The Brazilian GP as we know today has been hosted on the Interlagos (Autódromo José Carlos Pace) track located in Sao Paulo since 1990. But recently, Chase Carey admitted he has agreed to a deal to organise and promote F1 events in Rio de Janeiro, early enough to include it in the 2021 calendar. This information didn’t necessarily fo well and sparked a lot of controversy, although quite frankly for the right reason. 

The venue that is supposed to be used is located in Deodoro, an ex-military base that was used for some events during the 2016 Olympic Games, and could be possibly named after one of the most legendary drivers Ayrton Senna, who’s still beloved in his country as well as outside. The racing track is planned in the place of Camboata Forest, Rio’s last forested area, and would mean deforestation of the land in order to build a track who’s layout was initially proposed by no other man than…Hermann Tilke. Over the recent years Tilke received a lot of “backlash” for producing pretty dull tracks, which led to somebody coining the term “Tilkedrome”, which refers to the fact that many of the tracks designed by the German have the same types of characteristics. 

But back to the real issue here. In a letter dated September 14 sent to the acting governor of Rio, Claudio Castro, Chase Carey confirmed that a deal has been signed with the promoter of the Rio race and that they’re currently waiting for the granting of permission to proceed with the building of the venue. The INEA, which is the Brazilian State Institute of the Environment is currently still preparing a proper technical opinion regarding the environmental impact of the project. Afterwards, the opinion will be submitted to the attorney general's office and afterwards to CECA, the Brazilian State Environmental Control Commission.

The threat to lose the last forested area around Rio de Janeiro has been met with public opposition, both online and offline. A group of environmental activists has alarmed they will even go to the court if needed, to stop the project. A local judge in the Deodoro area has already stopped the construction, until the company involved in the project obtains all legal and environmental licences necessary. Online, many voiced out their disappointment with F1, starting  with a petition and hashtags of #SAVEINTERLAGOS and #BRASILSAYSNOTODEFORESTATION. And in all honesty, despite the apparently not so great relationship between the promoter of the Interlagos event and F1, we do not need a change in the track. Interlagos, as a track, is enough. But the issue here lays also in the fact that the deal between Interlagos as a host and the sport are coming to an end this year, and F1 could be hesitant to propose a new deal due to the fact that due to the arrangements back-in-the-day with Bernie Ecclestone they were not paying a fee that usually comes with hosting an F1 event. 

Although in the letter Carey did not specify that the focus is on Deodoro and it could as well be hosted on another venue, F1 still sends a very unsettling and confusing message out there. 

As you can imagine, something doesn’t particularly go well when a situation like this comes up, especially after the “carbon neutral by 2030”/“more environmental friendly” communications late last year. 

Lewis Hamilton already in 2019 has spoken out regarding the environmental threat the building of a new track poses. As he said: “I'm a little old school, I love the Interlagos circuit. I think honestly there is a lot of money that goes into building a new circuit. We already have a historic circuit here, we don't need to cut any more rainforest down, do any more damage.That money could go to better causes here, it could go to the infrastructure of the cities, there is a lot of poverty still. If it was my money, I would put it in a better cause. Education is super key, for example."

It is important to note that MotoGP also agreed to racing on the venue, but they plan to only introduce it in the calendar from 2022 onwards, as opposed to 2021 which could be the case regarding Carey and F1.