The qualification process for the 2025 Gran Turismo World Series Manufacturers Cup is now done and dusted, leaving just the Nations Cup qualifiers to go — starting April 23.
Of course we already knew that the Nations Cup would be a brief, six-race flurry packed into just under three weeks, from the announcement made in late February, but now we have full details on the car/track combinations that’ll be used to determine the dozen players heading to this year’s live events.
It’s actually something of an unexpected look to the calendar this year, with what we’re going to charitably call a very focused set of races that doesn’t feature quite the breadth of vehicles we’ve seen in previous years. As with the Manufacturers Cup, your best five round finishes will count towards your overall points total, so you can’t afford too many misses.
GT World Series 2025 – Manufacturers Cup
- Round 1 – April 23 – Road Atlanta/Lamborghini Aventador – 15 laps
- Round 2 – April 26 – Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps/X2019 – 22 laps
- Round 3 – April 30 – Autopolis/Gr.3 Selection – 30 laps
- Round 4 – May 3 – Suzuka Circuit/Gran Turismo F3500-A – 12 laps
- Round 5 – May 7 – Trial Mountain Reverse/X2019 – 30 laps
- Round 6 – May 10 – Lago Maggiore/Gr.3 Selection – 29 laps
Leaping right out at us is the fact that five of the six rounds use racing cars, and not only that but two use the Red Bull X2019 as raced in the Grand Final of the GT World Series Nations Cup for every on-site World Finals since, well, 2019.
Two rounds also use Gr.3 cars which, although each has a unique selection thereof, is a little disappointing coming off the six-round, Gr.3-exclusive Manufacturers Cup. You can select from five specific mid-engined cars for the Autopolis race, and five specific front-engined cars for the Lago Maggiore event.
That leaves the V12-powered, 90s’ F1-inspired F3500-A at Suzuka, and the sole road car race which opens the event in the 741hp Lamborghini Aventador SV at Road Atlanta. 2025’s qualification therefore has little of the variety we’ve seen in previous years: Shifter Karts, Mini Coopers, the Suzuki Cappuccino, and so on. It’s also worth noting that Spa and Suzuka both appeared in both championships, meaning only ten of (still) 39 possible locations will have been used for the 12 races.
As we saw with the Manufacturers Cup, there’s almost no difference between the top GT1 League races and the GT2/3 League races for the majority of the playerbase. All the races are now the same distance, have the same amount of qualification time, the same required tire grades, and light damage across the board. In fact the only practical difference is tire wear being switched off in GT2/3 qualifying, along with the time slots.
You’ll have ten opportunities to race in each round if you’re in GT2 or GT3 Leagues, with an entry slot every hour across much of the day — for example 0800-1200 and 1700-2100 UTC in Europe, 0900-1300 and 1800-2200 Central in North America.
GT1 League players get just three opportunities per round, and they’re getting quite late in the day now. In Europe they’re still largely accessible for most, at 4, 6, and 8pm UTC, but the timings in the USA are 6, 8, and 10pm Pacific; that means the final slot begins at 1am the following day on the east coast. Players in New Zealand will be having some late nights too, with a midnight start for the final slot.
It remains the case the while you can enter as many slots as you like, only the points acquired in your final entry count towards your total even if you disconnect or quit and score zero. That may mean knowing when to quit while you’re ahead — take a good score and sit the rest of the slots out — rather than risking it to get more.
As well as scoring points, you can also pick up some bonus credits for taking part. You can earn up to 10m credits in GT1 and 5m in GT2/3, with rewards assigned according to your ranking within your chosen manufacturer, primary and secondary geographical areas, and region. Your ranking is determined by your points score, with each race offering a sliding score based on your finish position but with the total points being proportional to the average Driver Rating (DR) of the players in your race.
If you want to take part in the GT World Series, all you need to do is head into Sport Mode (which unlocks after you complete Menu Book 9, “Championship: Tokyo Highway Parade”, in GT Cafe), and click on the tile under Championships marked “Nations Cup”.
From there you’ll be prompted to select a brand to represent, which will temporarily award you two free cars for use in the series, and you’ll be assigned into a “League” appropriate to your Driver Rating — where you’ll remain no matter how your DR changes during the season. Only GT1 players can qualify for the finals, and note that a PlayStation Plus subscription is required as these are online multiplayer races.
Best of luck to all who take part, and we’ll see you at the live events later this year!
See more articles on Gran Turismo World Series.
