Las Vegas Grand Prix

Las Vegas Grand Prix
Flag	10px
Circuit	Caesars Palace Las Vegas, NV
Laps	75
Circuit length km	3.650
Circuit length mi
Race length km	273.750
Race length mi
Most wins driver	Alan Jones (1) Michele Alboreto (1)
Most wins constructor	Williams (1) Tyrrell (1)
Current year	1982
Winner	Michele Alboreto
Winning team	Tyrrell-Ford
Winning time	1:41:56.888
Pole driver	Alain Prost
Pole team	Renault
Pole time	1:16.356
Fastest lap driver	Michele Alboreto
Fastest lap team	Tyrrell-Ford
Fastest lap	1:19.639

The Las Vegas Grand Prix was a car race which was a Formula One World Championship event in 1981 and 1982.

When Watkins Glen went off the schedule after 1980, F1 continued to look west and put an event in Las Vegas for the 1981 campaign. The new race ended the year, whereas Long Beach started it, but it was not popular among the drivers, primarily because of the desert heat. The track was laid out in the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel and was surprisingly well set up for a temporary circuit: wide enough for overtaking, it provided ample run-off areas filled with sand, and had a surface that was as smooth as glass. Its counter-clockwise direction, however, put a tremendous strain on the drivers' necks. When Nelson Piquet clinched his first World Championship by finishing fifth in 1981, it took him fifteen minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after barely making it to the finish. The 1982 race was won by Michele Alboreto in a Tyrrell, but that was the end of Formula One racing in Las Vegas since the races had drawn only tiny crowds.

There have been speculative rumours of a return of the Las Vegas Grand Prix to the F1 calendar. In fact, the 1995 Indianapolis 500 program advertised a possible street circuit along The Strip, but it never materized. After the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis, rumors again circulated, however, it is one of many circuit linked with future races, and a strict limit on the number of races in a year means Las Vegas is not a favourite for a race.

Winners of the Las Vegas Grand Prix

The Formula One races in 1981 and 1982 were officially called the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Indycar races 1983-84 were officially called Caesars Palace Grand Prix.

Year	Driver	Constructor	Location	Report
1982	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	Caesars Palace - Las Vegas	Report
1981	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	Caesars Palace - Las Vegas	Report

See also

• List of Formula One Championship events
• United States Grand Prix
• United States Grand Prix East
• United States Grand Prix West

External links

• F1 Rejects article