Rio de Janeiro has hosted the FIA's Formula One World Championship, and thanks to the tireless efforts of Emerson Fittipaldi, his native Brazil hosts the PPG Indy Car World Series. Nelson Piquet and Emerson Fittipaldi announced in Rio de Janeiro in February 1996 that the new oval on the former Jacarepagua track was to be named after Emerson Fittipaldi. The entire complex, including the recently revised road circuit and the new oval was named Nelson Piquet International Raceway the year before. This was to be the home of the Rio 400, a 1.864-mile oval. The race covers 400 kilometres or 248.5 miles and 133 laps. It will have Grandstands to hold 80,000 spectators which are expected to be completely filled due to the popularity of IndyCar racing in Brazil that rivals that of Formula One racing and World Soccer. Andre Ribeiro won the inaugural race at the Rio 400 in 1996 and is currently the defending champion with Alex Zanardi as the defending polesitter. Other Brazilians who have raced in Rio de Janeiro include Raul Boesel, Gil de Ferran, Andre Ribeiro, Marco Greco, Roberto Moreno and Christian Fittipaldi.
Parker Johnstone commented that the thing that made the Brazil track so much fun to drive was the combination of long straights for drafting and the hard braking zones in the turns, both of which yielded great passing opportunities all the way around. Describing the circuit, he said that from the Start/Finish line, you would accelerate up to sixth gear before going into Turn One, where you would go hard on the brakes and downshift from sixth to third. Since it was a late apex turn, you would try to feed the throttle on the exit as soon as possible. A good exit speed out of Turn One was critical for the entire back half of the course. While Turns Two and Three were very precise, Johnstone commented that you could take them flat in sixth gear (building up from fifth in Turn Two) without any downshifting. Turn Four would require you to get hard on the brakes and downshift again from sixth to third, but there was not much room at the exit, so you would have to be careful not to carry too much speed into the turn. Finally you would have to get a good speed coming out of the turn, in order to draft and pass along the front straight. At the IndyCar Spring Training in 1996 several drivers who had seen aerial photographs of the new oval were predicting that the IndyCars would top 200 mph on the main straightway, then have to drop a gear or two for the oval's acute Turn One.
In the past there had been some concerns over Turns 1 and 4, which had been breaking up. One of the major concerns in IndyCar racing is ensuring that the track is smooth. Indy Cars hate bumpy tracks and anytime a track begins to break up, there is immediate safety concerns. A bumpy surface forces the teams to raise the ride height of the car to prevent bottoming. When they raise the car, the low pressure created by the car's ground effects is negated, resulting in a loss of downforce, which upsets the balance of the car. Indy Cars like the smooth surface as it allows the teams to maximise the many handling properties of the race car.
Andretti was quoted as saying "I've never driven on a track like it, it's basically an oval, but yet, you feel like you're on a road course because you have downshift, which is very unique".
