Did you know that F1 raced in Las Vegas 40 years ago? Yes, and he did it in one of the worst circuits in the history of the championship.
Formula 1 will compete from 2023 in the most popular area of Las Vegas. The single-seaters of the queen category will enter a neon light show, among casinos, hotels and glamour… This, however, will not be the first time that the queen category has contested a race in this place; There was already an F1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas, much less elegant, in a parking lot!
Of course, it wasn’t just any car park, but the one at Caesars Palace, a hotel and casino built in the 1960s that evokes the greatness of Julius Caesar (hence the name), located on the Las Vegas Strip. It currently has no less than 3,300 rooms divided into five towers.
Right here, in its old parking area and where today there are new facilities and the Mirage hotel, the first Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix was held. The event was also known as the Caesars Palace Grand Prix, which was who paid the party, with the aim of attracting as many people as possible to the city and, of course, to its facilities.
Those responsible for Caesars Palace reached an agreement with Formula 1, whose commercial interests Bernie Ecclestone was already defending, to enter the 1981 calendar. Initially, the test was to be held a week after the Watkins Glen race, but the difficulties financials of this Grand Prix caused its fall from the calendar.
The leading role fell on Las Vegas, which would also be the last round of the season and, therefore, was decisive in the fight for the title.
As you can imagine, a circuit designed in a car park cannot be particularly attractive, and the layout of Caesars Palace confirmed that fear. It was a 3.6 kilometer circuit, with 14 curves and two long straights, shaped like a giant “E” in order to maximize the route in a place of limited size.
Beyond the straights, it was an absolutely repetitive ‘interior’ route. Also due to lack of space, the boxes were on the outside. It was a wide circuit, which allowed overtaking, and with large sand loopholes.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix only lasted two years, 1981 and 1982. In its first edition, held on October 17, the Australian Alan Jones (Williams) won the victory, in a race remembered for the conquest of the first title of Nelson Piquet (Brabham), who beat Argentine Carlos Reutemann (Williams) by a single point.
In the second edition of the Las Vegas GP, the Italian Michele Aboreto achieved his first victory in F1, at the wheel of a Tyrrell. Once again, Las Vegas hosted the final battle for the title, which Keke Rosberg (Williams) achieved that year after finishing fifth. It was also the last race for Mario Andretti in F1.
The pilots did not like the circuit, and to this was added the high temperatures typical of the Mojave desert, which surrounds Las Vegas, and caused the competitors to finish the race absolutely destroyed. The first year, in fact, Nelson Piquet took up to 15 minutes to celebrate his title because he was dehydrated and vomiting.
Neither the drivers nor the spectators liked it, and therefore neither did the sponsors, so the adventure in this extravagant F1 circuit, one of the worst in the history of the championship, ended after the 1982 edition.
Yes, it was used by the defunct Champ Car, the predecessor of the Indycar, which modified the layout to turn it into a kind of oval for the 1983 and 1984 seasons. The cars were constantly rolling in traffic and this idea did not convince either.
And now that parking lot doesn’t even exist anymore. Its space is now occupied by two high-rise room towers, a courtyard with swimming pools, a 12,000-seat stadium used primarily for boxing and, of course, a multi-storey car park.
The new Las Vegas Circuit, although it will pass near Caesars Palace, has nothing to do with it. It will be a track of more than six kilometers, where 340 km/h will be reached and which aims to offer a spectacle both on and off the track.
And that, thanks to the combination of the new F1 regulations – which are offering us such good fights – with the city of gambling, waste and express marriages… seems like a safe bet.
