The USA hosted world championships rounds every year from the inaugural season in 1950 until it left the streets of Phoenix just over four decades later. The championship is enjoying a surge of popularity in the country now and returns this weekend for its second of three visits this year.
America has had more F1 tracks than any other country, but over half of them are yet to hold more than three rounds. It remains to be seen whether F1’s two newest American races in Miami and Las Vegas will change that.
But which of America’s 13 tracks suited F1 best? And how does its trio of current venues compare to those used in the past? We rank them all below.
13. Phoenix
3 races, (1989-81)
Phoenix deserves its place at the bottom of this list for being one of the most uninspiring venues ever to hold a round of the world championship. In its original, 13-turn guise, only three of its bends were not 90-degree turns, and none of them were what you’d call challenging.
Nonetheless it was capable of producing high drama, such as when Jean Alesi hunted down Ayrton Senna for the lead in the 1990 race, the Tyrrell even briefly displacing the McLaren from the head of the field.
Senna won, though, and would have taken victory in all three races had a technical failure not sidelined him during the 1989 race. Just 18,000 turned up for that event, though local taxi drivers entertained themselves by taking to the track one night, resulting in an inevitable crash.
It didn’t help matters that the inaugural race was scheduled in the height of summer. Phoenix was given the distinction of staging the season-openers in 1990 and 1991, and the latter event took place on a slightly improved track, though some things just can’t be polished. F1’s last visit to Phoenix reputedly drew a smaller crowd than a competing race for ostriches after which F1 was absent from the USA for almost a decade.
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12. Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas
2 races (1981-82)
F1 did not set a high bar to clear with its first grand prix in Las Vegas. A tight, sinuous, repetitive and flat course was squeezed into a Casino car park, making this one of the least worthy venues to hold a round of the world championship.
The series could scarcely have produced more exciting scenarios for the two title-deciding races. Three drivers went into the…
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