Eddie Cheever might not be a household name for newer Formula 1 fans, but he’s a legendary figure in American motorsports. The Arizona native holds the record for most F1 races entered (143) and started (132) by an American. And although he never managed to win a grand prix, he did finish seventh in the driver’s standings in 1983 and land nine total podiums. One of which came at the 1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix — a hot, messy, short-lived race capping off one of the most chaotic seasons in F1 history.
That 1982 race was not like the celeb-studded, high-production-value Las Vegas GP we’ll be watching this weekend. Its makeshift track was built in the Caesars Palace parking lot. And it ran on a hot September afternoon, with temperatures reaching nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Yep, it was daytime and in the middle of the desert — f***ing hot,” Cheever says with a chuckle. “I remember that initially all the faster corners were either very right or very left. Very tiring on your neck muscles.”
Yet, despite the all that and racing for the firmly mid-pack French team Talbot Ligier-Matra, Cheever out-dueled big names — Nigel Mansell, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, fellow American Mario Andretti — to claim third place. And more might have been possible.
“My car was phenomenal that day,” Cheever recalls.
“Going into the first corner of the race, I locked wheels with [Italian driver Michele] Alboreto and bent one of my steering rods,” he says. Could he have won the race if not for that first-turn incident? “Ifs and buts,” he says, “but I would’ve had a lot more fun racing had I not bumped wheels with Alboreto.”
The Caesars Palace Grand Prix served as the final race of the infamous 1982 Formula 1 season. Drivers went on strike at the opening race in South Africa. Gilles Villeneuve and Riccardo Paletti both died, separately but tragically, on-track later in the season. Keke Rosberg ultimately claimed the driver's championship despite winning only one race.
Ahead of this weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, Motorsport caught up with Cheever to talk about the wild 1982 season and his memories of racing in the desert.
Obviously, Formula 1 is booming in the U.S. right now, but things were different back in the ’80s. What do you recall of how Vegas received you back in 1982?
I think Formula 1 in those days was not as well promoted as it is now. They’ve gone to great lengths with Netflix, and the teams have given a lot more open access. I used to feel that in Formula , we were the animals on one side of the fence, and the public was on the other, and we were kept apart.
But I don’t have any bad memories of the race. But it was interesting. No place like it in the world. It made total sense to have a Formula 1 race there, but when you compared a circuit like Spa to Vegas… It was little more than a parking lot.
You also scored a podium in Detroit that year on a street circuit. How did that race compare to Vegas?
I actually liked that circuit better than Vegas. Formula 1 cars had quite a lot of power in those days, and it was fun. I remember racing against [French driver Didier] Pironi in his Ferrari, where he had all the advantage coming off the circuit with a turbo engine, and I had more of an advantage under braking. It was physically very hard — very easy to make a mistake. I was proud of that race.
The season began with a driver’s strike before the first race—new rules were going to be implemented that would control how much money drivers could make and set a minimum amount of years drivers had to spend with a team.
The strike in South Africa? We could write a whole book on that.
It must’ve been intense.
It all started with Niki Lauda, who was the only one to read the document! He was running around telling everyone, ‘If we’re not careful, they’ll control everything about the money we get and who we race for.” It meant a lot more to a driver like Niki than to me, since I was just getting started in Formula 1.
And is it true that the drivers all holed themselves up in a hotel room to boycott the race until a resolution was reached?
It was bizarre, all of us sleeping in one room, blocking the door, making sure no one could get in. It was entertaining, to say the least.
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Parity was also a hallmark of the season. At one point, nine different drivers won nine races in a row, and Keke Rosberg won the championship with only one race victory. That must’ve been exciting to not know who would win each week.
Yes, I agree, but one of the amazing aspects of Formula 1 is the technical prowess a team can have to just dominate. They really shouldn’t call it the drivers’ championship. It should be the engineers/drivers’ championship — just count the number of races and championships that [Adrian] Newey has won. It’s a lot more than the best drivers, maybe three of the top drivers put together.
Two drivers died that season as well, a fate that was much more common back then. How did you and the other drivers cope with that in the moment?
Of all the things that I did in Formula 1, the thing I’m most proud of is the thing I had no control over: that I actually survived all of it unmaimed. I would not get in one of those cars to buy a quart of milk now. They were evolving really quickly all the time. It didn’t offer much protection, and we had incredibly strong engines. It was out of control. More power was arriving. At a later date, when I test drove for Renault, I couldn’t believe how much downforce and what power it had in it. Not as much effort was put into making cars safe then as it is now — and obviously, now, that’s a great thing.
Do you follow F1 today? Are you surprised to see its popularity explode here?
I will watch a race here and there. And yes, I am pleasantly surprised at the type of friends I have who talk about Formula 1 and not just about NASCAR. Yes, NASCAR still reigns supreme in the States, but it’s amazing the gap that Formula 1 has managed to close. Netflix was a really smart move that they made. Everybody of all ages — kids, adults, everybody — was talking about it.
What’d you make of last year’s Las Vegas race?
What stuck out in my mind is how long the straightaway was. The amount of money they poured into Vegas—it’s probably one of the best organized races they have. But it’s so different because Vegas is gaudy for a European. I’m an American, I understand it and know how Vegas is so different, but for Europeans, it must be a real culture shock.
And it’s a perfect place for Formula 1! It was an interesting choice when I first heard about it, but after seeing it, it made sense. It fits.
Does part of you wish they had this same race back in ’82?
I never do that. I have zero thoughts like that. Matter of fact, you’re one of the few people I’ve spoken to about racing in years.
