If you’ve downloaded the B197 recently, you’ll know it already features David Marques’ excellent mapping and 4K textures as part of the original release.
While he was preparing the F1 Challenge release (available here), David noticed a detail that deserved a slight correction.
Specifically, the yellow section at the rear of the B197 — an important mark of the colours of Benetton livery — wasn’t matching its real-world reference as closely as it could. Even subtle variations in tone can be noticeable when compared to period photography or in-game lighting, so David made a quick adjustment which looks a lot better.
All texture files have now been updated to incorporate this change for all races.
Over the next few days, I have a few smaller updates to share with you. I was going to put everything into one big post, but on reflection, it will be easier to track and find information if they’re split up.
First up: I really enjoyed Viking75’s version of Thruxton — one of my favourite UK tracks. It’s a fast, flowing track where maintaining momentum is everything, and small tweaks to AI behaviour can make a huge difference to how natural the racing feels.
This update focuses primarily on the cc-line. For those unfamiliar, the cc-line defines the racing line used by the computer-controlled cars, but it also influences keyboard steering behaviour. Thanks to the great tutorial written by prblanco over at F1 Virtual, I was able to quickly get up to speed and have a go at creating a new one.
This is my first attempt. I think it’s an improvement, although there’s still room for fine-tuning — particularly around the long right-hander at Goodwood. Church corner remains a great challenge, and I really enjoy the different lines you can take through the Campbell–Cobb–Seagrave complex. The lap times of the computer-controlled (cc) cars are much better now, and keyboard driving feels far more intuitive.
I've also updated the track-side cameras, based off the late 1990s BTCC era.
Here’s a short video of a quick six-lap race using my WEC mod. I’m racing on the keyboard.
Lap one, into the first braking zone — and I’m a little embarresed to highlight it! I brake too late, a slight misjudgment… and I give the Alpine a rather firm introduction to the runoff area. Not my finest moment.
But our car is fine. Keep calm and carry on!
By the end of the lap, there’s more drama! The Penske Porsche ahead is fighting hard after battling the Jota-run Porsche, and as they approach the final chicane it all gets a bit untidy.As a result the Penske-Porsche struggled to navigate the final chicane and I offer a little nudge on the way past.
There isn’t a huge amount of grip in these cars, so the corners are more challenging than they would be in modern F1 machinery around this track. Touring cars here are great fun as well.
I really enjoyed chasing down the pack, setting up an exciting last-lap tussle for second place with the Cadillac. I completed an overtake at Goodwood, only to run wide at Church and hand the position back. Only the final Club chicane to go and now it's the Cadillac's turn to make a mistake. The door is open, and I was able to sprint past on the run to the finish line. An exciting close to an eventful race.
Thruxton (GB) track download
Download the original track by Viking75 and install my update over his files
Another small update adds some updates for up to the end of the season. This includes performance files by Gitanes, as well as updated track specific weather settings.
Excalibur has released some excellent additional liveries for the Williams and these have been included in this mod.
Thanks also to Mailson Teles for exclusively sharing his TV style updated to 2025 exclusively for this mod. There is an option in the CSM menu to enable/disable this, under the TV overlay drop down.
Thanks to Superman77, the external steering wheels have been fine tuned and the rev lights fit the individual steering wheels much better now.
The Sound Hardware Acceleration has been updated to a more updated version from GitHub. It's by a number of collaborators.
The biggest update to this release is by Öggo and thanks to the upgrade of GP4++ to v2.2. This adds modding capabilities to the rear light and blinking under different circumstances. This has now been added to the mod:
Now the rain light blinks in wet weather.
There is a ERS charging light when you lift and coast.
The pit lane light also blinks, but at a different speed to the others.
Sadly, this does not fix the GP4Tweaker limitation of having a brake light to enable multiple ambient glows, but I have tried to limit it by setting the threshold to 200% brake pressure. It is not full-proof, but also the ERS charging light also comes on when braking at speed. Anyay, GP4++ works seamlessly with GP4Tweaker.
I hope you enjoy this update. Here's a little video preview of the mod in action.
Installation Notes
F1 2025 CSM Mod
This is a patch of the original mod, so you will need to install that first
A new year is under way, and it's time again to catch up with the rest of the 2025 releases in the Grand Prix 4 community. It's been a busy final few months of the year and there's plenty of cool developments by new and familiar authors who have shared their work with the community.
On my side, I have now updated this blog with mirror links to most of these downloads and some on the dedicated 2025 Download Resources page.
Without further ado, let's take a look at what's been released in the community lately.
New Features
GP4++
by Öggo
This combines the Individual Meshes & Textures with the hi-res pitcrews DLL, whilst adding a new feature to have driver specific engineers, and individual meshes for engineers and pitcrews. There are other features now editable directly, such as the NoCD option, enabling advanced car-shader for internal steering wheels, and cockpit visor customisations.
Hi resolution pitcrew meshes has been available for a while now, but now Öggo has created a working model for engineers and pitcrews. It is a proof of concept, but still a massive improvement on the original mesh from the original game. This comes with a PSD template, so I look forward to seeing some new skins painted soon.
A new tool that is still under development by Kresljedos for calculating standings for a full F1 season, due to GP4's limitation of only a 17 track season. This runs in a browser.
"So 2012 it is. And it's quite similar to the 2011 Add-on, but this time I decided to bring you an whole season set of cars in one package. Even the versions I have not edited so you can easily make your own mod if these are the cars you want to use. All versions (I Think) is included in this pack, I've done my best to spot differences, correcting mistakes on existing ones and adding missing versions. Most cars are converted from F1CM by Josekast, with a select few from Soulbringer, Hega and RSCT."
"The 2012 helmetset now with seperate helmet shapes.
This helmetset have gotten some tweaks and now also gotten the correct helmetshapes for all drivers. I've added some missing helmets, fixed some others, fixed the alphalayer on some and added new versions that seemed to be missing.
All helmets from the 2012 season (that I know of) is included in this pack and are painted to fit the correct helmetshape. And I've done the best I can to make sure each helmet has the correct visor tint for the right races. But in most cases, you can decide yourself. You can run all helmets with individual shapes or you can use all helmets with only one shape for all. But if you only use one shape, some textures will not fit properly, most cases the visor tear offs and the new visorstrips on the updated shapes."
"Here is a 2012 tyreset that has it's roots the fantastic years of 2005 to 2009.
With Enzojz and Lee's great talent for modding GP4 back then, I've just modernized their
work a bit to bring you an updated 2012 tyreset."
A beta version of a shortened version of the Le Mans (due to limitations of GP4) was created by Viking75, a welcome addition to the tracks available for Grand Prix 4 and some of the older sports car mods
Utah Motorsports Campus is a real american track for endurance cars by Viking75. It is unfinished, and bigger than the real version, but nice to have and drive on too.
This is one of my personal favourite tracks in the UK, with its flowing high speed bends, particular in touring cars or lower formulae cars. It's great to have this in GP4.
It just remains for me to be grateful to all the authors who are helping keep the modding community alive with more tools and mods. Thanks to all those who have contributed to the 2025 season content that isn't usually featured in these posts, but no less appreciated.
I am proud to release to you the 2025 mod as a non-CSM, stand-alone version, the first mod to be released using GP4 Memory Access.
Like the CSM mod, this is a little bit proof-of-concept than a full blown complete mod. This mod shows a working example of how to use GP4 Memory Access by Carl_gpgames and Öggo.
I've spent less time creating content and more time in exploring new features to present to you - hoping that other authors may be able to fill in some of the gaps.
All of the content is already compiled in the CSM version of the mod: 2025 CSM Mod
This has no tracks included, no driver changes, no additional liveries and no special helmets - it's just a generic base 2025 mod.
What is new to this mod, and will soon be added to the CSM version, are the 2025 TV graphics by Mailson Teles.
I’m excited to unveil my newest release: the Benetton B197 (1997) in collaboration with the talented David Marques.
If you’ve tried my 1997 Jordan, you’ll notice immediately: this 3D model is on another level. I faced a familiar dilemma every modder knows too well — do I sink countless hours into a hyper-detailed model that could stand proudly in a modern engine? Or aim for something simpler and more in line with an older game’s limits?
This time, thanks to the wealth of reference photos from track-run B197s in recent years, I went for detail!
The result is we have a high quality car, complete with a fully built cockpit, accurate rear-end geometry, diffuser, crash structure, gearbox, and subtle internal components. The best thing is that this car is still within GP4 limits for polygon counts.
While I tackled the painting on most of the internal elements, David Marques once again elevated the project with his impeccable mapping and paintwork on the main body, plus new 3D bolts, multiple wing specs, and gorgeous full 4K textures. Every race of the 1997 season gets its own unique livery — all thanks to David’s dedication and obsessive eye for historical detail, with help from Quickslick.
Since the B197 evolved directly from the ’96 car — itself evolved from the ’95 championship winner, which I made not too long ago, it helped me recreate some parts quickly and accurately that would usually take me a long time in making parts that are difficult to see from pictures.
On track, the B197 had flashes of brilliance. Wurz debuted in it and immediately impressed with a podium at Silverstone. Alesi delivered a pole and several strong finishes. And of course, after recovering from illness and reeling from personal tragedy, Berger returned to the cockpit with that unforgettable, inspired victory at the German Grand Prix. This would also be Berger's swansong season finishing a strong fourth place, just shy of the podium at the final round at Jerez.
This release is for Grand Prix 4 of course, but it is also jointly being released in F1 Challenge.
I hope you enjoy driving it as much as we enjoyed bringing it back to life.
