‘It was out of control’: How Las Vegas’s F1 gamble in the 1980s came hurtling off the tracks

Ahead of F1’s return to Sin City, Kieran Jackson looks back at two bizarre years of racing round the Caesar Palace parking lot — and Nelson Piquet throwing up in his helmet

The Caesars Palace Grand Prix took place in the Las Vegas hotel’s parking lot in 1981 and 1982 (Getty)

Las Vegas has always been a playground for grown-ups.” John Watson recalls the stateside years like they were yesterday. A Formula One driver for 11 years in the 1970s and ‘80s, the Northern Irishman speaks with great fondness when it comes to racing in North America. Watkins Glen in upstate New York was the highlight – “there were people riding around on trail bikes, high as a f****** kite” – as well as a brief stint at Long Beach in California.

But the 1981 and 1982 season finales in the Caesars Palace hotel parking lot, under the glaring Nevada sun on a tight, twisty track? Not so much. Bernie Ecclestone’s grand plan to expand F1 in the United States, as well as Las Vegas’ eagerness to expand its entertainment portfolio beyond gambling and boxing, saw the infamous Caesars Palace Grand Prix concocted. It was, in Casino City parlance, a big gamble.

The expectation was that it would bring in the big-hitters; the “high-rollers”, keen to splash the cash amid the ever-growing glitz and glamour that Ecclestone and his savvy bunch of team owners had brought to the sport. Yet, the reality was something quite different: a damp squib.

“A circuit built in the car park of a hotel is not going to be the greatest circuit in the world,” Watson, now 77, tells The Independent. “The racetrack wasn’t great and it wasn’t the most classic grand prix venue. We drove something very manufactured. But Bernie had enormous vision and he saw Las Vegas as being the key to developing F1 in North America.

“Everything about Las Vegas was above and beyond anything we’d ever experienced in our lives. They put us all up in the Caesars Palace hotel and you couldn’t believe it – the room was as big as a football pitch, mirrors everywhere, big baths in the bedroom.

“You went out of the rooms and they had these magnificent pool areas – Jesus wept! The most beautiful people in the world were sunning themselves around the pool. We woke up in Las Vegas thinking ‘Wow, this is fantasyland!’ It was quite spectacular!”

But soon the contrast between the lavish spectacle supplied by the hotel and the underwhelming sporting show became evident. The 2.68-mile modified oval – characterised by a stream of repetitive hairpins – was an unusual challenge for that old breed of car, unaccustomed to street circuits with concrete walls. The backend of summer humidity, too, presented another challenge. The 1981 race winner, Nelson Piquet, threw up in his helmet.

“He could barely stand on the podium,” Watson recalls. “They were tough races and physically demanding – but I didn’t feel like it was anything I couldn’t control.”

In the second and final edition of the Sin City race in 1982, Watson was in the championship hunt with one race to go. Toying with Keke Rosberg for the championship, Watson finished second behind Italian driver Michele Alboreto but it wasn’t enough as Rosberg’s fifth-place finish conserved a healthy margin of five points in the standings.

Nelson Piquet (left) threw up in his helmet during the 1981 race in Vegas (Bob Thomas Sports Photography)

The race in the parking lot failed to attract the American audience needed to make it worthwhile (Getty)

Watson admits he was less disappointed at the time than he is now on reflection. But it would be F1’s final season-concluding grand prix in the car park. A lack of spectators failed to pull in the required number of punters to make it worthwhile. In fact, the inaugural race resulted in a huge loss for Caesars Palace, with the American public nowhere near enraptured with Formula One in a manner befitting of today’s climate.

Ecclestone had failed to catapult F1 into the American psyche. Not for the first time – and it wouldn’t be the last.

The sport is in quite a different position today, heading into a race speeding down the world-famous Las Vegas Boulevard and this time past the Caesars Palace hotel. In an era of unprecedented popularity across the Atlantic, F1 now has the backing of all the casinos and hotels and is expecting to bring in a first-year income of more than $1bn for local enterprises.

Nonetheless, despite the race being similarly positioned late in the season, this time there is no championship at stake – a factor Watson believes will take away from the spectacle come Saturday night.

John Watson was in contention for the 1982 title heading into the final Caesars Palace Grand Prix (Getty)

“What Las Vegas is going to do now is go through the motions,” he says. “How good would Vegas be this year if the championship could be won by five different drivers? If you finish second or third, it has no bearing on the title. Yes, there’s a commercial gain for the teams – but the public at large don’t give a s*** about that.

“But it’s all about the show – the racing is almost irrelevant.”

Despite his scepticism, Watson remains a huge fan of modern-day racing in the US. Three races a year shows the sport is now flourishing stateside. But while a championship evaded him more than 40 years ago, was he more successful with a dabble with some dollars in the casino?

“I’m not a gambler, Jesus Christ!” he chuckles. “I worked to earn my money and I wasn’t about to p*** it away on some slot machine or blackjack or roulette.

“The biggest gambling I ever did was drive a racecar!”