The 1981 and 1982 World Championships were decided in ‘Sin City’ at the season-ending Las Vegas Grand Prix. The 1982 race was held under a blazing hot sunny sky. The track was partially on the Caesar’s Palace parking lot and on some undeveloped land.
The inaugural race in 1981 featured a three-way title fight between Carlos Reutemann, Nelson Piquet and Jacques Lafitte, with Williams already having comfortably clinched the Constructors’ Championship. Williams’ Alan Jones went with his victory here into his first retirement and Piquet clinched the title with a fifth place – despite suffering painful neck spasms and having to be helped out of his car and onto the podium.
In 1982 the Caesar’s Palace Grand Prix was F1’s third visit to the USA, after Long Beach and Detroit. McLaren’s interest in the race was strong, with John Watson going into the race with a chance – an outside chance – of taking the drivers’ title, while the team likewise were a longshot for the Constructors’ Championship. Keke Rosberg was leading the championship for Williams on 42 points, with Didier Pironi second with 39 and Watson third with 33 points. So it could be a straight duel between Rosberg and John Watson. For Watson to win the title, he needed to win the race and hoping Rosberg finished outside the top six, at which point his superior victory record would suffice. In the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren trailed Ferrari 74-63.
Watson qualified ninth in the MP4-1B. Rosberg qualified sixth, with the two Ferraris between the pair; but this race was going to be decided on Sunday afternoon. There was a surprise in third place: Michele Alboreto in the dark green Tyrrell, and next to him Cheever in the troublesome Ligier JS19. Patrese qualified fifth.
On the front-row were the turbo Renaults of Alain Prost and René Arnoux. They sprinted away at the start and gave every impression of disappearing into the distance. Rosberg slipped a place at the start to P7, but had a comfortable gap to Watson, who slipped even further, finishing the first lap P12. By lap 11, however, he had made his way back up to P8, right on Rosberg’s tail, and took P7 from the Finn on lap 15, then passed Andretti the following lap to get into the points. He then picked-off Eddie Cheever for P5, collected P4 when Riccardo Patrese retired(clutch, lap 17) and, on lap 20, inherited P3 when Arnoux stopped with an engine problem.
The retirements, however, had also brought Rosberg up into the points also. Watson stopped making much progress on the front two cars of Alain Prost and Michele Alboreto. Then Prost began to struggle with his tyres and Alboreto began to calmly reel him in, moved past at a good safe spot and started to fly off into the distance.
On lap 55, Watson passed Prost, reviving a glimmer of hope that his title chances were still alive. With 20 laps to run and on a track getting hotter, he needed the perennial unreliable Tyrrell of Alboreto to have a problem, and for something – anything – to happen to Rosberg on P5. Sadly for John, suffering some of the same tyre degradation that was affecting Prost, nothing changed in the final quarter of the race. In a very wild 1982 F1 season, this was probably the calmest thing that happened.
Keke came home fifth and claimed the Drivers’ Championship and Ferrari took the Constructors’ title despite not scoring at the final round. On the podium, Diana Ross handed out the trophies to a delighted Alboreto for his maiden F1 victory, to a very happy Eddie Cheever, and a slightly not-pleased John Watson.
More on Michele Alboreto on the website
Publication: 25/06/2024Back to overview
