Automobilista 2 | The Ultimate Formula 1 Season Guide

When it comes to retro content in sim racing, it is hard to ignore Automobilista 2 – the selection is overwhelming, especially for Formula 1 fans. The sim currently offers no less than 15 Formula 1 seasons, spanning six decades – but which exact years are represented is only undoubtedly made clear in very few cases. To give you a better overview of the historic F1 content, we have assembled a guide to the different classes for you.

No less than 42 cars from six decades – the amount of choice is a sight to behold and cannot be found anywhere else, except with mods. The best part: Most of the F1 cars in Automobilista 2 are free and already in the sim, all classes can be enjoyed without additional DLC.

Compared to the first version of this guide, lots of additions have been made to the F1 roster in AMS2 as of May 2023, so we felt it was time for an update. In doing this, we have also added the accurate tracks of the respective season and, if available, linked to skin packs.

RaceDepartment would like to use this article to call all Automobilista 2 modders: To avoid confusion while in game, changing the names of the classes to include their respective seasons would be an enormous help for a lot of sim racers – if it is even possible. Feel free to use this guide as a base if you want to make life easier for them!

What other F1 seasons would you want to see represented in Automobilista 2? What are your favorites that are already in the sim? Let us know on Twitter at @RaceDepartment or in the comments below.

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About author
Yannik Haustein
Lifelong motorsport enthusiast and sim racing aficionado, walking racing history encyclopedia.

Sim racing editor, streamer and one half of the SimRacing Buddies podcast (warning, German!).

Heel & Toe Gang 4 life :D

Comments

Just got AMS2 and was astounded by the base selection of cars. (Can't afford the DLC.) Amazing stuff, especially when fully skinned up.

Good to see AI being a focus as well. Though my brief experience it'd be nice if AI actually passed each other in qualifying.
If you ever decide to make the step and love F1s I strongly recommend the Brazilian Legends Pack with some of the greatest and best rendered F1s. They are worth every penny.
 
Yannik Haustein
Staff
Premium
Is there any skinpack for this season?

Cheers!
Which one do you mean?

If I could find one on RD, I have included it on the respective season's page. Thanks to the great work of the community, most seasons have a pack available with only a few exceptions :)
 
Depends what year you're looking at. I took a deep dive a while ago to try and see how accurately some seasons could be replicated, and surprisingly, 1983 is one of the easier ones to do. Only three tracks they ran on are completely missing (Paul Ricard, Detroit and Watkins Glen Zandvoort), and three more are present with altered layouts (Long Beach, Monaco, Montreal). The other nine are accurate regarding their layouts (I did not count Brands Hatch as the reprofiling was very slight). These season overviews might be something to add to this guide later on :)

I would not be surprised if the Glen is added later on, as well as a 2001 pre-Mercedes Arena version of the Nürburgring is added later on along with the 1971 Nordschleife that's in the works. Not too bad of an outlook I'd say.
Imola also is there for free in 1988 version
Kyalami 1976 that remained the same until the 80s
 
John B. Ellis
Premium
Similar to this article, the Overview page of this mod details which seasons Reiza intended to replicate given the constraints of their generic cars and quasi-fictional drivers. It also includes a fairly-comprehensive list of links to all AMS2 mods. If there are any omissions or errors, feel free to PM to help make it more accurate.
 
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Hey if you get one one(1) choice which one of your socalled historic Formula 1 cars would you recommend?
I dont care if they fit to particular historic tracks because I allready have my own favorites.
But which one would you recommend?

To feed your ego a little bit - ALL!
(esp. F-Vintage and F-Retro)
 
I really enjoy the vintage gen 1 hopefully they can improve the ai in the future and also keep improving the car itself. i also wish they give the cockpits graphics updates some love like some of the 70's and 80's f1 cars in the game.

I would also like; some 60s and 70s touring cars. a Bmw 3.0 Cs group 2 would also be very nice.

And some more vintage tracks.. I can't get enough of them.. these tracks had such a natural racing flow.. talking about the Tilke tracks:p:cry:
open-uri20120928-30782-2xg7qt.jpg

Rouen:,
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Ferrari-312-67-F1_3.jpg
 
Apart from the 50's, I believe the only era missing would be the 2005-2008 period, when F1 cars had an abundance of small and sometimes weird aero devices, like the 2008 McLaren that Hamilton drove to his first title.

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Thank you for this overview of AMS2´s Formula car portfolio - multo appreciated.:)
Maybe I should try some of the older one again.
Because half a year back I couldnt get out of some of the really old ones soon enough
- because they did behave completely awfull.
Personally I can recommend the F-Reiza and the 2x F-Ultimates.:inlove:

But I have to disagree that the F-Classics should include some kind of reborn Lotus 98T.
No.;)
None of these cars does behave like this great car in as example rF2 and specially like the 98T in AC.
Reizas is a meh meh version compared to these 2 other sim incarnations of the 98T.

View attachment 560616
Maybe wait for the May update before trying. I agree that the Ultimates and F Reiza are currently the most normal and believable behaving cars. (Open wheel any rate)
 
It's been a while since I fired up AMS2 now. Is the AI performance good in changeable weather now or are they still too fast in the wet (or was it the other way around?)?
 
Not much into AMS2 but what a great article. More of this please. Hopefully the upcoming physics changes will get it feeling 'right' to me.
 
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