BMW has emerged from the Gran Turismo World Series Manufacturers Cup 2025 online qualifiers as the top-ranked squad, leading Mercedes-AMG and Lamborghini in the race for this year’s championship.
The process by which brands qualify for the Manufacturers Cup is a little complex, but works on an aggregate score basis through ranking of the best single driver in each region in each round. In essence, after each round’s three GT1 League races are completed within a region, the brands are ranked by their drive with the highest valid score in that round — excluding those who scored well originally but for whom that was their dropped round.
In each round the top-ranked brand gets 40 points, with 36pt going to second and 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.
When ties occur, the points for each of the positions is added up, averaged, and awarded to each tied marque. This is then totted-up across the six-race season, with the worst round dropped, and then scores from each of the three regions are added up to give the overall positions, and for 2025 the provisional final table looks like this:
BMW’s top ranking is clear, and comes as no surprise given the M6’s general performance in Gr.3 events under the recently implemented BOP changes. The team came top in both the Asia-Oceania (ASOC) and Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) regions, and by quite some margin, though had to settle for a podium spot in the North/Central/South America (NCSA) region.
That didn’t entirely come from pure pace though, as the German brand only came top in one round in EMEA — courtesy of the ineligible Austrian 13-year old Niklas Goger’s incredible 502pt score at Sardegna — while Seiya Suzuki secured three round wins in ASOC on his way to being top qualifier. All being well, Suzuki will represent the team alongside the returning Randall Haywood (NCSA) and EMEA #1 driver Thomas Labouteley at the live events this year as BMW seeks to avenge the narrowest of defeats in 2024.
Lamborghini was the only other brand to manage a regional victory, coming home 33 points clear of second-place Mercedes-AMG in NCSA. That’s courtesy of three round wins from top-ranked regional driver — and in fact the top-ranked driver globally — Dstinct_Symin. He’ll be joined by team-mate Dstinct_Naif, who we think we’re right in saying will be the first Saudi attendee in either Nations or Manufacturers, and returning 2024 finalist Yusuke Goto switching from Chevrolet.
Mercedes-AMG was BMW’s nearest challenger, with the bulk of its points coming from world finals regular Lucas Bonelli in NCSA as one of only two brands other than Lamborghini to score an outright win in the region. He’ll be joined by newcomers Noah Lanuza (EMEA) — now eligible through age — and the ASOC driver Nag1_Asu.
After a blip in 2024, all four champion brands return in 2025 — although only just! Double- and defending champion Lexus comfortably made it through in fourth, with Kanata Kawakami and Harald Walsen returning from last year and joined by top EMEA qualifier and regular finalist Giorgio Mangano following Coque Lopez’s decision not to take part.
Fellow double-champs Toyota, although also automatically qualifying through its series partnership, made it through in sixth and should be represented by Kenta Morimoto (ASOC), Adriano Carrazza (NCSA), and Kaj de Bruin (EMEA) — who became the first player to score over 500pt in an official season race in Round 1.
Nissan will also race in 2025, after its shock failure to qualify to defend its 2023 title. The team placed seventh overall, and will feature Mikolaj Sedziak (EMEA), Celso Gastaldi (NCSA), and three-time finalist Hiroshi Okumoto. Subaru only just made the cut in 12th, but will bring the most championship experience as Kylian Drumont (EMEA), Takuma Miyazono (ASOC), and Daniel Solis (NCSA) all return having won the 2022 title together.
That does mean that, following the multi-accounting controversy that hit just after the mid-season point, Renault misses out on qualification by just eight points, despite Sota Moriyama placing fourth overall in the Asia-Oceania region.
These results are provisional, pending any further action by Polyphony Digital, but should represent the line-ups for the three preliminary live events and World Finals this season. One driver from each squad will represent their brand at the Berlin, London, and Los Angeles events, so that all three will attend one, before the team is united for the Fukuoka finale.
All that remains for the 2025 championships now is to determine the nine drivers who’ll get to join defending champion Takuma Miyazono, and 2024 runners-up Kylian Drumont and Jose Serrano in the Nations Cup final, with qualifying beginning April 23.
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