Successful F1 countries, Part Two: Brazil

Welcome to part two of the Successful F1 Countries series.

Part One was based on Great Britain and now we will be focusing on the country of Brazil, looking at its history in F1, popular drivers and circuits which have held the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Part Three will look at the country of Germany. 

History

Like Great Britain, Brazil has been deeply involved in F1 pretty much from the start of the championships. In 1951, the first Brazilian F1 driver (Chico Landi) took part in one race and retired. He wasn’t very successful and only scored 1.5 points in his whole career.

A Brazilian Grand Prix wasn’t on the Formula One World Championship calendar until 1973, but the country have held some exciting races since then, the most recent obviously being the epic 2007 championship decider.

Did you know that the Interlagos race circuit is actually named after late Brazilian F1 driver Jose Carlos Pace?

The Brazilians treat F1 very dearly and is a very popular sport in Brazil (after Football, of course), probably because of the emotional attachment to the great Ayrton Senna.

Drivers

In part one of this series, we looked through the drivers chronologically. This time around, we will look at the most popular and indeed the best Brazilian drivers first.

We start with one of the elites and some consider him the greatest of all time: Ayrton Senna.

Senna won three championships during his 10-year career in Formula One.  He electrified the world of F1 and became an international superstar. He is remembered for his wet weather driving and his amazing qualifying skills.

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