For the second season in a row, BMW has topped the qualifiers for the Gran Turismo World Series Manufacturers Cup, booking its spot on the planes to Abu Dhabi, Milan, and Tokyo and becoming the pre-season favorites again.
Given the relative strength of the brand’s rather aged Gr.3 representative, the M6 GT3, it likely comes as little surprise to regulars in GT7’s online multiplayer portion. That said it still requires the drivers to get it over the line and not take too many points off each other in the process.
The way that the GTWS qualifiers work is a little tricky to explain, but ultimately comes down to an aggregate ranking of the top driver in each region for each round. At the end of each of the six rounds, the ranking system looks only at the driver who scores the highest points for each team and ignores the rest — which can be complicated by the dropped round leading to a recalculation.
This is then converted into a separate points value: the top brand scores 40pt, with 36pt for second, then reducing by three points each position to sixth, two each position to tenth, and then one per position to 25th — with the final two brands scoring zero. Where brands tie for a spot, the points are added up and split between them, leading to some half-points.
Each of the three regions maintains its own tally — with the worst round for each dropped — and the three are then totted up to determine the overall ranking. At the end of all that, BMW has once again been the only marque to net over 500 points from a maximum of 600 available in a six-round season for the second successive year.
BMW’s advantage is not as commanding as it was last season, where it out-pointed fellow German marque “AMG” (Mercedes-AMG) by almost 100 points. Still, nearly 50pt separates BMW from Audi — perhaps a surprising runner-up given that the brand failed to qualify in 2025.
As well as topping the overall table, BMW leads the way in the Asia-Oceania (ASOC) and Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) regions with 182pt and 184pt respectively. However it’s Toyota that managed the highest regional score of all, with 192pt in North/Central/South America (NCSA) out of a maximum of 200 — and a long way clear of second-placed Ferrari in that region.
Audi’s unexpected ranking sees it qualify second ahead of two-time world champion Toyota, with 2025 champion Porsche in fourth. Regular finalist AMG placed ahead of Ferrari, with three champion marques in Nissan, Lexus, and Subaru next. Lamborghini sneaks in despite dropping down from its third-place spot last season, before the return of Volkswagen and 2025’s title runner-up Mazda rounding out the qualifiers without having to rely on its partner status.
The results also give us a fairly decent idea of the 36 racers who’ll be attending the four live events this year for their chosen brands, although we’re still awaiting confirmation on eligibility and availability.
Defending champion Porsche — the first non-Japanese brand to manage the feat — looks set to welcome 2025 double-champion Jose Serrano and Angel Inostroza back although the third driver of last season’s team, Shota Sato, won’t be joining them. Instead it’ll be Takuma Sasaki, to recreate the team that won the Showdown in 2023.
BMW’s strong challenge last year faded towards the end, and will have two new drivers this season. Seiya Suzuki was top qualifier in ASOC and returns, where he’ll be joined by Calen Roach and the top EMEA qualifier Samuel Moreno — who headed 2025 representative Thomas Labouteley in a marque 1-2 in the region.
Global top scorer was Adriano Carrazzo, who returns for Toyota and is on for a decade of representation at live events if he repeats the feat next season. Kenta Morimoto also comes back for the brand, along with another name familiar to the old-school GTWS fans: Benjamin Hencsei.
Two drivers managed to record 500pt scores in rounds this year, both in the EMEA region. Kylian Drumont did it twice, as he switched allegiances from Subaru to Audi, and he should be joined by Sota Moriyama — heart-breakingly eliminated from qualifying in 2025 through a race-rigging scandal in which he wasn’t involved affecting his chosen brand — and Simon Rosenberger who represented Lamborghini in 2025.
However it was Germany’s Max Kroll who set the overall record with a 505pt finish for Ferrari to book his place as the brand’s EMEA representative for his first ever finals. He’ll be joined by Ferrari regular Jun Hashima and the returning finalist Nicolas Arriagada.
Despite losing two top-tier drivers, double world champion Subaru qualifies again and will have Daniel Solis — a two-time champion with the marque — returning, joined by Soki Nabetani and, in his first finals, “Calster”. This British driver is notable for being one of very few top-ranked GT7 players who is a controller user, much like his team-mate Solis, though we expect the live events will require use of the official Fanatec Gran Turismo DD Extreme wheel.
Mazda’s lineup from last season looks set to return, as Samuel Cardinal, Ryota Kokubun, and Pol Urra all come back and hope to go one better than 2025. Other notable qualifiers include the 2023 champion Nissan with Mikolaj Sedziak — a breakthrough highlight from the Berlin event — joined by four-time finalist Hiroshi Okumoto and Arthur Mosso Nunes. Lexus welcomes Mateo Estevez, part of Nissan’s title-winning team, alongside Antonio Santos and brand-regular Kanata Kawakami, while another Nissan champion will race for Volkswagen as Mehdi Hafidi joins Dhanesh Wigneswaran and Joao Pessoa.
While that’s all subject to confirmation, one driver from each squad will represent their brand at one event each, in Abu Dhabi, Milan, and the third event at an unknown location. All three will be united for a team effort at the final in Tokyo, with points from all four events counting towards the overall total.
Attention now turns to the Nations Cup side of things with the qualifiers starting on February 11 and concluding just 17 days later on February 28. Good luck to all who enter!
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