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 | ||
| Course length | 3.637 km (2.26 mi) | ||
| Distance | 75 laps, 272.775 km (169.50 mi) | ||
| Weather | Sunny with temperatures reaching up to 75 °F (24 °C); wind speeds approaching speeds up to 11.1 miles per hour (17.9 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Williams-Ford | ||
| Time | 1:17.821 | ||
| Fastest lap | |||
| Driver |
 Didier Pironi
|
Ferrari | |
| Time | 1:20.156 on lap 49 | ||
| Podium | |||
| First | Williams-Ford | ||
| Second | Renault | ||
| Third | Alfa Romeo | ||
The 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix was a Formula One motor 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 win the first of his three World Championships.
Going into this race, three drivers were in contention for the World Championship. Carlos Reutemann, driving a Williams, had 49 points having won two races, while Piquet, driving a Brabham, had 48 having won three. Jacques Laffite, driving a Ligier, had an outside chance on 43, having won two races including the previous race in Canada.
Laffite needed to win this race with Reutemann finishing no higher than fourth and Piquet no higher than third, or to finish second with neither Reutemann nor Piquet finishing in the top six. If Laffite won with Piquet third and Reutemann fourth, then all three drivers would finish on 52 points, and the French driver would then win the Championship on a tie-break, with the same number of wins as Piquet but more second places than the Brazilian (two to one). He would also win the Championship if he finished second with neither Reutemann nor Piquet scoring, as he and Reutemann would both have 49 points and the same numbers of wins and second places, but he would have more third places than the Argentinian (three to two).
If Laffite failed to finish first or second, then all Reutemann had to do was finish ahead of Piquet, while Piquet had to finish in the top six and ahead of Reutemann.
This was the third year in succession that the United States hosted the final round of the World Championship. This time, however, it took place in Las Vegas, instead of Watkins Glen in upstate New York: after twenty years on the Grand Prix schedule, the organizers at Watkins Glen were unable to fulfill financial obligations for 1981.
The track, created on the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel, had a smooth surface and provided speeds averaging over 100 mph, as well as plenty of overtaking opportunities. Unusually, however, its direction was counter-clockwise, which strained the drivers' necks. This, together with the desert heat, meant that 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".
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