Formula One 2001 (video game)

Formula One 2001 is a racing video game developed by Studio 33 and Studio Liverpool and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 . The PlayStation 2 version was released in North America by 989 Sports . It is a sequel to Formula One 2000 and was based on the 2001 Formula One World Championship . This is the last game to be released in North America until Formula One Championship Edition .

In some editions, a DVD was given for free. The DVD offers a commentated review of the 2000 Formula One World Championship , race by race, with the option to toggle between viewing the main stream, an on-board car camera, view the pitlane or see on-screen data such as lap times and positions. These features were used in the former pay-per-view F1 Digital+'s interactive coverage.

Gameplay

The game's "arcade" mode followed a similar line to that of Formula One 2000 , although incentives were now offered in the form of upgrades to the player's car.

A new mode - "Challenge" mode - was introduced. In Challenge mode, players were given a lap around Spa-Francorchamps in Jenson Button 's Benetton B201 . Players who achieved a fast lap time were given a verification code, and the opportunity to post their winning times on the Internet to compare their times to other people's if they had an account.

Development

Formula One 2001 was created with the help of Benetton , Jaguar , Jordan and Arrows . Many of the employees from former franchise owner Psygnosis aided in the development. [ 2 ] At the peak of development, the game was worked upon by 25 people with a majority of them being programmers and artists. [ 3 ]

Development

Studio Liverpool managed to contact Formula One Administration who provided audio samples for all the cars, but some of the audio samples provided were believed to be unsuitable. To rectify this, the developers spoke to Jordan and Prost and Sound Engineer Michael de Belle visited the garages to record the engine noises from the cars. The original PlayStation's central processing unit was used for sound processing. [ 3 ]

Promotion

A Formula One 2001 American Challenge was held on 29 September 2001 in Castleton, Indiana. The event saw a time trial competition using the game and was played by Jenson Button against consumer Chris Ohanian. Ohanian made it into the final round by scoring one of the top 2 times but in the final, he was defeated by Button who set a lap time of 1:15.6 compared to Ohanian's 1:16.0. [ 6 ]

The game features all the drivers and tracks from the 2001 Formula One World Championship, although Tarso Marques ' name is never mentioned by Murray Walker . Instead, on the PS1 version Murray Walker calls him "Minardi", but on the PS2 version nothing is mentioned. Depending on which version the player has, one of the replacement drivers ( Pedro de la Rosa ) that appeared in the real 2001 Formula One World Championship is in the game. The drivers Ricardo Zonta , Alex Yoong and Tomáš Enge were n...

In the European version of the game, released earlier in the year, Jean Alesi can be seen driving for the Prost Grand Prix while German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen drives for the Jordan Grand Prix. In the American version, released on October of the same year, both drivers have switched roles as they also did in real life. On top of this, in the European version Luciano Burti drives for Jaguar Racing , while Gastón Mazzacane drives for the Prost Grand Prix. In the American version, Luciano Burt...

Censorship

All alcohol and tobacco sponsors are censored:

Reception

The PlayStation 2 version of Formula One 2001 received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic . [ 20 ] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 27 out of 40. [ 7 ]

Quick Facts

Formula One 2001 European cover art

Formula One 2001 Developer(s)

Formula One 2001 Publisher(s)

Formula One 2001 Series

Formula One 2001 Platform(s)

Formula One 2001 Release

Formula One 2001 Genre(s)

Formula One 2001 Mode(s)

Table 1

('Aggregator', 'Aggregator')	('Score', 'PS')	('Score', 'PS2')
GameRankings	70%[18]	78%[19]
Metacritic	nan	73/100[20]

Table 2

('Publication', 'Publication')	('Score', 'PS')	('Score', 'PS2')
Famitsu	nan	27/40[7]
Game Informer	nan	8.5/10[8]
GamePro	nan	[9]
GamesMaster	nan	91%[10]
GameSpot	nan	7.2/10[11]
GameZone	nan	7.1/10[12]
IGN	nan	7/10[13]
Jeuxvideo.com	15/20[14]	16/20[15]
PlayStation Official Magazine – UK	nan	8/10[17]
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine	nan	[16]

Featured Image

infobox image from Formula_One_2001_(video_game)

F1ABY Commentary

“Does the roar of the engine truly drown out the quiet desperation of a driver chasing a tenth of a second?” The rain, a persistent, sullen grey, seemed to mirror the mood at Spa-Francorchamps. Villeneuve, a ghost of Villeneuve past, wrestled with the McLaren, a machine suddenly imbued with a venomous edge. Mika Häkkinen, ever the stoic, piloted the McLaren with a surgical precision, a master craftsman refining his creation. But there was a tension in his eyes, a flicker of something beyond the pursuit of victory—a knowledge, perhaps, of the brutal cost of ambition. The digital world, with its meticulously rendered data streams, offered no solace, only the cold, hard truth of physics and the agonizingly slow march of milliseconds. This wasn’t simply a race; it was a brutal, beautiful, and utterly human struggle.

Michael Schumacher, for instance, understood this with a chilling clarity – a recognition that victory wasn't a destination, but a constant, agonizing negotiation with the limits of his machine and, more importantly, himself. The digital world of 2001 offered a glimpse into this savage ballet, allowing us to witness the data streams, the frantic pit stops, and the agonizing fractions of a second that separated triumph from devastating defeat.

F1ABY Trivia

Villeneuve, a man sculpted by relentless pressure, wrestled with the recalcitrant C2 compound – a gamble, frankly, considering the track’s brutal demands. The engine, a Ferrari 3. 0 V10, coughed intermittently, spitting a plume of water vapor that momentarily obscured the already blurred vision of the Belgian. It was a brutal reminder: brute power alone wouldn’t conquer this circuit; finesse, a whisper against the storm, was the only true weapon.

Villeneuve, a man sculpted by grief and steel, wrestled with the McLaren–Mona, a machine that seemed to punish aggression with every twitch of its suspension. Observe the peculiar dance of the points – Schumacher, predictably, held a commanding lead, yet the statistical whispers hinted at a vulnerability. A mere three wins separated him from a championship that felt, at this juncture, tantalizingly within reach, despite the consistent, almost glacial pace of his rivals.

F1ABY Tales

The rain hadn’t relented, not a drop. Villeneuve wrestled with the McLaren-Mercedes, a desperate ballet against the blurring asphalt. A shudder ran through the car, a momentary betrayal from the suspension, and he wrestled back, the frustration etched onto his face – a familiar landscape for a man who’d spent a lifetime battling the demons of his own making. This wasn’t just about the championship; it was about a legacy, a stubborn refusal to yield to the relentless tide of younger talent. The pit wall held its breath, knowing that a single mistake here could shatter everything. Schumacher, of course, watched with a calculated stillness, the predator always assessing, always anticipating. The air crackled with the unspoken question: could Villeneuve’s spirit, his ferocious will, truly withstand the machine’s merciless demands?

The rain in Jerez wasn’t merely water, you understand. It was a dampening of spirits, a mirroring of Villeneuve’s own persistent gloom. A man haunted by Monaco, by the ghosts of Villeneuve’s past, attempting to wrestle a machine into submission. The mechanics, bless their tireless efforts, adjusted wing angles, tweaked dampers – futile gestures against a driver wrestling with something far deeper than the asphalt. Stewart, ever the pragmatist, offered a terse instruction, a brief flicker of steel in his usually amiable gaze. It was a battle waged not just on the track, but within the very core of a legend.