"Variety" called the film "one of those rare pictures that draws its basic strength, excitement and interest-arresting potential through the visual (the pure art of cinema) and if it lacked brilliant virtuosity in the action department it would be just another flimflam." Philip K. Scheuer of the "Los Angeles Times" called it "the new, definitive, great film about auto racing", adding that after three hours "if one emerged with the feeling that maybe there has been just too much, here is one case in which I can state happily that it is better than too little." Leo Sullivan of "The Washington Post" wrote, "John Frankenheimer's 'Grand Prix' is brought alive with cinematic innovations and is frequently set ablaze with excitement." Brendan Gill of "The New Yorker" described the film as "big, brave, eye-bedazzling, earsplitting, and sometimes almost heart-stopping." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote, "The cars, of course, steal all the thunder, but one is a little disappointed to find the drivers and their private lives so little elevated beyond the level of pulp fiction. Still, as a spectacle "Grand Prix" is on the whole such a success that the fact it isn't anything more than a spectacle hardly matters."