The game features all the tracks from the 1996 season, at a time when the racing began in Australia, and ended in Japan. Teams are set up with relevant drivers, however there is a roster-feature included, which allows the player to reassign drivers to different teams, and even removing a real driver and replacing him with unknown drivers named "Driver <1~6>". If the player finishes overall first in the World Grand Prix mode, they can change engines between teams as well. Both driver and engine swapping will significantly affect the performance of the car. The car can be controlled with either the analog stick or D-pad on the standard Nintendo 64 controller. Weather is variable, and inclement weather can occur in the middle of a race. On the bottom left corner of the screen are different indicators for car conditions: a fuel gauge and five indicators, one for each part of the car, all of which change color according to the car's condition, from blue to yellow to red to flashing red. When an indicator reaches the latter, the player risks retiring from the race if it isn't fixed in time. The main Grand Prix Mode allows players to progress through the racing calendar, with each race being ten laps; there are also battle mode and time trial modes. Battle mode allows the player to choose what drivers to race against as well as standard options like laps and weather options. The game features internal vehicle damage but no external, apart from smoke that would appear if a driver blew their engine. The game only allows players to drive by default a maximum of 10 laps on every track, however by holding down a button when one is selecting how many laps to do, the player can exceed that limit and race up to 30 laps.
Reception
Next Generation reviewed Human Grand Prix, the Japanese version of the game, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "This a game for the starving, desperate Nintendo fan who simply has to have an F1 racing game, quality be damned. If you're not desperate, forget it." However, they found that considerably more work went into the U.S. version, with less pop-up and overall smoother graphics. They reviewed that "All in all, the game will satisfy F1 enthusiasts and may even nab general racing fans as well. With all of its modification choices, tons of courses, modes of play, and real-life racers and courses, F1 is a game worth a look." However, most reviewers commented that even with the improvements made for the U.S. release, the amount of pop-up is unacceptable, the controls are poor, the music is dull and generic, and the engine sounds are high-pitched and completely unrealistic. IGN and GamePro also criticized the lack of any multiplayer, though IGN and Next Generation noted that players can still compete with each other by using the Controller Pak to transfer their records. The most widespread compliment for the game was that the courses are challenging to master. IGN criticised that "the tracks look almost nothing like their real-life counterparts." Glenn Rubenstein, writing for GameSpot, concluding that "it looks good, but that's the only thing it has going for it." In Electronic Gaming Monthly Kraig Kujawa wrote, "For racing simulation fans, F-1 might be worthwhile, but otherwise, don't bother."
