Top five, bottom five: Formula 1 tracks which held a season finale

Interlagos, which hosts the Brazilian Grand Prix this weekend, has produced some of Formula 1’s most memorable season finales.

However the Sao Paulo circuit hasn’t concluded a championship since 2013 – the season has finished at Yas Marina every time since then.

In total, 20 different tracks have held the final round of the world championship. But which were the best venues for a season finale – and which were the worst?

Top five F1 season finale venues

5. Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez

Mexico regularly held Formula 1’s season finale during the sixties, in its first spell on the calendar. The track now known as the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was the original venue.

In its original form, Mexico City’s track was a belter, with a huge straight, sweeping opening corner and sequence of fast S-bends. The lap ended with the fearsome 180-degree Peraltada, now considered too unsafe for use by F1 cars.

Mexico’s first season finale was arguably its best, as John Surtees came out on top in a three-way fight for the title. Its last was arguably a victim of its own success, as the huge crowd broke onto the circuit and sat at the edge of the track. Drivers implored them in vain to move out of the way, the race went ahead and mercifully no one was killed, though Jackie Stewart hit a dog. F1 didn’t return for 16 years.

4. Suzuka

Despite holding many memorable championship-deciding races in the eighties and nineties, Suzuka didn’t conclude an F1 season until 1996. The gem of a track is a favourite of drivers thanks to its sinuous curves and limited run-off.

It last held the season-closing race in 2003, which also proved the championship-deciding race, and nearly delivered an astonishing upset. Michael Schumacher was virtually assured the title before the weekend began, but he endured a poor race while Kimi Raikkonen stalking the other Ferrari for the victory he needed to snatch an unlikely title. It wasn’t to be, but this was nailbiter nonetheless.

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3. Watkins Glen

Has any circuit ever offered a more fitting backdrop to the end of a championship than autumn in New York State? Besides the attractive scenery, Watkins Glen was the best home F1 has had in the USA.

In 1974 championship leaders Emerson Fittipaldi and Clay Regazzoni arrived tied on points – the only time that happened before the 2021 finale. Fittipaldi claimed the title with fourth place.

2. Adelaide

The Adelaide street circuit held every season-closing race over an 11-year period. It produced some unforgettable races, including Nigel Mansell’s 1986 heartbreak and the infamous 1994 title-decider.

Unfortunately the weather could be vicious at times. The 1991 race was abandoned after a handful of laps and long held the record for F1’s shortest race. The 1989 event probably should have been called off sooner and saw two frightening shunts as drivers smashed into cars in poor visibility.

But otherwise, Adelaide was a case study in how to get a street circuit right, and the packed crowd guaranteed a brilliant atmosphere.

1. Interlagos

Two changes transformed Interlagos into the ultimate venue for the season finale. First the track was renovated to contemporary standards in 1990, cutting back the long original layout to create more run-off space while retaining its character. Second, the event was relocated from the beginning of the season to the end.

The result was some of the most dramatic moments in F1 history: Lewis Hamilton missing the chance to win the title as a rookie in 2007, then breaking the hearts of the Sao Paulo crowd by denying Felipe Massa the title 12 months later. The latter race seemed hard to beat for drama at the time, but the 2012 event was unlike anything seen before or since, and remains the top-rated grand prix among RaceFans readers.

Few cities are in the fortunate position of having a permanent, F1-grade circuit within their environs, let alone one which produces such consistently good races as Interlagos. There’s good reason why its brief period as the final race on the calendar is remembered by many with such fondness.

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Bottom five F1 season finale venues

5. Jerez

The Jerez circuit in the south of Spain was never supposed to be the venue for a championship-decider. F1 returned there in 1997 after the planned race at Estoril in Portugal could not go ahead.

There’s no doubt F1’s sole season finale at Jerez produced drama, as Schumacher swiped Jacques Villeneuve as his title rival passed him for the lead. But as a race venue it left a lot to be desired.

Even in 1997, F1 drivers found overtaking difficult around the tight and twisty Spanish track. The circuit suits motorbike racing far better, which seemed to be reflected in the lack of local enthusiasm for the race – though, to be fair, this was in the days before Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz Jnr.

4. Pedralbes

One of two street tracks F1 visited in Barcelona, Pedralbes’s basic and uninspiring layout was later eclipsed by the flowing and sinuous nearby Montjuich Park course. In an era of fearsomely fast tracks and monster road circuits like the Nurburgring Nordschleife, Pedralbes had little to commend it: half-a-dozen corners connected by massive straights.

Monaco it wasn’t – more like a proto-Las Vegas. It featured an enormous, 2.8-kilometre straight which had the dubious distinction of being named after Spain’s dictator general Franco.

Juan Manuel Fangio won his first world championship at the circuit in 1951. When F1 returned for its second visit three years later he had already secured the title again, then plans for a 1955 race were cancelled in the wake of the tragedy at that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. The event was never revived.

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3. Shanghai International Circuit

China made its much-hyped arrival on the F1 calendar in 2004. The enormous Shanghai International Circuit looked like it had been built on an entirely different scale to tracks which had gone before, and was granted the honour of hosting the following year’s season finale.

Doubts over the quality of the construction were raised when Australian Supercars racer Mark Winterbottom suffered a frightening crash when he struck a broken drain cover during a race in June 2005 which tore a hole in his car’s floor and almost caused him a serious injury in a delicate area. Incredibly, more circuit problems played a role in F1’s finale later that year.

McLaren came into the race two points behind leaders Renault and hoping to salvage victory in the constructors’ championship after Fernando Alonso had taken the drivers title. But the Renault pair claimed the lead and McLaren’s title hopes were as good as ruined when Juan Pablo Montoya struck another loose drain cover.

2. Yas Marina

Enormous hype accompanied Formula 1’s first race at Yas Marina. This was to be the series’ first “hybrid circuit”, whatever that was supposed to mean.

The reality was a track seemingly precision-engineered to offer minimal driving challenge or overtaking opportunities. Vast expanses of asphalt run-off ensured maximum opportunity for corner-cutting and subsequent rows over track limits.

It wasn’t short of gimmicks, like a flashy hotel spanning one side of the track and a pit exit which passed underneath the circuit. But it proved terrible for racing, a fact underlined by Alonso’s inability to attack Vitaly Petrov’s Renault during the 2010 race, trapping him into a championship-losing situation.

Despite the consistently poor racing it has produced, Yas Marina has now held more season finales than any track in history, thanks to the region’s wealth. Its 2021 makeover at least removed several of the weakest corners, but this remains a venue which can dampen the excitement of any title-decider.

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1. Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

F1’s first attempt to crack Las Vegas under Bernie Ecclestone’s leadership was so weak it was almost comical. A feeble, repetitive course was laid out in a parking lot and the championship hoped the locals would take notice when it turned up to decide its 1981 and 1982 titles there.

They didn’t: Neither of these finely-poised showdowns received the attention they deserved. F1 slipped away to try its luck elsewhere. It eventually returned to the city 40 years later, and while the modern Las Vegas Strip Circuit may have its detractors, at least they got the location right.

Over to you

What makes a great venue for a season finale? Name your favourites – and least favourites – in the comments.

Every track which hosted an F1 season finale

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