Sports prestige, weapons and robberies go hand in hand in Interlagos

Updated:13/11/2021 00:48h

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In Brazil, as in all World Championship circuits, the drivers aspire for their cars to be always faster and lighter. But to access Interlagos, where the track is located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Sao Paulo, the F1 protagonists choose armored vehicles with tinted windows, cars with local drivers or expert bodyguards, police escorts or, in many cases, helicopters that avoid the danger and the infernal traffic of a city in permanent traffic jam 20 million inhabitants. In Interlagos sports prestige, titles, tears or glory are distributed forever, according to the custom of the last decades, but to get to that point on the planet you have to overcome the need that comes from poverty, organized crime and weapons.

According to data from the news agency Brazil, the number of homicides grew in Sao Paulo in 2020, despite confinement and pandemic: 709 dead. The number of robberies (392,311), robberies resulting in death (179), rapes (11,023) and bank robberies (29) fell. A feeling of insecurity that is reflected in the Marginal Pinheiros, the compulsory highway to cross the city from the airport to the hotels or, further south, to the Interlagos circuit. In the chaos of traffic (transfers are always measured in hours), crime takes advantage of traffic jams or stops at traffic lights to act.

Every year there are usually robberies on the highway that connects Interlagos with Marginal Pinheiros. The color used by Formula 1 teams –Advertising, signs, colorful tones–, has been replaced over time by robust and heavy vehicles that hide in their tinted windows the usual work material in this sport: computers, television or photo cameras, electronic equipment.

In that area of ​​Sao Paulo, the usual image of Formula 1 and its world of glitter and glamor is not projected. There are no golf courses or yachts in the panorama, but rather corrugated iron constructions. You can see grandparents in sweatpants and tank tops, mothers loaded with purchases pulling carts, barefoot children watching with eagle eyes, motels at 20 euros a night, breakfast included, and rickety and nameless bars or shops where the star product it is the second hand. There are always people crowded by hundreds on the avenues in front of the bus stops. The subway does not reach this southwest neighborhood that for a few days changes its vital dynamics with Formula 1.

Williams, Mercedes, Button…

The list of assaults is extensive. The former Toyota team and its press officer, Williams team mechanics, McLaren driver Jenson Button, Mercedes employees, FIA workers, journalists … And almost always with the same protocol. A traffic jam or a traffic light and the appearance of weapons to intimidate.

The danger of the great Brazilian city contrasts with the sporting prestige it has afforded the stars of Formula 1. Something always happens at the Brazilian Grand Prix. The two titles of Fernando Alonso happened (2005 and 2006), in addition to his tremendous accident on the finish line in 2003. It was the epilogue of the nerve-wracking year for Alonso and Hamilton at McLaren with a title for Raikkonen, the last Ferrari championship. Also the total grief of Massa, who thought he was champion and did not notice that Hamilton overtook Glock at the last corner. The World Cup that Vettel won over Ferrari driver Alonso. Or Sainz’s first podium, with the McLaren. “Brazil are always good memories,” Alonso said as soon as he stepped onto the track.

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