The developers have created a 3d engine that runs smoothly at 60fps both in the one player mode and in the two player split screen mode.

Anyhow, Formula One 2001 is not Gran Turismo 3. The F1 car models featured in Polyphony's masterpiece were simply perfect, built with a huge number of polygons, while the cars in F1 2001 don't do any justice to the power of the console. They are definitely on the 32-bit side, and in fact they look very close to the ones in the PsOne version of this title.

Respect to the PsOne game, the Ps2 version is free of any major pop up problem, but if you look into the rear view mirrors of your car you'll se vehicles and building popping up at the horizon. Aliasing is not completely absent, especially in the environments, and there are many bad flickering issues that are extremely evident and ruin the overall impression you get when looking at F1 2001. These defects are less evident in the Spectator Mode, but during in-game moments you'll easily notice all of them. This is one of those games you should never show to a Dreamcast's fanboy.

The environments are not too varied, but they are defined and they nicely recreate the real circuits. There are a few nice animations here and there, like flags moving among the audience. Trees, buildings and other wnvironmental details looks usually good. The Monte Carlo circuit, for example, is simply perfect, with all the buildings recreated in their slightest details. But the best thing you'll see in this game are the weather effects. You can play with a heavy rain or with a cloudy weather and this really can make you forget about many defects present in F1 2001. Unfortunately the same care was not used for the car models.

Lighting effects and reflections are not as good as what you could have seen in a first generation title like Ridge Racer V. It seems that a generic procedure of fake reflections has been used for F1 2001. The result is that if you look carefully at your car's body you can occasionally see some reflection, but this adds nothing to the game. It seems like the developers had thought at the end of the development: “Oooooops we forgot bodies' reflections” and tried to do something in the last minute.

The game features decent sounds. The car engines have the classical noise that you can hear during a Formula One's race and other sounds like brakes and crashes are well done.

The commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle in the UK version of the game (the one we've tested) is repetitive like the one in any other sports title. Adding to that, most of the times the words are not synched up with what's going on the screen.

If you like F1 and have a few friends with the same passion, you'll play with this title for a few weeks. Unfortunately, you really should have a driving wheel to enjoy a bit more this title, since in the more advanced difficulty settings, controlling your car with the Dual Shock 2 is frustrating.