GT7 Gran Turismo World Series 2022 commencing May 27

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With the Toyota Cup already two rounds in, and a gap in it's schedule for another championship, it was easy to predict that the successor to the FIA Gran Turismo Championships from Sport would start soon. But it's a surprise to see it start this soon relative to the announcement, with just 44 hours seperating the news from the first Manufacturers Cup time slot in Asia-Oceania.

Gran Turismo World Series 2022 Gets Underway on 27 May! - World Series - gran-turismo.com

We are pleased to announce that the new championship for Gran Turismo 7, the 'Gran Turismo World Series 2022' (GTWS 2022), will begin on 27 May.GTWS 2022 is an international championship open to anyone who has a copy of Gran Turismo 7. The series encompasses two titles, the 'GTWS Nations Cup' in...

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This series is split into two categories. Nations Cup is the individual compeition, and is generally considered to be the greater of the two cups in prestige. Previous world championships were Igor Fraga in 2018, Mikail Hizal in 2019, Takuma Miyazono in 2020, and Valerio Gallo in 2021, with no repeat winners.

The Manufacturers Cup is a team format where drivers compete within their region for the right to represent their chosen make in the final. Toyota has won the world final twice, though the only driver on both of these teams (2019/2021) was Tomoaki Yamanaka. The return of live events this year should see the Manufacturers Cup rebound as the team based endurnace competition it was intended to be.

Season 1 in each series will consist of 6 rounds, with the best 3 scores counting. The format is the same as the Toyota Cup, except there are 5 time slots instead of 3. This season will determine who qualifies for the World Series Showdown on July 29-31, to be held at Hangar-7 in Austria. In addition to being it's own event, overall season points will be available in both cups, and in Nations Cup, 12 spots in the World Final are up for grabs.

Online races then return in August. Season 2 is 8 rounds long with the best 4 scores counting. From this, 18 more will qualify for the Nations Cup final, and the final 12 teams of 3 to contest the Manufacturers Cup will be set. Toyota, Mazda and Genesis are guaranteed to feature in the latter as series partners.

The World Finals are set to take place from November 25-27, with the Toyota Cup happening at the same (undisclosed) location on November 24.

 

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Manufacturers Cup, round 1 report

In a sense, the competition began before a single race was run, as many with world tour aspirations waited to see who was driving for who, and sought to avoid the most difficult regional team battles. A major surprise in this metagame of musical chairs was Akagi (R.Kokubun) in Asia switching to Toyota after 3 years at Mazda. Perhaps the nerf to the Group 4 Atenza had something to do with it.

The race itself was a sim racers delight; Group 3 (GT3) racing at Nurburgring's 24h layout to coincide with the real life 24. In this case, "just" a 4 lap race, but that still meant over 32 minutes of driving. With fuel and tyre use set to x1, most races were a straight run to the flag, but there was a non-zero chance of the scripted mid-race shower being more intense than usual, turning those splits into a struggle to survive, and making a pitstop onto intermediates an option.

Just 3 regions in the Manufacturers Cup as the smaller regions race together. Here's who topped the points in each;

Asia-Oceania: CRV, 426 points.
EMEA: N. Moysov, 467 points.
Americas: A. Carrazza, 450 points.

Nations Cup, round 1 report

A very different style of racing for anyone doing the Nations Cup the following day; Honda Civic touring cars at Suzuka. On road tyres too, so 2:20's were the benchmark for the very best. It was 8 laps with a grid start and no fuel and tyre concerns (once again set to x1), so it was your standard Suzuka fare of qualifying well, surviving turn 1-2, and using the relative lack of obvious passing opportunities to your advantage.

However, with the format already giving 16 drivers a place at the showdown based on their result in last years world final, the splits in some regions were perhaps not as strong as expected. Some non-qualified drivers also gave this entire round a miss due to the latest update reducing force feedback in certain wheels by design (it was an injury risk for players using certain cars). More annoying issues then for GT7 despite being largely based on Sport's engine.

Oceania: A.Lee*, 352 points.
Asia: T. Yamanaka, 382 points.
EMEA: M. Busnelli, 445 points.
South America: A. Carrazza, 398 points.
North America: 雲 (PX7-Lamb), 389 points.

*Lee is already pre-qualified for the showdown; G.Barbara (337 points) is effectively P1.

 

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Manufacturers Cup, round 2 report
It was time for something completely different, as each brand's Group 4 cars would be in use around a sub one minute fictional circuit. Sardegna road course C as it's called had only 3 noteworthy corners, but all were very difficult turns where a lot of time could be gained or lost.

The race itself was 20 laps with softs and hards available, but since you were required to run the hards at least once, most chose to ignore the softs in the race. So with no pitstops your starting position was vital, and because the short lap meant you could get a lot of attempts in during qualifying, car performance became the primary deciding factor. Despite major pre-season nerfs, the Subaru reigned supreme in 2 out of 3 regions, whilst Mitsubishi rocketed up to 6th place in the manufacturer rankings after a poor first round. BMW by contrast suffered, falling from 9th to 17th.

Asia-Oceania: T. Miyazono, 446 points.
EMEA: PRiMA_Kylian19, 459 points.
Americas: L. Bonelli, 465 points.

Nations Cup, round 2 report

The Nations competition stayed in Japan, this time using Group 2 (Super GT, with a couple of 90's GT1 cars also) around Autopolis. It was quickly discovered though that the 2016 NSX was a lot quicker than everything else, so an effective one make race was the outcome. Other cars may have been kinder on their tyres, but this even more than manufacturers was a round where qualifying was the race.

13 lap race with either soft or medium tyres, with x3 tyre wear. It was set up for the medium tyre to shine... except the medium tyre sucks right now, so everyone braved the softs. You still didn't need to pit and the track didn't afford many opportunities to pass, hence the comment about qualifying being the race. I even managed to finish 4th on my second attempt despite having the worst race pace in the lobby, simply because there was no way through;

Oceania: AE_McEwen*, 351 points.
Asia: ox, 406 points.
EMEA: Q. Jehoul, 449 points.
South America: A. Carrazza, 416 points.
North America: VQS_Drifter, 397 points.

*McEwen, like Lee, is pre-qualified, so G.Barbara (337 points) effectively top scored again.

 

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Manufacturers Cup, round 3 report

Back in the GT3 cars for a bit of an oddball race on the Indy variant of Brands Hatch. It was 25 laps, albeit still a sprint due to the shortness of the lap. With x3 fuel and x10 tyre use, pitting for tyres was necessary, but flexibility in the strategy was limited by a requirement to use both the hard and medium tyres in the race.

We may otherwise have seen a two stop on soft or even zero stops on hard, but instead the typical strategy was 15 laps on hard, 10 laps on medium. Overtakes were possible on the medium, so some were able to make starting on the medium work even if they didn't qualify high. Undercuts were also in play, albeit easily spoiled by traffic or by the pit exit giving the target an inside run into Paddock Hill. Ultimately, many of the top performers in round 1 also scored here, with N24 and BHI both being "technical" circuits despite being on opposite ends of the length scale.

Asia-Oceania: CRV, 446 points.
EMEA: BSCOMP+ Aphe, 462 points.
Americas: A. Carrazza, 458 points.

Nations Cup, round 3 report

Coinciding with the real life Le Mans 24, Nations Cup would hold a 7 lap race at Le Mans, with the eligible cars being the 2015 Nissan GT-R, 2016 Audi R18 and Porsche 919, and 2021 Toyota GR010. Competitors from the Toyota Cup had already played this combo in the GR010 the previous week, but it was the Porsche that proved more popular despite barely exceeding 300 km/h down the straight (40 km/h down on the Toyota).

It was all in the corners; the aptly named Porsche Curves could be taken flat out in the 919 whilst the Toyota had to tiptoe around them by comparison. Some drivers persisted with the GR010 however, creating dilemmas in the race. A solution to this was to pit away from it, as there was a mandatory stop to discourage fuel saving under the x4 fuel use setting (tyres were at x1). But some would find out that the pit entry was the most difficult part of the circuit;

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Oceania: Conzio, 347 points.
Asia: T. Yamanaka*, 387 points.
EMEA: Q. Jehoul, 457 points.
South America: A. Carrazza*, 420 points.
North America: Doodle, 379 points.

*3 round wins in a row for Yamanaka and Carrazza. With only 3 scores counting for the season, they're virtually in the showdown already.

 

[JayOTT]

Nations Cup, round 4 report

For the second half of the season, the two cups swap days; Nations is now on Friday, Manufacturers on Saturday. This round saw a return to Sardegna, this time on the longer layout in the recently added Suzuki VGT. This was originally put down as the longest Nations Cup race of the season at 15 laps (~28 minutes), but ended up being 10 laps (~19 minutes) when the race was actually run. This had the effect of rendering the x4 tyre wear on sports softs mostly a non-issue.

Grid starts were chaotic, especially with there now being less time to recover if you got shuffled back. This lap 1 in an Asia top split would've been one of the cleaner ones, until someone went way too deep in sector 2. They probably should've redressed.

Oceania: A.Lee*, 360 points.
Asia: T.Yamanaka**, 408 points.
EMEA: M. Rodríguez, 457 points.
South America: A.Carrazza**, 381 points.
North America: D. Heldt, 379 points.

*G.Barbara (345 points) effective top scorer again.
**Yes, that's 4 round wins on the trot for both. Carrazza's score doesn't even count because their last 3 wins were worth more.

Manufacturers Cup, round 4 report

Group 4 at Monza, the bane of many a sim racer with it's turn 1 of DOOM. Mercifully, this cup always uses a rolling start procedure, and slipstream has been disabled in qualifying for the world series, discouraging shenanigans. The track limits however, were out for blood, as running over kerbs was the only way to go fast, but was also an easy way to get penalised.

If you could avoid the penalties for 10 laps you'd probably do well. There was a mandatory pitstop, which was effectively a drive through due to x1 fuel and tyre use as well as no mandate to do anything in said pitstop. There was an interesting game to play with the pitstop, as pitting early to avoid battling or staying out to use a faster cars draft were equally valid tactics. But ultimately, it was the cars that made the difference, with Nissan in particular rocketing up the manufacturer leaderboards.

Asia-Oceania: HIROGRAND, 439 points.
EMEA: PRiMA_Kylian19, 463 points.
Americas: 雲 (PX7-Lamb), 455 points.

Once round 5 has concluded I will post overall standings also, as we approach the end of the season and a clearer picture of what everyone has to do in round 6 to qualify is established.

 

[JayOTT]

Nations Cup, round 5 report

Races like these are what makes the GT World Series unique in sim racing. Group B equivalent cars around the Alsace short course... on comfort tyres to make it feel like a rallycross dirt race. However the surface was still tarmac, so getting the car sideways would get you nowhere fast. Loeb's boring but practical style of rally driving was rewarded with better lap times here.

It was the shortest race of the season at under 13 minutes (15 laps). So naturally it was another important qualifying, though overtaking wasn't impossible if you could put pressure on the car ahead. This round wasn't popular with everyone; Oceania and North America still saw close to full attendance, but Asia and South America were quite depleted fields by comparison.

Oceania: Sidawg, 342 points.
Asia: Saika159-, 372 points.
EMEA: M. Busnelli, 433 points.
South America: B. Valverde, 283 points.
North America: VQS_Drifter, 361 points.

Manufacturers Cup, round 5 report

Elements from the previous two GT3 races were combined together for this round at the Daytona Road Course. From round 1, the race length; 18 laps meant another race of over half an hour. From round 3, the tyre regulations; all three compounds available, medium and hard stints required in the race. Fuel use x1, tyre wear x5, and the prevailing opinion was that 7-8 laps was the ideal stint length for the medium tyre.

This was the round where Coque Lopez (1/3 of the defending champions) lost any chance of getting back into the Toyota seat at the showdown. He had in fact won the first race of the night in a messy finish that included a three wide to the line;

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But the 445 points still left him trailing Moysov by 39 points and needing 460 in the last round even if Moysov didn't improve his score. Out of desparation, he went again... and got a penalty when he looked on course to win again;

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As you can tell from the clips, Toyota was dominant in this round by virtue of having way too much top speed.

Asia: おさかな (Akagi_1942mi), T. Yamanaka*, 433 points.
EMEA: N. Moysov**, 445 points.
Americas: C. Roach, 446 points.

*Two separate races across the night had the same score for P1.
**As per the rules, Lopez lost his 445 score by going again and Nick won that second race.

With one round to go, I'll be making an extra preview post soon to provide the overall standings so far and remark on what everyone who is not a lock has to do to make it to Austria.

 

[JayOTT]

Round 6 preview

The Nations Cup selection criteria is as follows;

So excluding the 16 already qualified, here are the points tables per region.

Oceania:
G.Barbara 1,019
Sidawg 994
Conzio 981

After potential drop scores are considered, Conzio will need at least 329 points and to score 7+ higher than Sidawg to overtake him. This most likely means he needs P2 in timeslot 1's top split.

Asia Japan:
T.Yamanaka 1,181
ox 1,125
S.Iseri 1,095

Asia Non-Japan:
Saika159- 1,093
D. Wigneswaran 1,061

Iseri will need 388 to overtake ox, meaning they need a round win. Even then, if ox can improve on a score of 347, they can put it out of reach. Wigneswaran is likewise up against it for the final spot, needing 367 to overtake Saika even if Saika cannot score higher than 341 to improve.

EMEA:
Q.Jehoul 1,344
M.Rodriguez 1,314
M. Busnelli 1,298
K. De Bruin 1,292
Coyote 1,278
PRiMA_Kylian19 1,278
HRG_RK23 1,263
Á. Tápai 1,249
P.Urra 1,247
SRC_SVDR 1,169

For 7th-10th, the minimum scores needed to break top 6 are 424 for RK23, 437 for Tapai, 443 for Urra, and 453 for SVDR. The top 4 should be safe regardless of what happens, but Coyote and Kylian must race.

South America:
A. Carrazza 1,234
PerrolocoMcqueen 1,159
F. Rodrigues 1,149

Rodrigues needs 376 and to outscore Mcqueen by any amount to take P2. It should be possible as long as the continent doesn't give this round a miss like they did the previous one.

North America USA:
VQS_Drifter 1,110
R. Heck 1,080
Doodle 1,033

North America Canada:
Lester 1,048
E. Liminated 1,029
Rush 1,021

Doodle's goal to overtake Heck is 356 points or more. There's also a wildcard in the form of PX7-Lamb, who has only two scores and could take P2 with a 312, or P1 with a 342 should they return to competition.

Liminated has the luxury of only needing 306 to overtake Lester, whilst Lester's lowest counting score is 337. Rush is going to need 360 and a bad round from Liminated.

Manufacturers is even harder to break down in full given all the intra-team battles going on, so I'm just going to look at which makes are set to qualify. The global rankings are determined by a system where the highest score any driver in the region got for each manufacturer is compared to every other high score, from which points are awarded each round based on rank. Top 3 round scores per region count. It results in the following table;

The question mark going into round 6 seems to be who takes the 12th and final spot. BMW have the advantage thanks to a 5th place in EMEA at Daytona, but Lexus are too close for comfort and Hyundai have a lot of room to improve. The third counting scores for each region are;

Asia: BMW 14, Lexus 16, Hyundai 9
EMEA: BMW 19, Lexus 13, Hyundai 11
Americas: BMW 18, Lexus 18, Hyundai 15

Throw in the individual driver battles that cannot all be covered in this one post and you have the makings of a brilliant final round.

 

[JayOTT]

Nations Cup, round 6 report

The final battlefield for spots in Austria would be 16 laps of Watkins Glen long in the GT3 spec cars. Save for the requirement to use all three tyre compounds in the race (x2 fuel, x4 tyres), the combo wouldn't look out of place in iRacing or ACC.

In Oceania, a poor qualifying doomed Conzio, and in any case Sidawg would have his best race of the season to take P2 overall, and P1 out of those not already qualified. Asia saw CRV upend the competition by getting a 3rd big score, moving to 1,163 ponits, and knocking ox out. Saika held the non-Japan top spot as neither he or Danny could improve.

There was no change in the composition of EMEA's top 6, as Kylian stormed to equal 2nd and Coyote also improved to ensure safety, despite Urra getting the score they otherwise needed. In South America, Carrazza took his 5th round win from 5 attempts, but it was Rodrigues falling 3 points short of overtaking McQueen that was the real story.

North America's USA battle was an anti-climax as Doodle didn't race, though in any case Drifter and Heck scored enough points to put it out of reach. It was Liminated who managed to win the Canada battle by scoring 331 whilst Lester couldn't improve.

Oceania: Sidawg, 351 points.
Asia: たくあん (TakuAn): 385 points.
EMEA: PRiMA_Kylian19, 451 points.
South America: A. Carrazza, 419 points.
North America: VQS_Drifter, 381 points.

Manufacturers Cup, round 6 report

Suzuka was the venue for the third time this year in GT e-sports. 12 laps in the group 4 cars, but with x6 fuel use the balance of power was turned on it's head. Cars that could save enough fuel to no-stop without losing speed would come to the fore. This allowed BMW to have their best round of the season, not just beating Lexus but moving all the way up to 10th. The 12 teams going to Austria are;

Subaru, Toyota, AMG, Genesis, Nissan, Volkswagen, Porsche, Chevrolet, Jaguar, BMW, Mitsubishi, Mazda.

As for individual battles, notable incidents were;
- 3rd and 4th overall in Asia not qualifying (Miyazono beat KK-Spirit in Subaru, Akagi beat Yamanaka in Toyota).
- Conzio getting a lifeline at Porsche due to TakuAn not being 18 yet.
- 3rd overall in EMEA missing out (Santos, beaten at Subaru by 1st placed Kylian).
- The BMW battle in EMEA decided on tiebreak (Cases scored 399 to finish tied with Will on 1,139 points, wins the tiebreaker).

Asia-Oceania: T. Miyazono, 445 points.
EMEA: J. Serrano, 460 points.
Americas: 雲 (PX7-Lamb), 422 points.