Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Race weekend at Interlagos, with every journey planned days ahead.

Sao Paulo is one of the largest cities on earth and its traffic behaves accordingly. Interlagos sits to the south, past Congonhas, in a district that was never designed to absorb a Grand Prix crowd, and the roads into it narrow as you get closer. A transfer from Jardins or Itaim Bibi that takes thirty five minutes on a Sunday morning can take an hour and three quarters at five in the afternoon on the same day.

This is why Sao Paulo is the one race weekend where we talk about helicopters as a practical option rather than an indulgence. The city has one of the busiest civil helicopter operations anywhere, flying between rooftop helipads as a matter of routine, and the circuit has a helipad of its own. A ten minute flight across a city that would otherwise take ninety minutes is not showing off, it is the difference between watching first practice and listening to it on the radio in a car.

Congonhas is by far the closest to Interlagos, around half an hour on a clear run, and it is the airport everybody wants. It also operates restricted hours rather than around the clock, requires slots at all times with very little tolerance, and is not an airport of entry, so an aircraft arriving from Europe must clear customs elsewhere first. Guarulhos, the main international airport to the north east, runs twenty four hours with prior permission, has the proper international arrivals facilities and generally has room on the ramp, at the cost of an hour or more on the road. Viracopos at Campinas is the third option, open around the clock, and it is a long way out.

The right answer usually combines them: clear into Guarulhos, then reposition the aircraft or move the party by helicopter for the days at the circuit. Odyssey arranges the aircraft, the handling, the helicopter and the cars as one job, with one person answering the phone. See private jet charter, ultra long range jets and helicopter charter.

The promoter runs official express buses to the circuit from Congonhas and from metro stations on the Saturday and Sunday, and they work well, which tells you something about how the roads behave. If you are arriving by car, the practical approach is to be early, to have a driver who stays at an agreed point rather than circling, and to accept that the hour after the chequered flag is not the hour to try to move.

The other thing to plan for is weather. Interlagos in November is famous for storms that arrive quickly and clear almost as fast, and they affect helicopters before they affect cars. We always hold a road option behind a helicopter plan, and we will tell you before you leave the hotel which one we are using. Cars in Brazil are arranged through operators we know, with one person at Odyssey responsible for the itinerary.