FORMULA 1’S STRIP TEASE
“I told myself I’d never come back…”
Dr Stuart Price makes no secret of his unease returning to Las Vegas in The Hangover 3. And rightly so. In the first edition of the comedy film trilogy, he had removed one of his own teeth for a bet, got married to a stripper and stole a tiger from Mike Tyson – all in one night in Vegas.
Formula 1’s sojourn in Sin City in 1981 and 1982 may have lacked such fictional chaos, yet it also came away with a sour taste. The grand prix in the car park of the Caesars Palace casino proved so uninspiring it became the standard against which all bad race events since have been measured. Though both events were title deciders, the desert’s extreme heat and the indifference of the American audience sapped the drivers’ energy levels and enthusiasm, and F1 called it quits.
But 40 years later, F1’s Vegas hangover has worn off. From 2023 it will be returning for a new street race that’s set to break with convention in a number of ways, and become one of the grandest coups of Liberty Media’s stewardship to date. This time around there’ll be no car park, no
