Las Vegas Street Circuit

Interesting facts

In 1981 and 1982, a temporary anticlockwise circuit ran through the parking lot of the Caesars Palace casino, widely remembered as one of the worst venues in Formula 1 history because of the desert heat and gravelly run-off areas. At the end of the 1981 race, Nelson Piquet clinched his first World Championship there, so exhausted afterward that he collapsed in the cockpit after crossing the line. The track was hastily built in Caesars Palace's own car park to replace the financially troubled Watkins Glen as America's Grand Prix venue; despite the polish, drivers and fans alike found it flat, featureless and disorienting, cementing its reputation as a purpose-built dead end. The 1982 finale turned into a three-way title fight after championship leader Didier Pironi suffered a career-ending crash in practice for the German Grand Prix earlier that summer, leaving Keke Rosberg and John Watson to settle it in the Nevada heat. Rosberg needed only sixth place to clinch it, finished fifth, and became champion without having won a single race all season. The race itself was won by Michele Alboreto in a Tyrrell-Ford, the eleventh different winner of the 1982 season, a season so competitive that Ferrari sealed the constructors' championship even though neither of its cars finished in the top six that day. Both Caesars Palace races lost the hotel serious money, and Formula 1 walked away after just two editions, though CART's IndyCars kept racing there through 1984. It took 41 years for Formula 1 to return to Las Vegas, finally coming back in 2023 on an entirely different street circuit, a long shadow cast by how badly the Caesars Palace parking-lot experiment had failed. You'll find it in Nevada, United States. On the calendar since 1981, this circuit has hosted 2 races, the latest in 1982. Alan Jones took the inaugural win here in 1981. Michele Alboreto won here most recently, in 1982.

Circuit history