In fact, Monaco can be frighteningly fast. The cars reach top speed in no time at all, and the detailed scenery flies past too quickly to really appreciate it - take your eyes off the road at 180mph and you'll be wearing part of the grandstand as a bonnet ornament. Graphically it's not quite as sharp as its N64 rival, Paradigm's F1WGP, but it's faster and perhaps slightly smoother.

Testament to its shift away from simulation and towards action is the fact that it plays so much better with the zoomed-out third-person camera than it does with the in-cockpit view. While F1WGP excelled with its authentically bumpy driver's eye view, Monaco's quicker racing style lends itself to a more detached camera angle. Quite often, the only way to weave through the massed ranks of aggressive CPU drivers is to be able to see the exact dimensions of your car, making crucial overtaking manoeuvres less of a hit, miss, and spin affair.

Naturally, many F1 game veterans will head straight for the Options screen to crank up the realism. Every aspect of the car's performance can be altered, from simple tyre compounds to incomprehensible gear ratios, with a diagram of the vehicle showing exactly what affect each option will have the moment you select it. As a way of easing the novice driver into the simulation side of things, it's a welcome touch of user-friendliness.

Of course, it's up against the heavyweight champ in F1WGP, and Paradigm's title comes out on top in most respects - particularly the use of real teams, which might not affect the way the game plays, but does affect the way people will approach it. Commendable effort though, and Ubi Soft's best ever N64 game by a mile.