The mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), refuted this Friday (7) the statement made by his colleague from Rio de Janeiro, Eduardo Paes (PSD), that São Paulo could lose the Brazilian Formula 1 Grand Prix to Rio.
–São Paulo increases the volume that Formula 1 will return to Rio — challenged Paes. —The challenge is, not only to have what already exists in Brazil and Rio de Janeiro lost, but also to bring Formula 1, Motovelocidade, Formula Indy, anyway… Think about all the alternatives and hypotheses that we can have from 2029 onwards,” added the mayor, referring to the recently launched Autódromo Parque de Guaratiba project, in the West Zone, whose works are scheduled to begin at the beginning of 2026.
For Nunes, however, the competition on tracks in São Paulo will not leave Interlagos (the contract expires in 2030), as the city has greater capacity to absorb an event of this size.
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– Never, never, never. Here the Formula 1 management is very satisfied with its activity in the city. (…) It is very difficult for you to be able to do something better than what we have here, in addition to there being a whole condition that is analyzed in relation to the availability of airports, the issue of the hotel network, security. I’m not criticizing Rio, I love Rio. Eduardo is a great friend. He just sometimes wants to make some lame jokes, but he’s part of it. Now, what we have here in terms of conditions to attend an event of this size, it is not in Rio, it is not available in any other city in South America – stated Ricardo Nunes.
The Guaratiba Racetrack is expected to cost R$1.3 billion and will have capacity for 120,000 people, including temporary stands.
The city has not had a circuit of this standard since the demolition, in 2012, of the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet, in Jacarepaguá. It gave way to the Barra Olympic Park, the main venue for the 2016 Olympics competitions. The project will be run by the RockinWorld group (which organizes Rock in Rio and The Town in São Paulo) and Genial Investimentos.
The last time Rio hosted F-1 was in 1989.
