up being the middle stint as Mercedes opted to bring Russell in to bolt on a set of softs to push for the bonus fastest lap point, with the Briton scored on the final tour with a 1:20.153.

 

Sainz lead Leclerc home in a quiet race for Ferrari – the Spaniard ended up a massive 58.8 seconds off race-winner Verstappen and the only action for the pairing involved Perez’s post-stop overtaking and Sainz doing the same to Alonso after his own pit-stop to go from softs to mediums.

 

Leclerc, the last car on the lead lap, was a further ten-seconds behind the Spaniard, the drama to the finish concerned McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo.

 

The Australian produced the second-longest opening stint on the medium rubber in remaining out until lap 45, after which he was quick on the softs, but made a bad mistake hitting AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda at turn six a few tours after his pit-stop.

 

With the AT03 retiring in the pits, Ricciardo was slapped with a 10-second time penalty, which he overcame with a brilliant climb up the field after being let through by McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, who was running a medium-hard tyre strategy.

 

Ricciardo produced overtake-after-overtake – including being part of a double move on Alonso into the first corner shortly before the double world champion retired, with his Alpine team-mate Esteban Ocon going by ahead of Ricciardo into turn one before in-turn being caught and passed by the McLaren.

 

In clear air from there, Ricciardo charged ahead of the Frenchman and finished 12.1 seconds clear to negate his penalty.

 

Norris and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who had fallen back on lap one after his impressive qualifying effort and then battled the Alpine pairing in the opening and middle phases of the Grand Prix before dropping back, rounded out the top ten.

 

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished outside the top ten in 11^th place and ahead of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who was 12^th and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who had an intense battle with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel who placed in 14^th behind the Chinese driver.

 

The other Aston Martin AMR22 entry of Lance Stroll crossed the line 15^th and in-front of Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen who ended the race 16^th and 17^th respectively.

 

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi came last of the runners as both Alonso and Tsunoda were the only retirements of the race.

---

2022 Brazil GP Preview – The Situation

 

 

Max Verstappen returns to Brazil as a two-time World Driver’s Champion, sitting on top with 416 points and a 136-point lead over Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez who is second on 280 points whilst Charles Leclerc is a further 141 behind the Dutchman in third on 275 points.

 

Oracle Red Bull Racing comes to Sao Paulo as World Constructors Champions, sitting in P1 with 696 points and a 209-point advantage over nearest rivals Scuderia Ferrari who are second on 487 points whilst Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team are third and a further 249 behind the Milton Keynes based-outfit on 447 points.

---

2022 Brazil GP Preview – The 100km F1 Sprint Format

 

 

The Sprint format was scheduled for three Grands Prix for the 2022 campaign with the Emilia Romagna, Austrian & Brazilian rounds.

 

The format features the opening Friday Practice 1 session followed by Qualifying to decide the starting order for the Sprint, then Saturday holds Free Practice 2 before the 100-kilometre Sprint Race with no mandatory pit-stops and drivers pushing to the limit from start-to-finish.

 

This season has seen more points being awarded in the F1 Sprint, with the top eight drivers rather than only the previous top three.

 

The driver who wins the Sprint receives a solid eight points, rather than three, with a sliding scale down to one point for an eighth-place finish. These points are added to the World Driver’s and Constructors Championship standings.

 

The finishing order for the F1 Sprint will decide Sunday’s grid for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, where the traditional format remains unchanged.

 

Click here for the 2022 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

The Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio De Sao Paulo 2022 weekend begins Friday November 11 with Free Practice 1 and Qualifying, followed by Free Practice 2 and the F1 Sprint Race Saturday November 12 and the 71 lap Race Sunday November 13.