“It was very hot and fatiguing and there were so many corners a lot of people suffered with sore necks, and I was one,” Jones says. Alan Jones, who had won the world championship for Williams in 1980, would master it that first year when it was the final race of the season and the championship decider. The relentless series of corners with no real straights to speak of or even fast turns were punishing on the cars but also on the drivers.
The city was not at its best with the race held on a Saturday afternoon in punishing heat, the conditions unflattering: Las Vegas undoubtedly looks its best at night. The result, a flat, 14-turn, 2.2-mile counter-clockwise track going back and forth on itself was aesthetically uninspiring, lacking any character or indeed landmarks. The casino had taken four years to negotiate hosting the race and spent a lot of money to build the track but their space limitations delivered uninspiring fare. In 1981, there was no collective agreement to host the race among the casinos as is the case this year, nor approval from the city, so the circuit was squeezed on to the Caesars Palace car park and its adjoining land, that gave the meeting its name of the Caesars Palace GP.
