Ranking every circuit to hold F1 in the United States

After decades of trying and failing to make it big across the Atlantic, Formula 1 has finally managed to achieve an all-important foothold in the United States. It might not have an American driver to get behind any longer, but F1’s presence Stateside is growing; last year’s calendar featured three races in the US for the first time since 1982. The trio of Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas appears to be set in stone for the next few years.

Not all have been successful. Races at permanent venues in the 1960s and 1970s soon made way for a plethora of cookie-cutter street circuits, the view dominated by walls and little else in the way of identifiable landmarks. It wasn’t until 2012 that F1 found a ‘permanent’ home in the US once the Circuit of the Americas was complete, and in recent years the destination-city locales have been added back into the mix thanks to the influence of owners Liberty Media. There’s been a few golden geese in that time that F1 has failed to capture, but clinching races in Miami and Las Vegas is a colossal boon for the championship.

But which of the 12 circuits to have hosted an F1 grand prix in the States is best? Each one has been graded out of 10 on its layout, the quality of its racing, its longevity in F1, and its legacy – including driver reaction, how memorable the grand(s) prix were, and its impact on motorsport.

Are you ready? Then we’ll begin.

12 – Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

GPs: 2
Years: 1981-82
In one sentence: F1 in a literal car park

The signage for Caesars Palace is visible from the part of The Strip incorporated into the modern-day Las Vegas circuit, although the car park in which Sin City’s first F1 effort took place is no longer there. Instead, a shopping mall sits atop the Caesars Palace Grand Prix’s former locale, so that the two-year period of indiscretions (commonly referred to as ‘races’) that took place there remain buried for all time.

Maybe that’s too harsh, but it’s hard to think of the Caesars Palace races as little more than a rushed effort to have a race in Las Vegas – seemingly for the sake of it. Initial plans to involve the Strip did not work out, and thus Caesars Palace CEO Bill Weinberger and F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone set upon the plan to create a cramped circuit in the hotel car park. The ‘E’ layout? Weinberger recalled years later that he…