Estoril
Rough and ready, this circuit strafed by winds blowing in off the Atlantic was a popular stop for the Formula One circus from 1984 until 1996. With a lack of Portugese drivers to cheer, it became the place for Brazilian fans to make their annual European sortie to cheer on Ayrton Senna in particular.
Portugal had hosted a grand prix before Estoril came into being, on a street circuit in Oporto in 1958 and 1960 and once in a park at Monsanto near Lisbon in the intervening year. Then the country dropped away from the scene, with only national racing and no star drivers of its own.
In 1972, though, the country's first purpose-built circuit was created. This was Estoril, built on a rocky plateau just inland from the coastal resort of Cascais and the casino town of Estoril on the Atlantic coast to the west of Lisbon. The layout consists of a long start/finish straight that dips towards the opening corner and then doubles back from a low point at its third corner to hit an interior straight, before rounding out its lap with a twisting return leg from the other low point at Orelha. Apart from the first two corners, the lap is made up of medium- and low-speed bends, but the gradient changes added interest and it became a popular place to go racing, helped in no small part by Cascais and Estoril being such fun places for the teams to stay.
Estoril hosted a round of the European Formula Two Championship in 1973 and then from 1975 to 1977, each of which was won by French drivers who would race in Formula One — Jean-Pierre Jarier, Jacques Laffite, Rene Arnoux and Didier Pironi. Then, with its finances in a parlous state, the circuit fell into a state of disrepair. Unusually, what brought it back onto the international scene was hosting a special stage of the Portuguese Rally. Then, with teams seeking a place to conduct close-season testing in its usually clement winter climate following political pressure not to use Kyalami in South Africa, the circuit attracted the investment needed to bring it up to contemporary standards. It was rewarded with its inclusion on the F1 World Championship calendar in 1984. That this was a momentous race in which Niki Lauda did just enough to pip his McLaren team-mate Alain Prost to the drivers' title only added to the start of its second life.
However, what really put Estoril back on the map was Ayrton Senna's remarkable maiden win there for Lotus in streaming wet conditions early in the 1985 season. This alone encouraged Brazilian fans to make the journey to what some still considered their mother country and they filled the grandstands with colour and noise as they supported mainly Senna but Nelson Piquet too, and later Rubens Barrichello. The local fans didn't have so much to cheer, though: after Pedro Chaves failed to qualify for every race of the 1991 season with an uncompetitive Coloni, the only Portuguese driver to race in the grand prix during the circuit's reign was Pedro Lamy. He was a driver of great promise who won races in Formula 3000 and reached F1 with Lotus in 1993. However, he had a major career setback when he crashed when testing at Silverstone in 1994, breaking his knees and a wrist; the recovery Period cost him all momentum and he was never able to challenge when he returned with Minardi.
Momentous races at Estoril include the one in 1989, when race leader Nigel Mansell overshot his pitstop and was disqualified for being pushed backwards in the pitlane, leaving Ferrari team-mate Gerhard Berger to win. Although he'd win here the following year, it went wrong for Mansell again in 1991, when his Williams had a wheel come loose as he left the pits and he was disqualified again. The final Portuguese GP, in 1996, was marked by a fantastic drive from Jacques Villeneuve, which was capped when he drove his Williams around the outside of Michael Schumacher at the daunting final corner to go on to win.
Then Estoril's time at the sport's top table was over, and it has fallen from grace spectacularly. No international series go there now, preferring the Algarve International Circuit near Portimao because it's a more challenging track with modern facilities, leaving Estoril mainly as a venue for national racing series. Sadly, it has fallen even further than Brands Hatch did after losing the British GP.
