The story of the hotel car park that hosted F1's first two trips to Vegas

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" - the clarion call of those who frequent Sin City for a weekend of gambling and debauchery, as they progress from Strip bars to strip bars under the neon-illuminated signage. That's the perception, anyway. In reality, the city is not a monolith of blinding lights, wasted dollars and gluttonous excess; for those who live there, the tourist-enticing attractions are largely avoided as citizens go about their normal, mundane, daily lives.

The common axiom attributed to enabling Las Vegas-based shenanigans is also categorically not true. One could easily delve into a Simpsons reference here and note that the cocktail waitresses that Homer Simpson and Ned Flanders married on a drunken bender later came back into their lives, but that's not a) a particularly terrific real example, and b) not entirely relevant. However, it does apply to Formula 1, which will race in Las Vegas this weekend for the first time in 40 years. After the championship made its initial two forays into Nevada's largest city, it didn't hang around for long.

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In 1992, the parking lot where the Caesars Palace Grand Prix was held 10 years prior was replaced by the Forum Shops, and the now-extinguished prospect of any further races being able to race on the same turf was mourned by precisely nobody. It was a particularly unpopular venue, flat and insipid, and hastily put together out of necessity for the 1981 F1 calendar.

Watkins Glen was due to close out the season, but an $800,000 debt that it owed to the Formula One Constructors' Association (FOCA) remained outstanding and the race was dropped as a result as the promoters at The Glen later went bankrupt. F1, then hoping to retain its presence in the United States, cast its net out for other options.

Caesars Palace, the luxury hotel and casino, managed to obtain a contract to host the race. With its name and facade developed as an evocation of Roman opulence and indulgence, the hotel had become intertwined with international sport thanks to the boxing matches held within its sprawling environs between the greatest heavyweights. It was going to host 24 of them on the same arena on a Sunday afternoon once its circuit had been put together.

It needed just three months to 'build' the circuit, long before the current era of fastidious FIA assessments over safety. A 2.27-mile track was crammed into the parking lot, lined with concrete walls that spectators (and even the TV cameras) had trouble peering over despite efforts to make the full crooked E-shaped layout visible to those who had dared to line the grandstands.

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The uninspired layout in the car park of the Caesars Palace hotel wasn't great for racing, but did test drivers' necks

Unlike the modern day race set to be held on Las Vegas' Strip in the dead of night, the afternoon Nevada desert sun radiated upon the course amid 24°C weather and high humidity that left the drivers sweating it out within their cars. The compact nature of the circuit added to the fatigue, and its anti-clockwise alignment was notable for the strain it placed on the drivers' necks.

But there was keen anticipation for the 1981 edition of the race, not necessarily because of the circuit, but because of the close title fight that was due to reach its climax. Carlos Reutemann sat atop the drivers' championship with 49 points, one clear of Nelson Piquet on 48. Jacques Laffite was an outside bet with 43; the Ligier driver needed to win and hope that his rivals could not cash in their chips at the end of the 75-lap race.

For a race held on a nondescript patch of car park, the pre-race festivities were suitably tacky. As Murray Walker acerbically noted in his pre-race commentary: "We've had the parade from the high-stepping, baton-twirling majorettes; the balloons have been released; Tom Jones has done a victory lap in a semi-genuine chariot; the circuit has been christened in champagne; the sky-divers have dived to deliver the race flags; and Paul Newman has addressed the 45-thousand-strong crowd in their $250 seats. Yes, that's Las Vegas for you..." One imagines that the 2023 grand prix might go slightly more over the top...

Piquet had done enough to clinch the title with fifth, as Reutemann's gearbox issues had rendered fourth gear impotent and left him to struggle home in eighth

The results from qualifying ensured that the start of the race would be advantage Reutemann. The Argentine plonked his Williams FW07C on pole, with reigning champion Alan Jones alongside him; the Australian had been unable to defend his title, and was resigned to playing tail-gunner for his team-mate. But Piquet was not far off, having qualified his Brabham fourth behind Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari. Laffite was an even greater outside bet, only managing 12th on the grid having borrowed team-mate Patrick Tambay's car.

Piquet had been struggling with his neck, however, and required a post-qualifying massage from a specialist in the Caesars Palace hotel - one who was more accustomed to dealing with boxers rather than racers. Nonetheless, the Brazilian was given enough of a tune-up to take to the race.

Jones made the better start of the two Williams drivers and took to the lead, as Reutemann was bogged down and passed by Villeneuve - who had been visibly straddling his grid position and the middle of the road having parked up too far to his left. It got worse for Reutemann, as Alain Prost nipped past for third and Alfa Romeo's Bruno Giacomelli bolted up the order from eighth to move up to fourth. But, crucially, Piquet had dropped even further; John Watson and Laffite had overtaken him - and the latter duo then cleared Reutemann to ensure the points leaders were together on-track.

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This was where Reutemann's championship hopes had begun to derail after suffering with gearbox difficulties. This put him on the defensive against Piquet who, after a few attempts, was eventually able to slot his Brabham BT49C past at the final corner on the 17th lap to take the initiative in the championship fight. Reutemann's misery was compounded when Mario Andretti got past at the next corner.

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Reutemann faded badly in the 1981 race, with Piquet moving ahead to win his first world title

Piquet cleared Watson five laps later, but Andretti made his way past both on the following tour. Nonetheless, Piquet was sitting pretty in the points, and the seas parted for him after Villeneuve had retired (he was due to be disqualified anyway for starting out of position). Giacomelli then spun and dropped out of the points momentarily, and Alfa Romeo had to endure further misfortune when Andretti's suspension broke to produce a further retirement.

When Prost pitted for new Michelin tyres, as the non-Goodyear runners started to struggle with tyre wear, Piquet had made it up to third - but was easy pickings for the future four-time champion as his neck had once again started to cause problems. Although he'd resumed third place when Laffite pitted for fresh tyres, Nigel Mansell's Lotus made its way past the #5 Brabham on lap 52 and a resurgent Giacomelli moved ahead of the Brazilian three laps later.

Piquet, his neck barely imbued with the strength to keep his head from rolling around in the cockpit, had to hold onto fifth for 20 laps. Laffite and Watson were closing in on their fresh tyres, but were stalled at the end from battling each other for sixth - a battle Laffite had secured at the flag. Jones had dominated the race, leading every single lap and finishing 20s clear of Prost and Giacomelli. Piquet had done enough to clinch the title with fifth, as Reutemann's gearbox issues had rendered fourth gear impotent and left him to struggle home in eighth.

The second and final Caesars Palace Grand Prix was held the year after, and the title was once again won by the driver who finished fifth: Keke Rosberg closed out a highly contested and oft-tragic 1982 season to become Finland's first world champion, as outside bet Watson needed a win and for Rosberg to fail to score.

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Although the race had been scheduled for 16 October as part of a double-bill with the CART Indy Car World Series, F1 governing body FISA moved the date of its season finale to 25 September (imagine ending a season that early!) and introduced rules that all but precluded Indycars from racing at the same venue over the same weekend. CART quietly dropped the Caesars Palace round, leaving over a month between its Michigan and Phoenix rounds at the end of the year.

Conditions during the second trip to the Caesars Palace parking lot were even more unforgiving as the mercury pushed 37°C on race day. This was the third US-based race of the season following visits to Long Beach and Detroit in the first half of the season, a record F1 has only matched with its Miami-Austin-Las Vegas trifecta in 2023.

While the Renaults had been strongest in qualifying in 1982, with Prost and Rene Arnoux locking out the front row, the non-turbo cars could benefit from the short nature of the circuit; the excessive lag on-throttle in the original turbocharged era mitigated the power disadvantage that the naturally aspirated cars were burdened with, which allowed Tyrrell's Michele Alboreto to keep pace with the Renaults over the course of the grand prix.

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Having a normally aspirated engine proved advantageous for Alboreto in 1982 as the Tyrrell driver usurped the turbos

Arnoux developed a suspected electrical problem and retired, offering Alboreto second place. Although Prost had managed to sit over 15 seconds clear at half distance, Alboreto got to work and started carving away at the Frenchman's lead at the rate of over a second a lap as tyre issues once again started to cause the Michelin runners slightly more grief. On lap 52, Alboreto made his move on Prost to assume the lead, which the Italian did not relinquish to ensure Tyrrell claimed its 32nd F1 victory of 33.

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Watson had made a good fist of his outside championship challenge and moved past Rosberg on lap 15, before benefitting from tyre issues and unreliability from the cars ahead. But the Northern Irishman's upward mobility came to a halt after moving past Prost, as he settled in to preserve second as his own tyres began to wear out. With Rosberg in fifth, a Watson win would have been rendered moot in the championship stakes; as Alboreto and third-placed Eddie Cheever celebrated on the podium with Diana Ross, Watson looked less than impressed.

Appearances from Tom Jones, Diana Ross, and Paul Newman suggested quite the bombastic affair in the early iterations of F1 racing in Vegas, but 2023's return to Nevada suggests that these will be considerably out-done

Caesars Palace was due to remain on the calendar for 1983, and F1 briefly looked set for four races in the States as a New York race was in heavy contention. Neither came to pass, as the Caesars Palace Grand Prix was considered enough of a flop that the championship scaled back to two US races. CART instead assumed the race for 1983 and 1984, doing away with the repetitive corners and opting for a 1.125-mile 'outer loop'.

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Through the construction, maintenance of the circuit, and hosting fees, Caesars Palace lost $3m in 1984 and thus the circuit was thankfully shut down. Opting to rework the car park into something with repeatable business, rather than simply hosting mediocre races, a shopping centre was planned and broke ground in 1990 to pave away a forgotten slice of F1 history. Caesars Palace was confined to the same fate as the much more celebrated Riverside circuit in California, but this time without anywhere near as much resistance.

Appearances from Tom Jones, Diana Ross, and Paul Newman suggested quite the bombastic affair in the early iterations of F1 racing in Vegas, but 2023's return to Nevada suggests that these will be considerably out-done through more modern ostentatiousness. One only hopes that the 3.8-mile circuit that encompasses Las Vegas' biggest attractions can offer a much more worthwhile racing experience. Caesars Palace will have offered lessons that F1 will have surely heeded, but the proof of that will only emerge once the (starting) lights go out on Saturday night.

If the race defies the critics and produces a genuinely enthralling spectacle beyond the bluster, then what goes in Vegas might just stay in Vegas after all...

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Cheever, Alboreto and Watson are joined on the podium by Ross in F1's final visit to the Caesars Palace car park