By alley - Oct 18, 2014, 11:14 AM ET

F1: Another attempt at a second USGP in the works?

ABOVE: IndyCar has paraded down The Strip, but F1 reportedly is planning to race there. (LAT photos)

Although plans for New Jersey's Grand Prix of America are on hiatus and exploratory talks about a return to Long Beach were set aside when the city council there opted earlier this year to extend its current contract with IndyCar, F1 evidently isn't giving up on its efforts to expand in the U.S. beyond Circuit of The Americas in Austin. Britain's

The Independent

reports that F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone is in talks with city officials in Las Vegas about running an F1 race on the streets of the Nevada city that would include The Strip – its famous row of casinos and hotels.

"Vegas say they are ready to go and it would be on The Strip, for sure," Ecclestone told The Independent, which quotes an unnamed "senior source in the U.S. racing scene" as saying that F1 track designer Hermann Tilke had visited Las Vegas several times to work on the layout of the course, suggesting that the project is at an advanced stage. Although no timetable for the proposed race was given, the F1 calendar for 2015 is already set so 2016 would be the earliest possible premiere of a Vegas GP.

Las Vegas has hosted F1 before, in 1981-'82 on a temporary circuit located in the parking lot of the Caesar's Palace casino, but it failed to resonate either with fans or Vegas hoteliers and was abandoned after two races. CART's IndyCar series than took over the event, transforming the track into an oval configuration, but it also was abandoned after just two seasons.

The Champ Car World Series staged a race in Vegas in 2007 (LEFT) on streets that did not include The Strip, but that event was dropped when CCWS merged with the IRL for 2008. Since then, racing in Las Vegas has been confined to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval located on the outskirts of the city.