Formula 1 held its last World Championship race in Long Beach on March 27, 1983. After that event, the promoter switched the Californian street race from F1 to CART.
On March 27, 1983, Formula 1 ran its final World Championship race on the streets of Long Beach. The event closed an important chapter for a circuit that had given F1 a high-profile home on the American West Coast and helped strengthen the sport’s presence in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The 1983 race itself was memorable. John Watson won for McLaren after starting only 22nd on the grid, still one of the most striking recovery drives in Formula 1 history. Team-mate Niki Lauda finished second from 23rd, turning a difficult qualifying result into an unlikely McLaren one-two on a tight street circuit where overtaking was never straightforward.
But the larger significance lay outside the result sheet. Long Beach had become one of F1’s most recognisable city races, yet the economics were moving in the wrong direction for the promoter. Rising Formula 1 fees, sanctions and transport costs pushed organiser Chris Pook toward a different model. After the 1983 race, he agreed to take the event into CART from 1984.
That decision ended Long Beach’s run as a Formula 1 World Championship venue after eight seasons. It also gave the race a new and durable future in American open-wheel racing, where Long Beach would remain one of the calendar’s defining street events rather than disappear with F1’s changing commercial demands.
