1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix

1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix
Race details
	Race 15 of 15 in the 1981 Formula One season
	;
Date	October 17, 1981
Official name	1st Caesars Palace Grand Prix
Location	Las Vegas, Nevada
Course	Temporary street course ; 3.637 km (2.26 mi)
Distance	75 laps, 272.775 km (169.50 mi)
Weather	Hot, sunny
Pole position
Time	1:17.821
Fastest lap
Time	1:20.156 on lap 49
Podium

The 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 17, 1981 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was the final race of the 1981 Formula One season, and saw Nelson Piquet crowned world champion, his first title.

Summary[]

The United States again hosted the final round of the Formula One season in 1981, but in Las Vegas, not at the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Course in upstate New York. After twenty years on the GP schedule, the organizers at Watkins Glen were unable to fulfill financial obligations for 1980, and so a track was created on the grounds of the Caesars Palace hotel. The World Championship would be decided among three drivers: Carlos Reutemann, with 49 points; Nelson Piquet, 48 points; and Jacques Laffite, 43 points.

The track provided speeds averaging over 100 mph, and with the counter-clockwise direction straining the drivers' necks unusually, it was clear the drivers' endurance would be tested in the extreme all weekend. Even in practice, Piquet suffered noticeably and became physically sick; he later got a 90-minute massage from Sugar Ray Leonard's masseur to help sort out his troubled back and "Las Vegas neck."

The Williams drivers, Alan Jones and Reutemann, were fastest from the start of the first practice with points leader Reutemann the faster of the two. Later, Jones became the only other driver to break 1:18 in qualifying, and the starting front row was all Williams. Reutemann was not expecting any help winning the Championship from teammate Jones, who explained, "I don't see how I can help him; I would not go holding up people as I am a member of the British Commonwealth (Australia, specifically) and I would consider that unsporting."

In the race on Saturday, Jones jumped off the line into the lead, but Reutemann was quickly passed by Gilles Villeneuve, Alain Prost and Bruno Giacomelli, and finished the first lap in fifth. By the end of lap two, Jones had a five-second lead. Prost passed Villeneuve on lap three, but could not get close enough to challenge Jones for the lead. Villeneuve, meanwhile, kept a line of cars behind him as he fought off the advances of Giacomelli. This allowed Mario Andretti to move right on to Piquet's tail, as he desperately tried to overtake Reutemann.

The Brazilian was nearly touching the back of the Williams as they approached the last left-hander before the pits on lap 17. Piquet got around Reutemann on the inside when Reutemann, fighting for the Championship, inexplicably braked early. Piquet said, "I saw his car getting worse oversteer, then he braked very early, I think in the hope I would run into him, but I saw it and passed easily." On the next lap, Andretti also went by. Piquet passed John Watson on lap 22, and put himself in a position to score points when he took over sixth place. Reutemann continued to slip backwards with gearbox trouble, having lost fourth gear as early as lap two.

The Ferrari team was trying to decide whether to call Villeneuve in on lap 23 after he had been disqualified for lining up on the grid improperly, but when he pulled off the track with an engine fire, the point was moot. On lap 30, crowd favorite Andretti retired from fourth place with broken suspension.

With 15 laps still to go, but a 40-second lead over Prost, Jones began pacing himself to the finish. Giacomelli was third, having worked his way back after spinning from fourth to tenth, and Nigel Mansell had passed Piquet for fourth.

Piquet, in fact, was on the verge of physical exhaustion with his head visibly rolling around in the cockpit, but he still held fifth place and the two points he needed for the Championship. Piquet's condition was the only question left about how the Championship would turn out, for Reutemann, driving without fourth gear, was passed by Watson and Laffite, dropping to eighth place on lap 69.

Laffite took sixth place and the final point from Watson on the last corner of the last lap, while Giacomelli missed taking second from Prost, on failing tires, by a few car lengths. As Jones crossed the line in first, the Williams team celebrated wildly, apparently unaffected by the fact his other driver had just lost the Championship. Piquet took fifteen minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after making it to the finish, but he had collected the two points for fifth-place, and was the new World Champion.

Classification[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	1	Alan Jones	Williams-Ford	75	1:44:09.077	2	9
2	15	Alain Prost	Renault	75	+ 20.048	5	6
3	23	Bruno Giacomelli	Alfa Romeo	75	+ 20.428	8	4
4	12	Nigel Mansell	Lotus-Ford	75	+ 47.473	9	3
5	5	Nelson Piquet	Brabham-Ford	75	+ 1:16.438	4	2
6	26	Jacques Laffite	Ligier-Matra	75	+ 1:18.175	12	1
7	7	John Watson	McLaren-Ford	75	+ 1:18.497	6
8	2	Carlos Reutemann	Williams-Ford	74	+ 1 Lap	1
9	28	Didier Pironi	Ferrari	73	+ 2 Laps	18
10	20	Keke Rosberg	Fittipaldi-Ford	73	+ 2 Laps	20
11	29	Riccardo Patrese	Arrows-Ford	71	+ 4 Laps	11
12	8	Andrea de Cesaris	McLaren-Ford	69	+ 6 Laps	14
13	4	Michele Alboreto	Tyrrell-Ford	67	Engine	17
NC	14	Eliseo Salazar	Ensign-Ford	61	Not Classified	24
Ret	36	Derek Warwick	Toleman-Hart	43	Gearbox	22
Ret	22	Mario Andretti	Alfa Romeo	29	Suspension	10
DSQ	27	Gilles Villeneuve	Ferrari	22	Disqualified	3
Ret	6	Hector Rebaque	Brabham-Ford	20	Throttle	16
Ret	33	Marc Surer	Theodore-Ford	19	Suspension	23
Ret	3	Eddie Cheever	Tyrrell-Ford	10	Engine	19
Ret	16	René Arnoux	Renault	10	Electrical	13
Ret	25	Patrick Tambay	Ligier-Matra	2	Accident	7
Ret	11	Elio de Angelis	Lotus-Ford	2	Water Leak	15
Ret	32	Jean-Pierre Jarier	Osella-Ford	0	Transmission	21
DNQ	9	Slim Borgudd	ATS-Ford
DNQ	21	Chico Serra	Fittipaldi-Ford
DNQ	17	Derek Daly	March-Ford
DNQ	30	Jacques Villeneuve	Arrows-Ford
DNQ	35	Brian Henton	Toleman-Hart
DNQ	31	Beppe Gabbiani	Osella-Ford

Notes[]

Paul Newman was the race director.
Reutemann, Piquet and Laffite all entered the race with a championship chance.
- Reutemann (49pts) needed either
  - 3rd or higher, ahead of Piquet
  - 4th, 5th or 6th, ahead of Piquet, with Laffite 2nd or lower
  - Piquet out of the points, and Laffite 3rd or lower.
- Piquet (48pts) needed either
  - 2nd or higher, ahead of Reutemann
  - 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th, ahead of Reutemann, with Laffite 2nd or lower.
- Laffite (43pts) needed either
  - 1st, with Reutemann 4th or lower, and Piquet 3rd or lower
  - 2nd, with both Reutemann and Piquet 7th or lower.
Alan Jones's final win in his last race for Williams

Standings after the race[]

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Nelson Piquet	50
2	Carlos Reutemann	49
3	Alan Jones	46
4	Jacques Laffite	44
5	Alain Prost	43

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Williams-Ford	95
2	Brabham-Ford	61
3	Renault	54
4	Ligier-Matra	44
5	Ferrari	34

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References[]

Rob Walker (February, 1982). "1st Las Vegas Grand Prix: The Chips Are Down". Road & Track, 136-140.
Mike S. Lang (1992). Grand Prix!: Race-by-race account of Formula 1 World Championship motor racing. Volume 4: 1981 to 1984. Haynes Publishing Group. ISBN 0-85429-733-2

Awards
Previous race: 1981 Canadian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 1981 season	Next race: 1982 South African Grand Prix
Previous race: None	Caesars Palace Grand Prix	Next race: 1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix
Preceded by 1980 Italian Grand Prix	Formula One Promotional Trophy for Race Promoter 1981	Succeeded by 1982 British Grand Prix