Gran Turismo World Series discussion (2026 Manufacturers Cup Exhibition 2: Aug 22 - Sep 12)

[VillaJ100]

I have tried alla the cars for the next race… and whatever I take the first laps seems manageable but from lap 2 (when starts raining again) till lap 7-8 it is like “dancing on the ice”…

I have the feeling to be dramatically slow.
The leaderboard is showing timing some after more than 30 laps when the track is perfectly dry, so no idea about which are the performance in such poor track conditions.

Whatever car I choose I don’t find the feeling to properly brake and turn at T1.
Also the chicane is quite terrible, where I have no clue how to manage the trajectory and the acceleration.
Also the last curve could be interpreted in very different ways due to the rain and will create a mess with the follower thinking that you are living a free space to overtake… while it is not…

Even if I use TC at level 3 you feel the car reacting quite violently.

For sure I am not a good driver and in don’t have great experience with these cars that I have used rarely.

So at the moment my best time in dry conditions is with BMW with 1:30.5.
Under the rain I easily lap at 1:40 / 1:42.

I expect a dramatic race during the first 5-7 laps…

Regarding T1 in the rain, if you're braking at the start of the rest white kerb on the left of the straight you have to be kind of in the centre of the track with the front of the car pointing towards the apex to make the turn, at least that's the best way and most consistent I found. It'll feel sketchy and rumbly but you'll get enough grip to stop. Staying left and braking on the line I was often overshooting the corner by a long way.

 

[VTEC Driver]

Regarding T1 in the rain, if you're braking at the start of the rest white kerb on the left of the straight you have to be kind of in the centre of the track with the front of the car pointing towards the apex to make the turn, at least that's the best way and most consistent I found. It'll feel sketchy and rumbly but you'll get enough grip to stop. Staying left and braking on the line I was often overshooting the corner by a long way.

I am still using the "breaking area indicator" (the series of the horizontal red lines) and if I brake in that moment staying in the center of the track (far from the dry line) I am breaking too much and, before the T1, I have to partially release the brakes otherwise I am too slow. If I brake slightly later I am almost out of the curve.

Of course this point of breaking change continuously in the first 7-8 laps according how much rain is cumulating on the track, so I haven't found a consistent point to use it for more laps.

This is the behavior with W tires. Not tried the IM yet.

 

[AEther]

Doing some testing both in practice and custom races, the MRs definitely have more stability in the wet. Given the drying track when the rain stops, I lean towards IM even if they are marginally slower than full wets in the rain.

I put down my best lap in the BMW surprisingly, a 1:28.5 1:28.9 which isn’t too shabby but was in practice with empty fuel and no tire wear. The best I got in the Porsche by contrast in custom races was a 1:30.

The softs feel like a big gamble following the wet stint. I wore them down to the nubs after ten laps in the GR. It’s questionable if they’d hold up better in the other cars. They would almost certainly require an extra stop before the race’s end.

The last bout of rain around lap 25 is a challenge as well. Can the slicks hold on until the end? Will one more pit for IM be necessary?

 

[Moose78]

The last bout of rain around lap 25 is a challenge as well. Can the slicks hold on until the end? Will one more pit for IM be necessary?

They do in Free Practice. I did a couple 27-stints in FP yesterday in the BMW. It gets a bit slippery for a couple laps. I found I need to brake very early on T1 when it gets soaked, braking around the 200 board. Overall, I think I lost ~10-15 seconds off my dry pace, but I figure that's still way faster than pitting and being stuck on slower tires for the rest of the race.

I'm starting to wonder if a 14W-13RS might be viable. It would definitely be pushing the limits on both stints, but I'm thinking that second bout of rain could help the RSs last to the end. I really wish there was a way to do a proper test with the scripted weather and tire wear enabled. Maybe in GT8.

 

[AEther]

I'm starting to wonder if a 14W-13RS might be viable. It would definitely be pushing the limits on both stints, but I'm thinking that second bout of rain could help the RSs last to the end. I really wish there was a way to do a proper test with the scripted weather and tire wear enabled. Maybe in GT8.

Custom with R04-R06 in the first two weather segments was pretty close for me. I would throw in some R03 on segment 6 for good measure.

I doubt PD would let us access their proprietary weather for Sport races. What I wish for more is true random weather in cup races. That would, however, render some potential unfair advantages between time slots.

 

[Mumster]

This is what I came up with in my custom race for the weather, seems pretty in line with the practice. For me the W is faster and I have found the wear on the W to be not that bad, the track dries by lap 10 in my custom race with 16 in the field but off the racing line is wet. T1 apex stays quite wet until lap 13 so watch out for that in the race. That last one is R05.

 

[Moose78]

I did some custom races for the first time yesterday. I'm glad I did. In custom races, there is a much more distinct drying driving line than there is in Free Practice. I usually rely on the driving line assist to know where the dry line is, but at Fuji, there is an important deviation coming out of the Hairpin (T6). The dry line is well to the left of the assist line, so you really need to take a tight line out of there to avoid sliding off the track if you are on slick tires. The AI, of course, stupidly follows the assist line and slows to a crawl there. Beware!

The other useful bit of information that I gained from those tests is how the BMW uses it hybrid battery. I found that I was burning through a little bit of battery on every lap. It seems to deplete fastest on dry laps. In the one race I did on RS tires at the end, the battery hit zero just as crossed the finish line. That might have been an anomaly, though, because under the weather settings I was using the rain stopped on the first lap and I was able to to do 25 laps on slicks. In the one where the rain lasted longer, the battery lasted to the end with about 10% to spare.

On strategy, I'm now thinking I might try a W-RM strategy -- try to make some gains early in the rain and switch over to slicks as soon as possible, with the hope that everybody else wastes time running slow laps on IMs before they switch to RSs (or even better, RMs). In Free Practice, I can switch to RMs on lap 14. I expect the track to dry faster in the race with all the other cars on the track, so I might be able to pit even sooner. I'll be watching the moisture gauge to tell me when to pit. When it hits ~10% above the first tick mark, then I know it is safe to switch to slicks.

Of course, we'll get a lot more information once some streamers broadcast their races.

As always, good luck to everybody racing!

 

[Fezzik]

Random weather > scripted weather but we work with what we have. I look forward to hearing about everyone’s adventures in the rain.

 

[Mumster]

On strategy, I'm now thinking I might try a W-RM strategy -- try to make some gains early in the rain and switch over to slicks as soon as possible, with the hope that everybody else wastes time running slow laps on IMs before they switch to RSs (or even better, RMs). In Free Practice, I can switch to RMs on lap 14. I expect the track to dry faster in the race with all the other cars on the track, so I might be able to pit even sooner. I'll be watching the moisture gauge to tell me when to pit. When it hits ~10% above the first tick mark, then I know it is safe to switch to slicks.

Of course, we'll get a lot more information once some streamers broadcast their races.

As always, good luck to everybody racing!

I did a custom with W to lap 12 pitted for S (all the ai pitted after lap 12 too) and the S made it to the end with little issue. If you have time to run one, I recommend it. Also R05 wasn't enough at the end I'm going to change it to R06.

 

[VTEC Driver]

I did a custom with W to lap 12 pitted for S (all the ai pitted after lap 12 too) and the S made it to the end with little issue. If you have time to run one, I recommend it. Also R05 wasn't enough at the end I'm going to change it to R06.

Your weather settings are quite good and your last correction should almost perfectly copy the race conditions.
However immediately after this custom race I did a free practice session and the difference is quite relevant.

I think that during the race we will find more water on the track from the beginning and I had the perception that the temperature is quite low because with W tires I am suffering more than in the custom race.

Unfortunately in the free practice the fuel tank is empty and the tire wear is zero.
So I will expect a quite different situation during the race and it will be very though.

Whatever I am doing to training myself I have the feeling that I will not be really prepared.

 

[Mumster]

Your weather settings are quite good and your last correction should almost perfectly copy the race conditions.
However immediately after this custom race I did a free practice session and the difference is quite relevant.

I think that during the race we will find more water on the track from the beginning and I had the perception that the temperature is quite low because with W tires I am suffering more than in the custom race.

Thanks, I noticed the tire temperatures dropped quite a bit in practice, I'm hoping that may help with wear. As I said earlier if you are not running a dash app with tire temperatures on it, at least in the BMW, you can check cockpit view and see blue and green when they change. The numbers are static on the dash however. The other easter egg I noticed is a delta time built into the dash that runs during the custom race so you can compare yourself to your fastest lap. I'm not sure if it will be active during the actual race but I will be checking for sure.

 

[VTEC Driver]

Being quite close to the race I have a doubt…
Will qualify be on soft with sunny conditions?
Never lapped with this car in these conditions because I was only focused on rain of the 27 laps…
Now quite worried…

 

[VillaJ100]

It was bone dry quali.

 

[Moose78]

I was just watching Omega's stream. He did a 13IM-14RS in the Porsche. Finished with about 20% tread remaining on the front left tire. It looks like the late-race rain helps the tires last a bit longer.

The track seemed pretty slow to dry. The earliest it looked viable to switch to slicks was at the end of lap 11.

Now I'm thinking I might aim to do a 13W-14RS strategy.

I'm going to be busy this afternoon, so the earliest I'll be able to race is the 9PM EDT slot. I have lots of time to mull it over and see what worked (and maybe what didn't) for all of you. Good luck, everyone!

 

[VTEC Driver]

GT2 - EMEA - 10:00 Q9 - P4

Qualify are dry and sunny. So zero experience.
I qualify in P9 at 0.9 from the pole that was 1:29.0

The race follow the weather script of the practice.
So I started with W on BMW.
At T1 I was in the external line but in the middle of the curve in front of me there are several cars crashing each others and I am involved… getting out from the mess in P12.

From lap 2 the rain is strong and I believe several drivers were on IM and too much aggressive so I saw people spinning or going too wide.
I keep my braking points and people brake too late so you can pass them just staying inside the curve.

Lap after lap I am on P2 and at the end of lap 12 the first one pit. So I thought could be a good idea… wrong… remember stay on your strategy / capability.

I should pit at lap 13 to go out with a slighter drier track, coming out at the end of lap 12 and with cold IM at T1 I am doing a 360 degrees and trying to recover it I did another 2 360… I am losing tons of time.

Once started again automatically from the system I discover to be in P9…
…someone kill me !!!

From now on I started to lap consistently as per my capability.
Several time I see that my intermediate timing is purple so I am the fastest.
People are entering to pit at lap 14-15 and I pass all of them while are in the box.
Some others I am passing in the track because with TC at 3 I can accelerate better than them particularly in those parts of the track still wet.

When the rain arrives at the end my tires are around 70% and being careful in some braking zone you can keep the car on the track.

I am 40 sec far from the first but in front of me I see P2 and P3 that could reach and pass but we are at lap 26…
So with the follower driver at 13 sec I thought to stay calm and bring at home a race that without the big mistake could have gave me a special result.

DR goes up for around 800 points.

Now I have 2 weeks to choose the historical car that I am comfortable to drive.

For you guys racing in the coming hours, just stay focused on your strategy and pace. The result will come!

Cheers.

 

[VillaJ100]

Just did my race, GT2 sort of, third of the B bar full!

Schoolboy error in quali as I left the IM's on so only had one hot lap. Was 5th, but bumped down to 9th after everyone finished their 2nd hot lap.

Started on the IM's. Was up to 4th by the first corner, then in a battle with 5th and swapping places over the next couple of laps. 2nd and 3rd were ahead but fighting and lost a lot of time in the rain, me and 4th caught up leading to a group going into T7 five cars abreast 😂 the racing was very clean though, in fact it was me a couple of times slightly catching the rear of some people as got caught on the brakes. P1 was miles ahead.

I was the only IM runner I realised at this point and it was tricky to keep up with the W runners. If they wasn't battling so much they may have pulled away but as it was I could stay close during the heavy rain.

Carried on for the next few laps swapping between 4-5th, staying around a second behind 2-3rd. Lap times started falling a lot, slowest a 1:48.4 and 48.2 in lap 4 and 5, then 1:45.7 in Lap 6 and a second a lap to 1:42.6 in lap 9.

Took 4th for good on lap 10 and was putting big pressure on 3 and 2 (who had pulled away to a 8 second gap during the fighting) by Lap 11 and 12 as the wets started to die off, getting the fastest lap so far on L11 with a 1:38.0.

Pitted in on Lap 12 for M's, was another gamble but didn't want to risk having dead tyres after surviving the wet phase on IM. I was the first to pit bar a guy L11 for W-IM 💀 but the track was visibly drying. Ticked onto TC1 for safety for a lap but honestly didn't need to, hardest part was getting out of the wet pitlane. Put a huge dent into P2 and P3 in sector 2 and 3, taking about 7 seconds off them. Was P2 after all the pitstops - but the only runner on M and P3 was 3 seconds behind on softs. They caught up and overtook as much faster and I thought that would be it, as was 12 seconds ahead of 4th and 25 behind 1st.

From lap 20, I noticed I was lapping the same time as the leader. Then about half a second a lap faster, and slightly faster than P2. When the late rain as about to hit, P2 flew off at T8 from a 5 second gap to me and pitted again, I guess for more softs or IM (they finished 8th).

So now I was comfortable in second. Checked gap to P1, down to 18 seconds. Going into the last lap it was down to 10 and finished 7 seconds behind. No idea if this was due to them being over cautious, the softs had died or they ran off a couple times in the rain (or all 3).

Came home in 44:19 for P2. M tyres were around a third worn with the front left being around half/60% worn.

 

[Pfitze]

Starting on wets and pitting at the end of lap 13 worked like a charm for me, thx Moose78 for the great strategy.
I was very tempted to come in 2-3 laps earlier, but lap 13 was the right call, RS lasted easily till the end.

Started 6th, finished first for 57 points, best race for me so far.
The key for me was consistency rather than pushing. And I was a bit lucky, the guy in front of me pitted a second time, changing from RS to RM, no idea why.

 

[tsam727]

Raced the GT2 High B EMEA lobby

After reading Moose's analysis decided to go with a BMW with #13 and running the iconic NFS Most Wanted M3 livery. Quite an eventful race. Started with a below par quali. Spun on the first quali lap and out braked myself in the second one for a 1:29.0 (my best in free practice with a BMW was a 1:28.1) for a P9 start.

Started on the wets cause I kept spinning out on inters in free practice. It was going alright till lap 3 were I hit the inside curb and got too trigger happy and surprise surprise I spun again and fell down to P13.

Although I had some damage with some racing contact, I made it up to P9 by lap 11 with couple of cars battling ahead. I saw that I had a gap to come out in free air at the the end of lap 11. Decided to come in and put the mediums.

Kept it out of the wet stuff for a couple of laps and undercut 4 people by lap 15 and overtook one on the track as they slid into the wet stuff and I was running P3. P1 and P2 were 20 seconds up the road. I survived the next shower and came home for a very surprising podium and also a good haul of points(150ish I think) since there were couple of A rated drivers.

P1 did a 13W14S and was only slower than me in the last couple of laps.

Edit: Tried to analyse the gain/loss of the undercut on pitting for mediums on lap 11 vs. Pitting for softs on lap 13 since both were using the BMW
I gained nearly 6 seconds on P1 on the two laps I had fresh mediums vs the old wets on P1.
P1 then gained 3 seconds on me till the end of the race on softs vs mediums. Now take this info. with a pinch of salt because I don't know to what extent they were saving their tyres.

13W14S is definitely the more safer option. But if you are towards the back and want to risk it knowing you'll come out in clear air and don't have to overtake drivers off the dry line you can think about the 11W16M.

 

[MetalApe]

We might have dry qualifying, but not everyone does.

WEC cancels Fuji 6 Hours qualifying amid heavy rain

 

[VTEC Driver]

We might have dry qualifying, but not everyone does.

WEC cancels Fuji 6 Hours qualifying amid heavy rain

I would preferred to have qualify under wet conditions… could be more interesting…

 

[Darrenersmit]

Only managed one race, hopefully drunk highly annoying wife passes out so I can have a go at the final race of the day as the one I did manage, didn't make it safely through the first lap, and couldn't recover for a decent finish..p9 after p13 qualifying not the worst result. Considering I was 20+ seconds behind in last at end of first lap.

 

[ZEE]

GT3 - EMEA - UK - 7PM SLOT - Qualified 4th - Finished 3rd (Podium) - TC 1 - BB-5 - Door no.15 - BMW M HyBrid V8 '25

Now this was a very eventful race and a moist to crazy Fuji run. With very little time to practice I just jumped into a quick hot lap before qualifying but luckily it was on a dry track so I managed to pip 4th place amongst some quickish drivers. Overall the BMW felt like a good hypercar here, in the corners very nimble and agile and managed to be smooth on the straights for the top speed.

Onto the Race!

Starting off it was a very very wet affair, the tyres I went for were Wet compound, not IM as I felt the rain would be a tad too heavy at the start, then mellow out. Carnage at T1 as most folks almost ran me wide, but recovered and then from 7th place worked my way up the field. Had a lovely battle with some spanish Ferarri drivers, giving chase for 4th place. Pushing the BMW hard, I was battling/jostling for 3rd but then the guy in front managed to get a 2sec gap between me and him. Trying to stay consistent at Fuji is always a challenge imo, as the track wants to catch you out whenever it can on the tight bends.

I pushed and then took a gamble at Lap 14 and stayed out despite I should have gone in as my Wet tyres were coming to an end. I thought I could get a one up on the P3 driver as he pitted a lap earlier. I got some gains but ultimately I had go in on lap 15 to switch to RS tyres, so my strategy being 15W>12RS and then I bolted out as I left the pits.

Car felt so quick and agile now on RS tyres, I managed to gain a good 4sec lead and bump myself up to P3 after one guy pitted incorrectly for RM tyres when he could have stayed out, oh well his loss. Kept running consistent laps, but almost lost it on lap 23, due to a sudden light shower hitting the track which made me misjudge my braking on turn 1. Managed to recover and haul it to the finish line in the last two laps, and secure a very good 3rd place with some juicy points to bag! Lets go!!

Onto the classico Round 3 now, shud be fun!

Enjoy pics below.

Spoiler: RD 2 Race photos!

 

[AEther]

GT2, qualified 7th with 1:30.1, shocking to not have the qualifying curse hit me.
Strategy: 14W, 13S (Many thanks, @Moose78!!)

The race went flawlessly. I picked up positions until deep into the rain I was battling it out with P1-2 through Lap 7. P1 was struggling on IM under the pressure and slowing down P2. Eventually, I found openings against both of them and vaulted into the lead.

Running through lap 14 on Heavy Wet almost cost me. My pace declined as the wets wore forcing me to surrender 3 places. I followed a 9X8 into the pits at start of 15, exiting 4th.

Due to an unnecessary squabble with P3 after Dunlop, they gave me an opening and through I went.

The Ferrari in the lead pitted late on the same lap and that was all she wrote. The Peugeot (now behind me) made a pivotal and costly choice for RM which allowed me to comfortably build the lead on RS until I won with 27 seconds to spare. Glad I trusted the fine folks here who ran softs to the end.

 

[VillaJ100]

It seems I may have been the only one to do IM-M! Good work everyone

 

[GT5Apex]

Well that was a really fun race.

I jumped into the final EU GT1 slot, and i decided to drive the BMW and my tyre strategy was 12IM - 15 Soft.

I qualified in P8. I was improving on my final quali lap, but i messed up at the penultimate corner and the last corner.

The race started, and i lost a position on the opening lap, then i lost 3 more places at the start of lap 3 after i clipped the astro at the exit of T1, which caused the car to squirm, but then i gained 1 position towards the end of lap 3. Then i gained another position at T1 at the start of lap 4, and another position on lap 5 at the hairpin.

Then i gained 2 more positions on lap 7 after a Gulf Porsche went wide at T3 and then another car spun at the final corner.

At the end of lap 12, i entered the pits to put on softs, and coming in at the end of lap 12 allowed me to gain one position since some people in front entered the pits at the end of lap 13, so now i was in P6. Then I gained another 2 positions on lap 13, one was at the exit of T1 after the Spaniard who started in P2 got a slow exit since they were on mediums, and the other position was gained at the hairpin, but then i lost that position at the penultimate corner, but then i regained it at T1.

So now i was briefly in P3, but then i lost a place at T1 on lap 16, then i dropped down to P5 on lap 18. Then i moved back into P4 at the hairpin on lap 24, after a Porsche had burned through it's soft tyres. Then when the light rain started falling during lap 25 and 26, i was a bit too cautious on the brakes which lost me a bit of time. Then on the final lap, i unfortunately lost P4 to the Spaniard who was on mediums, after i braked a bit too early into the hairpin, which allowed them to be on my tail, then they squeezed by me at T13.

They did lose a bit of traction coming out of the final corner, which allowed me to be on their rear bumper, but unfortunately it wasn't enough. In the end i finished in P5, which I'm happy with. Wet weather races are always fun.

 

[dazdilly75]

Slot: 1 GT1 League A+
Q: 13th (1:28.418)
Door: 13
Finsihed: P4
Car: Porsche 963
278 point lobby

I thought I'd get an early one in. My reasoning was that some people probably hadn't practiced the strategy and I'd monopolise on those who were figuring out the race on the fly.

2 people got disconnected and 1 quit after not setting a valid quali lap. That left me dead last on the grid. Pole to 3rd place had all hit 27s so I knew I was in a very fast lobby.

I also knew that these guys would be very aggressive, so starting from the back wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. Turns out that my assumption was spot on. I lost count of how many yellow flags I saw between laps 1 to 3 but I had already made my way to 9th place by lap 4.

My strategy was to completely ignore what everyone else was doing and just trust in my own race. My pace was decent but the top 3 were simply in another league. P1 made the smart choice of starting on full wets, as he knew he'd be breaking up the water for everyone else behind on inters. He flew away from everyone.

There were some seriously reckless divebombs which could have ended my race and at one point there were 4 of us going side by side into T1. There were casualties as you'd expect and I also got some bumper damage on more than one occasion. But because it was raining, I didn't lose as much time as I would have if the track was dry.

I came into the pits in 5th on lap 15. Some people were going for the 2 stop, from full wets to soft /soft but I was confident in my 1 stop strategy working in my favour. I also hung out on the far right side of the track, down the main straight, to cool my tyres off on the disappearing wet line. It worked really well and saved my tyres from degrading.

By lap 23 I was battling for the podium with P3 but a Spaniard on a 2 stop managed to catch up and eventually overtook us both. I made a move on P4 on lap 26 when the rain started coming down a bit heavier, and I managed to hold on till the finish.

238 points and P4 from P13. One of my best ever drives in a GTWS race, and my first competitive race in these new hypercars. Currently 23rd overall in GT1 league EMEA, with 493 points. And on course for my highest finish in an exhibition season since playing GT7.

Special thanks to @Moose78 for all his hard work on strategy and car info. What a legend!

Replay attached below. Looking forward to driving those classic road cars in round 3! 😁

 

[AEther]

It seems I may have been the only one to do IM-M! Good work everyone

I wondered if I misread when you mentioned earlier. I saw at least one other car go IM-IM in my race. Mad props for making it work, especially into P2.

 

[Windfire1010]

North America Top split. This race an exercise only driving as fast as necessary.

 

[VTEC Driver]

It is really nice watching the WEC real race live now from Fuji with a very similar weather situation as our yesterday race!

And it is incredible to see how much Kaz has created a game so much close to the reality…

 

[VillaJ100]

I wondered if I misread when you mentioned earlier. I saw at least one other car go IM-IM in my race. Mad props for making it work, especially into P2.

That is crazy, in my race it seemed way too dry for too many laps to even consider that.

I don't think the mediums were too bad vs the soft, although I never ran again so won't know for sure. I was definitely faster than P1 and P2 (till I overtook) from around lap 21 till the end of the race, but not a huge amount maybe up to half a second.