Remembering Grand Prix 2 for the 30th anniversary
Post date: 2026.07.23.
The year of 1996 had some absolutely influential games in the industry. We already had Duke Nukem 3D in January, Quake in June and now I like to write a memory dump, about Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2, which I will only refer to as GP2 or F1GP2 from now on.
From early age, I liked racing. no matter if it was Formula 1, rally (which I had personal viewing experience), touring car, etc. I loved the sound of the cars, the technical ability required for the driver to master different cars. Man and machine. A forever battle for control.
So no wonder that when it come to PC gaming, one genre that I always interested in, was racing. No matter if it was arcade games, like the early Lotus series, and Screamer. Or the more serious ones, like Network Q Rally, Colin McRae or Richard Burns rally. However one that is the most close to my heart is Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix series.
Grand Prix
I still remember trying to jump in an F1 car as a little kid, and try drive with the arrow keys, but of course found out that it had a very different setup of A/Z for acceleration and braking, while steering was , and . - it was sort of the shift how in FPS games we moved to WASD with Quake. From that moment, I changed my binding in every racing games. The setup was much more hand and shoulder friendly, especially if you are like me, who raced full lenght championships.
The graphics might not look something that we would consider nice, but it was already functional. You could recognize the track, unlike most driving games which featured the prominent F1 tracks of the day. In those day, we didn't have laser scanned tracks, it was all hand made, based on photos and videos. Had to have some amazing talent for track editing.
Just look at that intro. To this day, this is my favorite of the series, despite not having any official branding from FIA. The music, the overall atmosphere, of putting on a helmet, seeing the starting lights in that helmet... just simple fantastic, coupled with a memorable music.
Technically, GP was ahead of the curve of every simulation at the time in 1991. Programed by solely Geoff Crammond. Of course it wasn't his first try, but probably the most influential one. The game was a success, which spawned 3 sequels in an era, where there was no official FIA licence.
Then came the sequel, which changed the entire simracing genre...
Grand Prix 2
GP2 is my forever love, purely by gaming hours and my interest from the early days to the 2000s, Grand Prix 2 is my most played game of all time. It's an absolute beast, in terms of technical details for cars, tracks, the physics. It's the game that made your computer sweat more than your modern RTX machine, simple by the fact that it was all software rendering, and still 3D.
Geoff Crammond however was very precise, and technical, and aimed to give everyone a good experience. You could strip graphical details to a bare minimum, only showing the track in front of you, and the cars in the mirror. At full details the game is a technical marvel, and I envy any person who could run it back in the day.
Incredibly detailed graphics setup made sure people could play this on their potato machine (or maybe not)...
For a while I ran the game at the minimum detail, or very close to it, as I never really had a current gen gaming computer to run things. I still enjoyed the heck out of GP2! It was indeed magic!
Graphics
Sticking with the graphics for a little bit longer. GP2 has amazing details for tracks, for the pit, and of course the cars. If you are watching a game replay (which you can save of course), you can see the various details of the tracks, the stands and other side objects, the gravel traps, the track crew waving the flags. You could see nice clouds, or the smoke that's coming out of the cars.
The feel of racing
If you are fan of motorracing, this game can grab you very quickly, how well it immerses you into the world of Formula 1, well at least the racing part which is the focus of it.
The race weekend is detailed, you can participate in free practices, and of course the must have qualifying sessions (the season which is based on had two, 1 hour long sessions). Your car setup depends on you, there is no computer help, it's your job to setup the car, test it, and modify as needed.
The race is thrill from start to finish. The AI races not just against you, but between each other, and there is not a dull moment even in a quick race. It really feels like you are part of the pack. Battling with others, defending, strategizing when to pit, etc. The cars can broke down, which makes every race unpredictable. You have to handle your car with care, because it can fail.
I highly recommend doing full length races to truly appreciate this game. Luckily there is a save option, so if somebody interrupts you that you need to step away from the race, you can save it and continue at a later date.
Oh and if you aren't in a mood for racing, you can set it up to just a fully simulated race, as many people do, for just fun.
From total noob, to pro racer
The game has 5 difficulty settings, for the computer opponents, but it also setups your driving aid, so for example at Ace level (hardest), you can only use two aids, automatic transmission and throttle help. Interesting, amateur and semi-pro has the same aids.
It's also nice that we can see these helping options in the car itself and can turn them on or off at any time. We can also see the difficulty settings itself.
Mods
Another area where GP2 shines. of all, you can save your car setups to individual files, which we all shared on the internet with each other. They are also track specific, so it was easy to load, and we didn't have to use the 8 character file name limit to describe "Brazil", because it was in the file extension.
People soon "hacked the game", so we had editors for liveries, trackside objects to make the game even more immersive. Then we had track editing, which allowed people to add other tracks, and with car editing, the sky was the limit. I think remember that you could do different interiors as well, but I am not sure.
I highly recommend the grandprix 2 racing or grandprix2.de websites, which has tons of downloads and tools to mod your game.
Talking about modding...
The future is bright for GP2!
Longevity was always a strong suit for legendary games, and F1GP2 is no different. Last year, a new source port came out, which was only named x86GP2, which made it possible to run the game on Windows and widescreen, plus many great quality of life improvements including controller and modding support . It gave the game a new life, to the point that many sim youtubers are running full seasons again.
Given how well the development is going, this video will be outdated soon...
The port also got a much needed force feedback support from none other than GP2Laps, who is a well respected sim youtuber, making the game even more rounded.
Showcase of Force Feedback support, by GP2Laps
Then the shocking announcement happened, that all of the Geoff Crammond's GP series will be available on Steam sometime in 2026, making the legendary sim series not just legally available, but also runnable on modern hardware.
Simracers all over the world own a great debt to Geoff Crammond and his team for creating this wonderful series, elevating sim racing to entirely new level. Thanks to modders it's never too late to jump in, and experience the wonder of Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2.
