The race was created largely to improve the city's international image, bringing the United States to three Grands Prix in the 1982 season alongside Long Beach and Las Vegas — the only nation in F1 history to host three rounds until Italy did so in 2020 with Monza, Mugello, and Imola.
The inaugural 1982 Detroit Grand Prix was won by McLaren's John Watson from 17th on the grid, then the lowest starting position for a race winner on a street circuit. The 1982 race also marked the last occasion — as of 2025 — that a reigning World Drivers' Champion failed to qualify for a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix. Nelson Piquet in the Brabham-BMW turbo was in 28th position after initial qualifying and was unable to improve in the final session, which was held in wet conditions with lap times at least 12 seconds slower.
The 1983 race secured the circuit's place in Formula One history. Michele Alboreto won driving a Tyrrell 011 — the last of 155 Grand Prix victories for the 3.0-litre Cosworth DFV V8 engine, whose Formula One debut had come at the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix with Jim Clark. It was also the last of 23 Formula One wins for Tyrrell, who had first won at the 1971 Spanish Grand Prix with Jackie Stewart in the Tyrrell 003.
The race quickly gained a reputation as the hardest on both car and driver in 1980s Formula One. The bumpy surface broke up badly under consistently hot weather. Drivers braked hard more than 20 times per lap and changed gears around 50 to 60 times across 62 laps that each lasted roughly 1 minute 45 seconds. At least half the field retired in every race due to mechanical failures or contact with the narrow concrete walls.
The 1984 race, won by Piquet, tied an F1 road-course record with 20 retirements. Shortly after the race, impurities were found in the water injection system of Martin Brundle's Tyrrell, stripping him of second place and resulting in Tyrrell's disqualification from the entire 1984 season. Only five cars were classified at the finish — surpassed in scarcity only by the 1966 Monaco Grand Prix.
By 1985 Detroit was the sole American venue on the F1 calendar. Ayrton Senna dominated the circuit's later years, winning in 1986, 1987, and 1988 and taking pole position in 1986 and 1988. Alain Prost and Piquet both openly disliked the track; despite this Prost finished second in 1988 and third in both 1986 and 1987, all for McLaren. Piquet won in 1984 and finished second to Senna in 1987. During practice for the 1988 race Piquet spun his Lotus-Honda into the wall coming out of turn 1 while the car was carrying an onboard camera.
The 1988 event was exceptionally hot and the surface broke up severely. Senna, the winner, compared driving on the crumbled asphalt to driving in heavy rain. That race proved to be the last Formula One Grand Prix at Detroit — governing body FISA ruled that the circuit's temporary pit area did not meet World Championship standards. The United States Grand Prix relocated to a street circuit in Phoenix, Arizona, and Detroit became a CART venue.
Three CART races were held on a slightly revised layout, the unpopular chicane immediately before the pits having been removed. Emerson Fittipaldi won the first and last races; Michael Andretti won the second and claimed pole position for all three Detroit events. The final CART race featured an unusual absence of attrition, with nearly three-quarters of the field finishing.
The race was not economically viable for the city, and for 1992 the event moved to a temporary course on Belle Isle. That Belle Isle event ran as CART until 2001, was briefly revived for the 2007 and 2008 American Le Mans Series and IndyCar seasons, and then ran again from 2012 through 2019. There was no race in 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event returned for 2021 and 2022.
On 3 November 2021 it was announced that the IndyCar Series Detroit Grand Prix would return from the Raceway at Belle Isle Park to the downtown streets beginning in 2023. The new circuit is significantly smaller, reusing only two corners from the original layout and focusing on Atwater Street and East Jefferson Avenue. It features ten corners compared to the original twenty-two. Penske Entertainment president Bud Denker stated that restoring the original layout was considered but rejected due to the higher cost of resurfacing the larger circuit, the impact of closing side streets on local businesses, and the effect on area traffic.
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