I found an interesting pic from
here (
translation) (
A shorter article in English without that pic) :
A 10,000-car parking lot was planned to be behind old T1 and T2, and a stadium was planned to be build inside Curva do Sol, but those plans were never realised.
The article tells the first race at Interlagos had to be cancelled because of, surprise, heavy rain. It was also interesting to read the reasons for corner names.
(In the order of long circuit)
Retão - Big straight, the original back straight
Ferradura - Horseshoe, original corner's shape
Subida/Descida do Lago - Originally there was a rise (subida) going over a lake/pond. Nowadays that pond is only on the outer side of the curve, and the change of direction means it's a descent (descida)
Reta Oposta - Opposite straight
Curva do Sol - Corner of Sun, cars were going towards sun
Sargento - Sergeant, a sergeant died there
Laranja - Orange(the fruit), Google Translator gave a weird sentence, I interpreted it so that drivers who couldn't drive it flat-out were called laranjas, oranges. The current turn that's a bit tighter than the old Laranja is called Laranjinha, Small Orange
Esse - Obviously just S.
Pinheirinho - Pine tree(s) (obviously a small one because Pinheiro->Pinheirinho just like Rubens->Rubinho or Ronaldo->Ronaldinho) There used to be pine tree(s) there. (
An anecdote)
Bico de Pato - Beak of Duck, the shape of the corner, originally known as Curva do Cotovelo, Turn of Elbow.
Mergulho - Diving because cars head towads an imaginary lake
Junção - Junction, infield section joins the external circuit.
Subida dos Boxes - Rise of (Pit) Boxes, also known as Curva do Cafe, or even Curva da Vitória i.e. the Curve of Victory.
Arquibancadas - The grandstands
Reta dos Boxes- Pit straight, the name of main straight.
(My Portuguese skills are almost nonexistent, so feel free to correct my translations. I relied mainly on Google Translate.)
Also, the article in Portuguese said that S do Senna was invented by Senna himself.
One interesting thing was that the article speaks about the current trend of circuits with a maximum length of 4,500 m. I wonder whether there was a maximum lenght rule in late '80s and early '90s, as Magny-Cours and A1-Ring were also less than 4.5 km long. At least there's not that rule currently, as most new circuits are about 5.5 km long.
The article also mentions that the original plan for the shorter circuit was just to have a shortcut on the original layout, and use the long circuit in other categories. I wonder whether they stopped using the long layout right when the short layout was ready.
Edited by August, 23 November 2011 - 18:22.
