FIA Events '18 - World Finals Monaco Finished! Congrats to Team Lexus and Igor Fraga for Brazil!

[force ewerby]

yeah well

 

[juanffy18]

well this time is...Spa or Cote D Azur one of both tracks is a really nice addition to the game

 

[OutlawQuadrnt]

Obligatory Bellagio fountain show because holding my arm up high for four minutes hurt a ton and I'm not wasting that effort.



We could also see it from the restaurant we ate at that same night.

 

[Interstellar9]

Some pages ago there was a discussion about how good the cockpit view is and how realistic. Does anyone know why they removed the camera and head shaking in cockpit view? Were there any complaints? It was present in the closed beta. I honestly liked it, felt like a step in the right direction. Just an additional look to the corner apex and it would have been great.

 

[force ewerby]

Some pages ago there was a discussion about how good the cockpit view is and how realistic. Does anyone know why they removed the camera and head shaking in cockpit view? Were there any complaints? It was present in the closed beta. I honestly liked it, felt like a step in the right direction. Just an additional look to the corner apex and it would have been great.

Man the way the camera panned in the opposite direction to the corner in the beta I found pretty much nauseating

 

[SkyPikmin]

Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines ) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone (and remember I can still edit the post ), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there

Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this ), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew )

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 (again some information would be welcomed )

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ?


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you ). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds .

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment . I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language ) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event , then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 ), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations ) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again ), but if he's there then he might be quite fast He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate

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And now the teams for the Manufacturer series world final (2 pictures cause it was too big to fit in only one ) (Some of you may not have heard at all about this as for the moment it seems only Nations cup had been advertised )

Red squares on some names means that I think the drivers will not show up (underage or whatever reason) and so being replaced by the driver who finished 2nd for the manufacturer in their respective region, so for derek737_DK_, I've heard that he would not come by a few other guys (not 100% sure), should be replaced by The_sliders1324, for rick-918-bmx, seems he is underage, should be replaced by serfonseca, and for FT_5zigen, same reason, should be replaced by GT_ACADEMY2013.

- 1 / Nissan / Akagi_1942mi - TRL_LIGHTNING - IOF_RACING17

The Gr.3 car : Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Shulze Motorsport 2013

The drivers : Well, each of the 3 drivers being respectively regional champion in their region, the team automatically gets the favorite status, as I already presented the 3 drivers in the Nations cup rundown, I'll ask you to refer to these presentation if you want to know more about them, however, I can say that Nissan has been a pretty dominant manufacturer throughout the official seasons, and so that everyone is waiting for them to shine at the world finals, given their drivers potential. They are all 3 at a pretty similar level in term of pace, with maybe Akagi-san a little bit over the 2 others because of his ability not to make mistakes.

- 2 / Dodge / ayumu5617 - RC_Zoky88 - Turismo-lester

The Gr.3 car : Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R 2015

The drivers : Again a pretty homogeneous team, I saw Zoky racing a lot, and ayumu and lester on streams, and they both look pretty fast, that will definitely be a team to watch at world finals, if the choice of tracks suits the Viper, they can compete at the highest level, Zoky being a very consistent driver, maybe less aggressive than he used to be, that might help him keep calm on stage, with him and lester already taking part in their own regional final, they already have the experience of the live events, and they can bring it to the stage to try to make their manufacturer the 1st ever FIA / Gran Turismo Manufacturer series world champion


- 3 / Lexus / Kawakana222 - Oscaro_Skypikmin - GT_ACADEMY2013

The Gr.3 car : Lexus RC F GT3 Emil Frey Racing 2017

The drivers : Kawakana222, who finished 2nd overall in season 3 Asian manufacturer series rankings, and showed that he was able to compete against the like of Akagi, GT_ACADEMY2013, who is replacing FT_5zigen (under aged), who, as his name tells us, has been a GT Academy finalist, and myself (finished 5th overall in EMEA region season 3 after a great top 24SS race, but I don't really like talking about myself ) will team up to represent Lexus at world finals, I think that our main strength might be consistency, and the ability to race fast without taking a lot of risks, none of us have been on a live event yet, but we can count on our experienced member to give us some advice on how to race in such conditions, I really hope we can fight for a good final spot at the event, and I also personally hope to do well for my teammates


- 4 / Mercedes-Benz / CLS63AMG-sc - force_ewerby - GumballCGT

The Gr.3 car : Mercedes-AMG GT3 AMG-TEAM HTP-MOTORSPORT 2016

The drivers : CLS63AMG-sc being one of the top drivers in Asia, force_ewerby being one of the top drivers in EMEA, and GumballCGT being also qualified for the Nations cup world final, the Mercedes-Benz team is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the rankings in the world finals, CLS63AMG-sc is a driver that is able to compete with the likes of Kawakana222 and even with Akagi if the track/car suits him, so he will definitely be a driver to watch in this final, force_ewerby is a really fast and clean driver with who I had great battle on track and you can find some more about GumballCGT in the Nations cup part, CLS63AMG-sc also took part in asian regional final and also in Salzburg world tour event, bringing him some live event experience, force_ewerby went to the Nurburgring world tour so that's an extra experienced member for team Mercedes
Team Mercedes-Benz is the team that I think is the closest to Team Lexus in term of pace and drivers, so I consider them as our rival in this competition


- 5 / BMW / okasan-joestar07 - Der_Heizer - FT_NicoR

The Gr.3 car : BMW M6 GT3 2016 (Or maybe another one but that's the one we see the most)

The drivers : okasan-joestar07 is another alien from Asia, able to fight against the other Asian aliens mentioned before, so he might share the lead of the BMW team with NicoR, who is also in the Nations cup final, talking about Der_Heizer, if the tracks suits him, then he will be pretty fast for sure, however he might not be as fast as the 2 other (again no offense ), but we can hope that they will bring him some advice to help him get faster throughout the event


- 6 / Porsche / blackbeauty-79 - serfonseca - FT_Solid

The Gr.3 car : Porsche 911 RSR 2017

The drivers : The Porsche team drivers are all pretty good, blackbeauty-79 competes in the top Asian lobbies as does FT_Solid in the America region, and again if the track suits the Porsche they could one of the best teams of the event, but with rick-918-bmx being under aged and so not able to compete, serfonseca will have to take his place and I think he might not be as fast as rick, even if he also race in the top lobbies in EMEA, but the important thing is that he is a consistent driver who always tries not to make mistake, and that's what his teammates will need from him, it is also worth mentioning that blackbeauty-79 and FT_Solid took part in their Nations cup regional finals and so already have live event experience


- 7 / Honda / s-shohei - Oscaro_Slent - FT_DieGodlike

The Gr.3 car : Honda NSX Gr.3

The drivers : s-shohei is again another Asian alien, so he might be considered as the team leader, Slent is one of the top EMEA driver, his major weakness being the strategy I would say, and unfortunately I don't really know DieGodlike so I can't say much about him The NSX major problem being quite the same as the Ferrari, that is to say the rear tires are burning really fast, thay will need a good race strategy to make the most out of their car


- 8 / Citroën / minamiya95 - Oscaro_MansoN - FT_LLOYDZELITE

The Gr.3 car : GT by Citroën Race Car Gr.3

The drivers : Team Citroën at worlds will be able to count on the experience of LLOYDZELITE, who attend at the America's regional final, and qualified for Nations cup world finals, he will be able to bring his experience of live events racing with 2 really fast guys, minamiya95, who finished 22nd overall in Asia manufacturer series rankings in season 3, and Oscaro_MansoN, who had to fight until the last top 24 SS checkered flag to secure his spot for world finals, finishing 10th overall in the EMEA region rankings


- 9 / Mitsubishi / gilles_honda_v12 - JAdams2010 - Z28

The Gr.3 car : Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition Gr.3

The drivers : Team Mitsubishi is made of 2 drivers that are qualified for Nations cup final, gilles_honda_V12 and Z28, some more informations about them are in the Nations cup part, and JAdams2010, who did show his pace during the final top 24 race at Interlagos, finishing this race in 2nd place by being consistent and careful with the penalties, which might be a great advantage when it comes to the final races, given the drivers that will run in it, this team could very well be a top contender a the world final


- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them


- 11 / Toyota / yamado_racing38 - RC_Miura - ORMA_Aspicito

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the FT-1 Gr.3 and the GR Supra Racing

The drivers : yamado_racing38 went to the Salzburg live event and showed great performance, he also qualified for the Nations cup world finals and showed that he was able to compete with the best GT Sport drivers by taking 2nd place at the Asian regional finals, so he will obviously bring some experience and speed to the team, as for RC_Miura, he is a young fast driver, able to battle against the best in the championship, he also got some live event experience and he is able to handle the pressure quite well. Again I don't know much about ORMA_Aspicito, so any information you can give to me will be welcome


- 12 / Chevrolet / GSN538 - mclaren6 - FT_Ant

The Gr.3 car : Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3

The drivers : Again here we have a quite homogeneous team, with two members; mclaren6 and FT_Ant, that already raced on stage at live events before this year, this team could be very competitive at the world finals, GSN538 being a consistent driver in the top Asian lobbies (finishing 11th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in Asia) , FT_Ant finishing 7th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in America, and mclaren6 (who decided to have quite a relaxing top 24ss at Interlagos) being as fast as his teammates and a very clean and consistent driver when he his focused on the race, team Chevrolet is a team that will surely be competing at the top in the world final


- 13 / Ferrari / yukiku - mthomas_95 - Deafsun96

The Gr.3 car : Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 2013

The drivers : Ferrari team also got some of the best drivers from each region, as I already presented yukiku and Deafsun96 in the Nations cup rundown, I will talk a little bit about mthomas_95, also know as "the trash talker" , jokes aside, I think that, as he always complains about the Ferrari tires, I think that it might be good for them if the multiplier isn't too high on tire wear. The Ferrari was a good car during the official seasons, but it went down a bit since then, so let's keep an eye on the update to see if the BoP changes again, mthomas_95 also took part in live events before that year, so he already have some experience with racing on stage

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more


- 15 / Renault Sport / mish12calsonic - Williams_Coque14 - JIM_FacuDudu

The Gr.3 car : Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 2016

The drivers : Each of the Renault Sport team drivers are competing consistently at the top of their respective region rankings, so that's a pretty good team to watch for in the world finals, with Coque also in the Nations cup final, and the fact that FacuDudu took part in the America regional final, that's already some stage experience for them that can be a great advantage in events like the world final, as for mish12calsonic, he is a great Asian driver, so they might have a chance at a good spot in the world finals


- 16 / Aston Martin / legacy0193 - cubertom - hendrix323

The Gr.3 car : Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 2012

The drivers : I honestly don't know much about legacy0193 and hendrix323, apart from seeing them consistently being in the top lobbies of their region, and finishing with good ranks at the end of season 3 (legacy brought Aston Martin at the 8th place in the manufacturer series season), talking about cubertom, he is a clean and nice driver, who always give his best when entering a race, they might not look in a good spot with that 16th and last qualifying place, but they might be a more homogeneous team than some others and that could help them at the event


Hope you guys enjoyed it, feel free to tell me if something is wrong, and also to give more informations on the drivers that you know better than me (And if you want more stuff about the manufacturer series finalists I can always try to find some more things to say )
See you all guys at Monaco

 

[SkyPikmin]

The monster is alive

 

[Auditore]

Obligatory Bellagio fountain show because holding my arm up high for four minutes hurt a ton and I'm not wasting that effort.



We could also see it from the restaurant we ate at that same night.

Is there any Las Vegas Scapes in GTS?If not it's a huge wasted opportunity.

 

[Auditore]

Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines ) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone (and remember I can still edit the post ), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there

Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this ), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew )

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 (again some information would be welcomed )

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ?


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you ). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds .

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment . I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language ) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event , then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 ), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations ) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again ), but if he's there then he might be quite fast He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate

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And now the teams for the Manufacturer series world final (2 pictures cause it was too big to fit in only one ) (Some of you may not have heard at all about this as for the moment it seems only Nations cup had been advertised )

Red squares on some names means that I think the drivers will not show up (underage or whatever reason) and so being replaced by the driver who finished 2nd for the manufacturer in their respective region, so for derek737_DK_, I've heard that he would not come by a few other guys (not 100% sure), should be replaced by The_sliders1324, for rick-918-bmx, seems he is underage, should be replaced by serfonseca, and for FT_5zigen, same reason, should be replaced by GT_ACADEMY2013.

- 1 / Nissan / Akagi_1942mi - TRL_LIGHTNING - IOF_RACING17

The Gr.3 car : Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Shulze Motorsport 2013

The drivers : Well, each of the 3 drivers being respectively regional champion in their region, the team automatically gets the favorite status, as I already presented the 3 drivers in the Nations cup rundown, I'll ask you to refer to these presentation if you want to know more about them, however, I can say that Nissan has been a pretty dominant manufacturer throughout the official seasons, and so that everyone is waiting for them to shine at the world finals, given their drivers potential. They are all 3 at a pretty similar level in term of pace, with maybe Akagi-san a little bit over the 2 others because of his ability not to make mistakes.

- 2 / Dodge / ayumu5617 - RC_Zoky88 - Turismo-lester

The Gr.3 car : Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R 2015

The drivers : Again a pretty homogeneous team, I saw Zoky racing a lot, and ayumu and lester on streams, and they both look pretty fast, that will definitely be a team to watch at world finals, if the choice of tracks suits the Viper, they can compete at the highest level, Zoky being a very consistent driver, maybe less aggressive than he used to be, that might help him keep calm on stage, with him and lester already taking part in their own regional final, they already have the experience of the live events, and they can bring it to the stage to try to make their manufacturer the 1st ever FIA / Gran Turismo Manufacturer series world champion


- 3 / Lexus / Kawakana222 - Oscaro_Skypikmin - GT_ACADEMY2013

The Gr.3 car : Lexus RC F GT3 Emil Frey Racing 2017

The drivers : Kawakana222, who finished 2nd overall in season 3 Asian manufacturer series rankings, and showed that he was able to compete against the like of Akagi, GT_ACADEMY2013, who is replacing FT_5zigen (under aged), who, as his name tells us, has been a GT Academy finalist, and myself (finished 5th overall in EMEA region season 3 after a great top 24SS race, but I don't really like talking about myself ) will team up to represent Lexus at world finals, I think that our main strength might be consistency, and the ability to race fast without taking a lot of risks, none of us have been on a live event yet, but we can count on our experienced member to give us some advice on how to race in such conditions, I really hope we can fight for a good final spot at the event, and I also personally hope to do well for my teammates


- 4 / Mercedes-Benz / CLS63AMG-sc - force_ewerby - GumballCGT

The Gr.3 car : Mercedes-AMG GT3 AMG-TEAM HTP-MOTORSPORT 2016

The drivers : CLS63AMG-sc being one of the top drivers in Asia, force_ewerby being one of the top drivers in EMEA, and GumballCGT being also qualified for the Nations cup world final, the Mercedes-Benz team is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the rankings in the world finals, CLS63AMG-sc is a driver that is able to compete with the likes of Kawakana222 and even with Akagi if the track/car suits him, so he will definitely be a driver to watch in this final, force_ewerby is a really fast and clean driver with who I had great battle on track and you can find some more about GumballCGT in the Nations cup part, CLS63AMG-sc also took part in asian regional final and also in Salzburg world tour event, bringing him some live event experience, force_ewerby went to the Nurburgring world tour so that's an extra experienced member for team Mercedes
Team Mercedes-Benz is the team that I think is the closest to Team Lexus in term of pace and drivers, so I consider them as our rival in this competition


- 5 / BMW / okasan-joestar07 - Der_Heizer - FT_NicoR

The Gr.3 car : BMW M6 GT3 2016 (Or maybe another one but that's the one we see the most)

The drivers : okasan-joestar07 is another alien from Asia, able to fight against the other Asian aliens mentioned before, so he might share the lead of the BMW team with NicoR, who is also in the Nations cup final, talking about Der_Heizer, if the tracks suits him, then he will be pretty fast for sure, however he might not be as fast as the 2 other (again no offense ), but we can hope that they will bring him some advice to help him get faster throughout the event


- 6 / Porsche / blackbeauty-79 - serfonseca - FT_Solid

The Gr.3 car : Porsche 911 RSR 2017

The drivers : The Porsche team drivers are all pretty good, blackbeauty-79 competes in the top Asian lobbies as does FT_Solid in the America region, and again if the track suits the Porsche they could one of the best teams of the event, but with rick-918-bmx being under aged and so not able to compete, serfonseca will have to take his place and I think he might not be as fast as rick, even if he also race in the top lobbies in EMEA, but the important thing is that he is a consistent driver who always tries not to make mistake, and that's what his teammates will need from him, it is also worth mentioning that blackbeauty-79 and FT_Solid took part in their Nations cup regional finals and so already have live event experience


- 7 / Honda / s-shohei - Oscaro_Slent - FT_DieGodlike

The Gr.3 car : Honda NSX Gr.3

The drivers : s-shohei is again another Asian alien, so he might be considered as the team leader, Slent is one of the top EMEA driver, his major weakness being the strategy I would say, and unfortunately I don't really know DieGodlike so I can't say much about him The NSX major problem being quite the same as the Ferrari, that is to say the rear tires are burning really fast, thay will need a good race strategy to make the most out of their car


- 8 / Citroën / minamiya95 - Oscaro_MansoN - FT_LLOYDZELITE

The Gr.3 car : GT by Citroën Race Car Gr.3

The drivers : Team Citroën at worlds will be able to count on the experience of LLOYDZELITE, who attend at the America's regional final, and qualified for Nations cup world finals, he will be able to bring his experience of live events racing with 2 really fast guys, minamiya95, who finished 22nd overall in Asia manufacturer series rankings in season 3, and Oscaro_MansoN, who had to fight until the last top 24 SS checkered flag to secure his spot for world finals, finishing 10th overall in the EMEA region rankings


- 9 / Mitsubishi / gilles_honda_v12 - JAdams2010 - Z28

The Gr.3 car : Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition Gr.3

The drivers : Team Mitsubishi is made of 2 drivers that are qualified for Nations cup final, gilles_honda_V12 and Z28, some more informations about them are in the Nations cup part, and JAdams2010, who did show his pace during the final top 24 race at Interlagos, finishing this race in 2nd place by being consistent and careful with the penalties, which might be a great advantage when it comes to the final races, given the drivers that will run in it, this team could very well be a top contender a the world final


- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them


- 11 / Toyota / yamado_racing38 - RC_Miura - ORMA_Aspicito

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the FT-1 Gr.3 and the GR Supra Racing

The drivers : yamado_racing38 went to the Salzburg live event and showed great performance, he also qualified for the Nations cup world finals and showed that he was able to compete with the best GT Sport drivers by taking 2nd place at the Asian regional finals, so he will obviously bring some experience and speed to the team, as for RC_Miura, he is a young fast driver, able to battle against the best in the championship, he also got some live event experience and he is able to handle the pressure quite well. Again I don't know much about ORMA_Aspicito, so any information you can give to me will be welcome


- 12 / Chevrolet / GSN538 - mclaren6 - FT_Ant

The Gr.3 car : Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3

The drivers : Again here we have a quite homogeneous team, with two members; mclaren6 and FT_Ant, that already raced on stage at live events before this year, this team could be very competitive at the world finals, GSN538 being a consistent driver in the top Asian lobbies (finishing 11th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in Asia) , FT_Ant finishing 7th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in America, and mclaren6 (who decided to have quite a relaxing top 24ss at Interlagos) being as fast as his teammates and a very clean and consistent driver when he his focused on the race, team Chevrolet is a team that will surely be competing at the top in the world final


- 13 / Ferrari / yukiku - mthomas_95 - Deafsun96

The Gr.3 car : Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 2013

The drivers : Ferrari team also got some of the best drivers from each region, as I already presented yukiku and Deafsun96 in the Nations cup rundown, I will talk a little bit about mthomas_95, also know as "the trash talker" , jokes aside, I think that, as he always complains about the Ferrari tires, I think that it might be good for them if the multiplier isn't too high on tire wear. The Ferrari was a good car during the official seasons, but it went down a bit since then, so let's keep an eye on the update to see if the BoP changes again, mthomas_95 also took part in live events before that year, so he already have some experience with racing on stage

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more


- 15 / Renault Sport / mish12calsonic - Williams_Coque14 - JIM_FacuDudu

The Gr.3 car : Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 2016

The drivers : Each of the Renault Sport team drivers are competing consistently at the top of their respective region rankings, so that's a pretty good team to watch for in the world finals, with Coque also in the Nations cup final, and the fact that FacuDudu took part in the America regional final, that's already some stage experience for them that can be a great advantage in events like the world final, as for mish12calsonic, he is a great Asian driver, so they might have a chance at a good spot in the world finals


- 16 / Aston Martin / legacy0193 - cubertom - hendrix323

The Gr.3 car : Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 2012

The drivers : I honestly don't know much about legacy0193 and hendrix323, apart from seeing them consistently being in the top lobbies of their region, and finishing with good ranks at the end of season 3 (legacy brought Aston Martin at the 8th place in the manufacturer series season), talking about cubertom, he is a clean and nice driver, who always give his best when entering a race, they might not look in a good spot with that 16th and last qualifying place, but they might be a more homogeneous team than some others and that could help them at the event


Hope you guys enjoyed it, feel free to tell me if something is wrong, and also to give more informations on the drivers that you know better than me (And if you want more stuff about the manufacturer series finalists I can always try to find some more things to say )
See you all guys at Monaco

Amazing work man,i hope Jimmer sees your post this took some serious effort.

 

[mclarenLB]

Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines ) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone (and remember I can still edit the post ), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there

Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this ), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew )

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 (again some information would be welcomed )

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ?


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you ). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds .

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment . I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language ) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event , then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 ), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations ) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again ), but if he's there then he might be quite fast He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate

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And now the teams for the Manufacturer series world final (2 pictures cause it was too big to fit in only one ) (Some of you may not have heard at all about this as for the moment it seems only Nations cup had been advertised )

Red squares on some names means that I think the drivers will not show up (underage or whatever reason) and so being replaced by the driver who finished 2nd for the manufacturer in their respective region, so for derek737_DK_, I've heard that he would not come by a few other guys (not 100% sure), should be replaced by The_sliders1324, for rick-918-bmx, seems he is underage, should be replaced by serfonseca, and for FT_5zigen, same reason, should be replaced by GT_ACADEMY2013.

- 1 / Nissan / Akagi_1942mi - TRL_LIGHTNING - IOF_RACING17

The Gr.3 car : Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Shulze Motorsport 2013

The drivers : Well, each of the 3 drivers being respectively regional champion in their region, the team automatically gets the favorite status, as I already presented the 3 drivers in the Nations cup rundown, I'll ask you to refer to these presentation if you want to know more about them, however, I can say that Nissan has been a pretty dominant manufacturer throughout the official seasons, and so that everyone is waiting for them to shine at the world finals, given their drivers potential. They are all 3 at a pretty similar level in term of pace, with maybe Akagi-san a little bit over the 2 others because of his ability not to make mistakes.

- 2 / Dodge / ayumu5617 - RC_Zoky88 - Turismo-lester

The Gr.3 car : Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R 2015

The drivers : Again a pretty homogeneous team, I saw Zoky racing a lot, and ayumu and lester on streams, and they both look pretty fast, that will definitely be a team to watch at world finals, if the choice of tracks suits the Viper, they can compete at the highest level, Zoky being a very consistent driver, maybe less aggressive than he used to be, that might help him keep calm on stage, with him and lester already taking part in their own regional final, they already have the experience of the live events, and they can bring it to the stage to try to make their manufacturer the 1st ever FIA / Gran Turismo Manufacturer series world champion


- 3 / Lexus / Kawakana222 - Oscaro_Skypikmin - GT_ACADEMY2013

The Gr.3 car : Lexus RC F GT3 Emil Frey Racing 2017

The drivers : Kawakana222, who finished 2nd overall in season 3 Asian manufacturer series rankings, and showed that he was able to compete against the like of Akagi, GT_ACADEMY2013, who is replacing FT_5zigen (under aged), who, as his name tells us, has been a GT Academy finalist, and myself (finished 5th overall in EMEA region season 3 after a great top 24SS race, but I don't really like talking about myself ) will team up to represent Lexus at world finals, I think that our main strength might be consistency, and the ability to race fast without taking a lot of risks, none of us have been on a live event yet, but we can count on our experienced member to give us some advice on how to race in such conditions, I really hope we can fight for a good final spot at the event, and I also personally hope to do well for my teammates


- 4 / Mercedes-Benz / CLS63AMG-sc - force_ewerby - GumballCGT

The Gr.3 car : Mercedes-AMG GT3 AMG-TEAM HTP-MOTORSPORT 2016

The drivers : CLS63AMG-sc being one of the top drivers in Asia, force_ewerby being one of the top drivers in EMEA, and GumballCGT being also qualified for the Nations cup world final, the Mercedes-Benz team is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the rankings in the world finals, CLS63AMG-sc is a driver that is able to compete with the likes of Kawakana222 and even with Akagi if the track/car suits him, so he will definitely be a driver to watch in this final, force_ewerby is a really fast and clean driver with who I had great battle on track and you can find some more about GumballCGT in the Nations cup part, CLS63AMG-sc also took part in asian regional final and also in Salzburg world tour event, bringing him some live event experience, force_ewerby went to the Nurburgring world tour so that's an extra experienced member for team Mercedes
Team Mercedes-Benz is the team that I think is the closest to Team Lexus in term of pace and drivers, so I consider them as our rival in this competition


- 5 / BMW / okasan-joestar07 - Der_Heizer - FT_NicoR

The Gr.3 car : BMW M6 GT3 2016 (Or maybe another one but that's the one we see the most)

The drivers : okasan-joestar07 is another alien from Asia, able to fight against the other Asian aliens mentioned before, so he might share the lead of the BMW team with NicoR, who is also in the Nations cup final, talking about Der_Heizer, if the tracks suits him, then he will be pretty fast for sure, however he might not be as fast as the 2 other (again no offense ), but we can hope that they will bring him some advice to help him get faster throughout the event


- 6 / Porsche / blackbeauty-79 - serfonseca - FT_Solid

The Gr.3 car : Porsche 911 RSR 2017

The drivers : The Porsche team drivers are all pretty good, blackbeauty-79 competes in the top Asian lobbies as does FT_Solid in the America region, and again if the track suits the Porsche they could one of the best teams of the event, but with rick-918-bmx being under aged and so not able to compete, serfonseca will have to take his place and I think he might not be as fast as rick, even if he also race in the top lobbies in EMEA, but the important thing is that he is a consistent driver who always tries not to make mistake, and that's what his teammates will need from him, it is also worth mentioning that blackbeauty-79 and FT_Solid took part in their Nations cup regional finals and so already have live event experience


- 7 / Honda / s-shohei - Oscaro_Slent - FT_DieGodlike

The Gr.3 car : Honda NSX Gr.3

The drivers : s-shohei is again another Asian alien, so he might be considered as the team leader, Slent is one of the top EMEA driver, his major weakness being the strategy I would say, and unfortunately I don't really know DieGodlike so I can't say much about him The NSX major problem being quite the same as the Ferrari, that is to say the rear tires are burning really fast, thay will need a good race strategy to make the most out of their car


- 8 / Citroën / minamiya95 - Oscaro_MansoN - FT_LLOYDZELITE

The Gr.3 car : GT by Citroën Race Car Gr.3

The drivers : Team Citroën at worlds will be able to count on the experience of LLOYDZELITE, who attend at the America's regional final, and qualified for Nations cup world finals, he will be able to bring his experience of live events racing with 2 really fast guys, minamiya95, who finished 22nd overall in Asia manufacturer series rankings in season 3, and Oscaro_MansoN, who had to fight until the last top 24 SS checkered flag to secure his spot for world finals, finishing 10th overall in the EMEA region rankings


- 9 / Mitsubishi / gilles_honda_v12 - JAdams2010 - Z28

The Gr.3 car : Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition Gr.3

The drivers : Team Mitsubishi is made of 2 drivers that are qualified for Nations cup final, gilles_honda_V12 and Z28, some more informations about them are in the Nations cup part, and JAdams2010, who did show his pace during the final top 24 race at Interlagos, finishing this race in 2nd place by being consistent and careful with the penalties, which might be a great advantage when it comes to the final races, given the drivers that will run in it, this team could very well be a top contender a the world final


- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them


- 11 / Toyota / yamado_racing38 - RC_Miura - ORMA_Aspicito

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the FT-1 Gr.3 and the GR Supra Racing

The drivers : yamado_racing38 went to the Salzburg live event and showed great performance, he also qualified for the Nations cup world finals and showed that he was able to compete with the best GT Sport drivers by taking 2nd place at the Asian regional finals, so he will obviously bring some experience and speed to the team, as for RC_Miura, he is a young fast driver, able to battle against the best in the championship, he also got some live event experience and he is able to handle the pressure quite well. Again I don't know much about ORMA_Aspicito, so any information you can give to me will be welcome


- 12 / Chevrolet / GSN538 - mclaren6 - FT_Ant

The Gr.3 car : Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3

The drivers : Again here we have a quite homogeneous team, with two members; mclaren6 and FT_Ant, that already raced on stage at live events before this year, this team could be very competitive at the world finals, GSN538 being a consistent driver in the top Asian lobbies (finishing 11th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in Asia) , FT_Ant finishing 7th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in America, and mclaren6 (who decided to have quite a relaxing top 24ss at Interlagos) being as fast as his teammates and a very clean and consistent driver when he his focused on the race, team Chevrolet is a team that will surely be competing at the top in the world final


- 13 / Ferrari / yukiku - mthomas_95 - Deafsun96

The Gr.3 car : Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 2013

The drivers : Ferrari team also got some of the best drivers from each region, as I already presented yukiku and Deafsun96 in the Nations cup rundown, I will talk a little bit about mthomas_95, also know as "the trash talker" , jokes aside, I think that, as he always complains about the Ferrari tires, I think that it might be good for them if the multiplier isn't too high on tire wear. The Ferrari was a good car during the official seasons, but it went down a bit since then, so let's keep an eye on the update to see if the BoP changes again, mthomas_95 also took part in live events before that year, so he already have some experience with racing on stage

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more


- 15 / Renault Sport / mish12calsonic - Williams_Coque14 - JIM_FacuDudu

The Gr.3 car : Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 2016

The drivers : Each of the Renault Sport team drivers are competing consistently at the top of their respective region rankings, so that's a pretty good team to watch for in the world finals, with Coque also in the Nations cup final, and the fact that FacuDudu took part in the America regional final, that's already some stage experience for them that can be a great advantage in events like the world final, as for mish12calsonic, he is a great Asian driver, so they might have a chance at a good spot in the world finals


- 16 / Aston Martin / legacy0193 - cubertom - hendrix323

The Gr.3 car : Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 2012

The drivers : I honestly don't know much about legacy0193 and hendrix323, apart from seeing them consistently being in the top lobbies of their region, and finishing with good ranks at the end of season 3 (legacy brought Aston Martin at the 8th place in the manufacturer series season), talking about cubertom, he is a clean and nice driver, who always give his best when entering a race, they might not look in a good spot with that 16th and last qualifying place, but they might be a more homogeneous team than some others and that could help them at the event


Hope you guys enjoyed it, feel free to tell me if something is wrong, and also to give more informations on the drivers that you know better than me (And if you want more stuff about the manufacturer series finalists I can always try to find some more things to say )
See you all guys at Monaco

You actual beast, amazing work

 

[azrilnazli]

Man the way the camera panned in the opposite direction to the corner in the beta I found pretty much nauseating

This is one of the feature in iRacing cockpit view, but disabled by default. But in iRacing, we can control the value

 

[schnick]

How about I go one better...

Ring any bells? Here, let me help.

You can't get any more memetic than that folks.

Oh there's my shiny forehead all the way to the left...

I couldn't agree more.

Still, kind of an awkward moment to have the photo taken, definitely doesn't belong in an official Live Report, but it's quite funny nonetheless.

Edit: I think Cody Nikola did a great job of acting mature infront of the cameras, at least for 95% of the time (as shown above lol), he seems like a nice guy being so young.

They took a lot of awkward photos while we were on the bench, everytime they came in front if us it was hard to ignore and act natural, but candid shots like that were great.

There are no winners. Only losers, for everyone is now...

Here's one I found in the professional pics Dropbox link we got, not sure why they included it, it's a combination of half awkward bow, mid handshake and my bad posture.

 

[Aspicito]

Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines ) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone (and remember I can still edit the post ), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there

Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this ), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew )

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 (again some information would be welcomed )

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ?


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you ). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds .

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment . I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language ) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event , then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 ), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations ) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again ), but if he's there then he might be quite fast He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now the teams for the Manufacturer series world final (2 pictures cause it was too big to fit in only one ) (Some of you may not have heard at all about this as for the moment it seems only Nations cup had been advertised )

Red squares on some names means that I think the drivers will not show up (underage or whatever reason) and so being replaced by the driver who finished 2nd for the manufacturer in their respective region, so for derek737_DK_, I've heard that he would not come by a few other guys (not 100% sure), should be replaced by The_sliders1324, for rick-918-bmx, seems he is underage, should be replaced by serfonseca, and for FT_5zigen, same reason, should be replaced by GT_ACADEMY2013.

- 1 / Nissan / Akagi_1942mi - TRL_LIGHTNING - IOF_RACING17

The Gr.3 car : Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Shulze Motorsport 2013

The drivers : Well, each of the 3 drivers being respectively regional champion in their region, the team automatically gets the favorite status, as I already presented the 3 drivers in the Nations cup rundown, I'll ask you to refer to these presentation if you want to know more about them, however, I can say that Nissan has been a pretty dominant manufacturer throughout the official seasons, and so that everyone is waiting for them to shine at the world finals, given their drivers potential. They are all 3 at a pretty similar level in term of pace, with maybe Akagi-san a little bit over the 2 others because of his ability not to make mistakes.

- 2 / Dodge / ayumu5617 - RC_Zoky88 - Turismo-lester

The Gr.3 car : Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R 2015

The drivers : Again a pretty homogeneous team, I saw Zoky racing a lot, and ayumu and lester on streams, and they both look pretty fast, that will definitely be a team to watch at world finals, if the choice of tracks suits the Viper, they can compete at the highest level, Zoky being a very consistent driver, maybe less aggressive than he used to be, that might help him keep calm on stage, with him and lester already taking part in their own regional final, they already have the experience of the live events, and they can bring it to the stage to try to make their manufacturer the 1st ever FIA / Gran Turismo Manufacturer series world champion


- 3 / Lexus / Kawakana222 - Oscaro_Skypikmin - GT_ACADEMY2013

The Gr.3 car : Lexus RC F GT3 Emil Frey Racing 2017

The drivers : Kawakana222, who finished 2nd overall in season 3 Asian manufacturer series rankings, and showed that he was able to compete against the like of Akagi, GT_ACADEMY2013, who is replacing FT_5zigen (under aged), who, as his name tells us, has been a GT Academy finalist, and myself (finished 5th overall in EMEA region season 3 after a great top 24SS race, but I don't really like talking about myself ) will team up to represent Lexus at world finals, I think that our main strength might be consistency, and the ability to race fast without taking a lot of risks, none of us have been on a live event yet, but we can count on our experienced member to give us some advice on how to race in such conditions, I really hope we can fight for a good final spot at the event, and I also personally hope to do well for my teammates


- 4 / Mercedes-Benz / CLS63AMG-sc - force_ewerby - GumballCGT

The Gr.3 car : Mercedes-AMG GT3 AMG-TEAM HTP-MOTORSPORT 2016

The drivers : CLS63AMG-sc being one of the top drivers in Asia, force_ewerby being one of the top drivers in EMEA, and GumballCGT being also qualified for the Nations cup world final, the Mercedes-Benz team is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the rankings in the world finals, CLS63AMG-sc is a driver that is able to compete with the likes of Kawakana222 and even with Akagi if the track/car suits him, so he will definitely be a driver to watch in this final, force_ewerby is a really fast and clean driver with who I had great battle on track and you can find some more about GumballCGT in the Nations cup part, CLS63AMG-sc also took part in asian regional final and also in Salzburg world tour event, bringing him some live event experience, force_ewerby went to the Nurburgring world tour so that's an extra experienced member for team Mercedes
Team Mercedes-Benz is the team that I think is the closest to Team Lexus in term of pace and drivers, so I consider them as our rival in this competition


- 5 / BMW / okasan-joestar07 - Der_Heizer - FT_NicoR

The Gr.3 car : BMW M6 GT3 2016 (Or maybe another one but that's the one we see the most)

The drivers : okasan-joestar07 is another alien from Asia, able to fight against the other Asian aliens mentioned before, so he might share the lead of the BMW team with NicoR, who is also in the Nations cup final, talking about Der_Heizer, if the tracks suits him, then he will be pretty fast for sure, however he might not be as fast as the 2 other (again no offense ), but we can hope that they will bring him some advice to help him get faster throughout the event


- 6 / Porsche / blackbeauty-79 - serfonseca - FT_Solid

The Gr.3 car : Porsche 911 RSR 2017

The drivers : The Porsche team drivers are all pretty good, blackbeauty-79 competes in the top Asian lobbies as does FT_Solid in the America region, and again if the track suits the Porsche they could one of the best teams of the event, but with rick-918-bmx being under aged and so not able to compete, serfonseca will have to take his place and I think he might not be as fast as rick, even if he also race in the top lobbies in EMEA, but the important thing is that he is a consistent driver who always tries not to make mistake, and that's what his teammates will need from him, it is also worth mentioning that blackbeauty-79 and FT_Solid took part in their Nations cup regional finals and so already have live event experience


- 7 / Honda / s-shohei - Oscaro_Slent - FT_DieGodlike

The Gr.3 car : Honda NSX Gr.3

The drivers : s-shohei is again another Asian alien, so he might be considered as the team leader, Slent is one of the top EMEA driver, his major weakness being the strategy I would say, and unfortunately I don't really know DieGodlike so I can't say much about him The NSX major problem being quite the same as the Ferrari, that is to say the rear tires are burning really fast, thay will need a good race strategy to make the most out of their car


- 8 / Citroën / minamiya95 - Oscaro_MansoN - FT_LLOYDZELITE

The Gr.3 car : GT by Citroën Race Car Gr.3

The drivers : Team Citroën at worlds will be able to count on the experience of LLOYDZELITE, who attend at the America's regional final, and qualified for Nations cup world finals, he will be able to bring his experience of live events racing with 2 really fast guys, minamiya95, who finished 22nd overall in Asia manufacturer series rankings in season 3, and Oscaro_MansoN, who had to fight until the last top 24 SS checkered flag to secure his spot for world finals, finishing 10th overall in the EMEA region rankings


- 9 / Mitsubishi / gilles_honda_v12 - JAdams2010 - Z28

The Gr.3 car : Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition Gr.3

The drivers : Team Mitsubishi is made of 2 drivers that are qualified for Nations cup final, gilles_honda_V12 and Z28, some more informations about them are in the Nations cup part, and JAdams2010, who did show his pace during the final top 24 race at Interlagos, finishing this race in 2nd place by being consistent and careful with the penalties, which might be a great advantage when it comes to the final races, given the drivers that will run in it, this team could very well be a top contender a the world final


- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them


- 11 / Toyota / yamado_racing38 - RC_Miura - ORMA_Aspicito

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the FT-1 Gr.3 and the GR Supra Racing

The drivers : yamado_racing38 went to the Salzburg live event and showed great performance, he also qualified for the Nations cup world finals and showed that he was able to compete with the best GT Sport drivers by taking 2nd place at the Asian regional finals, so he will obviously bring some experience and speed to the team, as for RC_Miura, he is a young fast driver, able to battle against the best in the championship, he also got some live event experience and he is able to handle the pressure quite well. Again I don't know much about ORMA_Aspicito, so any information you can give to me will be welcome


- 12 / Chevrolet / GSN538 - mclaren6 - FT_Ant

The Gr.3 car : Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3

The drivers : Again here we have a quite homogeneous team, with two members; mclaren6 and FT_Ant, that already raced on stage at live events before this year, this team could be very competitive at the world finals, GSN538 being a consistent driver in the top Asian lobbies (finishing 11th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in Asia) , FT_Ant finishing 7th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in America, and mclaren6 (who decided to have quite a relaxing top 24ss at Interlagos) being as fast as his teammates and a very clean and consistent driver when he his focused on the race, team Chevrolet is a team that will surely be competing at the top in the world final


- 13 / Ferrari / yukiku - mthomas_95 - Deafsun96

The Gr.3 car : Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 2013

The drivers : Ferrari team also got some of the best drivers from each region, as I already presented yukiku and Deafsun96 in the Nations cup rundown, I will talk a little bit about mthomas_95, also know as "the trash talker" , jokes aside, I think that, as he always complains about the Ferrari tires, I think that it might be good for them if the multiplier isn't too high on tire wear. The Ferrari was a good car during the official seasons, but it went down a bit since then, so let's keep an eye on the update to see if the BoP changes again, mthomas_95 also took part in live events before that year, so he already have some experience with racing on stage

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more


- 15 / Renault Sport / mish12calsonic - Williams_Coque14 - JIM_FacuDudu

The Gr.3 car : Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 2016

The drivers : Each of the Renault Sport team drivers are competing consistently at the top of their respective region rankings, so that's a pretty good team to watch for in the world finals, with Coque also in the Nations cup final, and the fact that FacuDudu took part in the America regional final, that's already some stage experience for them that can be a great advantage in events like the world final, as for mish12calsonic, he is a great Asian driver, so they might have a chance at a good spot in the world finals


- 16 / Aston Martin / legacy0193 - cubertom - hendrix323

The Gr.3 car : Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 2012

The drivers : I honestly don't know much about legacy0193 and hendrix323, apart from seeing them consistently being in the top lobbies of their region, and finishing with good ranks at the end of season 3 (legacy brought Aston Martin at the 8th place in the manufacturer series season), talking about cubertom, he is a clean and nice driver, who always give his best when entering a race, they might not look in a good spot with that 16th and last qualifying place, but they might be a more homogeneous team than some others and that could help them at the event


Hope you guys enjoyed it, feel free to tell me if something is wrong, and also to give more informations on the drivers that you know better than me (And if you want more stuff about the manufacturer series finalists I can always try to find some more things to say )
See you all guys at Monaco

Hi! Imágenes Orma aspicito! I m kart driver and this is my first year on gran turismo hahaha i Will do my best!

 

[OutlawQuadrnt]

I'll avoid spamming this thread with all of my videos from Americas Regionals but I'll leave this here. This Ferrari was my favorite car at SEMA thinking back on it. Other vids will be trickling in my channel:



I don't believe I shared this here but while I didn't advance to Monaco, I did come away with a consolation prize:

Is there any Las Vegas Scapes in GTS?If not it's a huge wasted opportunity.

I can't remember but it wouldn't surprise me if they appear in the future.

 

[TheNuvolari]

Is there any Las Vegas Scapes in GTS?If not it's a huge wasted opportunity.

I think this one is close enough

 

[Thiago Bica]

- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them

Hi SkyPikmin and guys, I am the driver that classified in first for VW on the America's.

Introducing myself: My real name is the same: Thiago Bica Oliveira. I am 30 years old. Live in the south of Brazil.

Just like you said, Im not a well known GT driver, the reasons are many: My account is kind of new (bought it on July this year) and Im new to this whole online thing though Im not new to the GT series (Play it since the 2). There are other things that I consider for not being known: my job in these last 2 years consist in me travel during the whole week. I do Administration college and also, there is my family and the things that I must take care around here, so what left for me to play is some little hours during the weekend.

As my driving skills on the game, well, I have a YouTube channel, if u guys want to see how I performed some races are there... Im not as good as Nico, IOF Racing, Derek, Lightining for instance, but i consider myself not a bad driver, my times generally are 1,5 to 2 seconds more than their times.
During the Final Season of the FIA I couldnt participate on the TOP 24 lobby and that was duo to my DR driver ranking that is S but actually is A going to A+, even though I was already on first for VW... so resuming, I didnt had enough time to raise my DR enough to paricipate on those lobbys as they were streamed on GT official YouTube channel... So these are some of the reasons that I did not get known I think.

Well, all this aside, I am very happy that I and VW got to get classified for the finals.. Yes, that all was thanks to Derek winning on Europe and as u guys are saying, its is bad that he might not show up there.

Hope to see you guys there to have fun and a good time together!!

 

[BLKJ Evolution]

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more

I enjoy being the mystery man. If you're interested in getting to know a bit more about me, hit the Instagram link in my signature. See you all in Monaco!

 

[sirjim73]

Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines ) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone (and remember I can still edit the post ), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there

Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this ), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew )

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 (again some information would be welcomed )

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ?


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you ). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds .

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment . I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language ) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event , then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 ), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations ) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again ), but if he's there then he might be quite fast He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate

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And now the teams for the Manufacturer series world final (2 pictures cause it was too big to fit in only one ) (Some of you may not have heard at all about this as for the moment it seems only Nations cup had been advertised )

Red squares on some names means that I think the drivers will not show up (underage or whatever reason) and so being replaced by the driver who finished 2nd for the manufacturer in their respective region, so for derek737_DK_, I've heard that he would not come by a few other guys (not 100% sure), should be replaced by The_sliders1324, for rick-918-bmx, seems he is underage, should be replaced by serfonseca, and for FT_5zigen, same reason, should be replaced by GT_ACADEMY2013.

- 1 / Nissan / Akagi_1942mi - TRL_LIGHTNING - IOF_RACING17

The Gr.3 car : Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Shulze Motorsport 2013

The drivers : Well, each of the 3 drivers being respectively regional champion in their region, the team automatically gets the favorite status, as I already presented the 3 drivers in the Nations cup rundown, I'll ask you to refer to these presentation if you want to know more about them, however, I can say that Nissan has been a pretty dominant manufacturer throughout the official seasons, and so that everyone is waiting for them to shine at the world finals, given their drivers potential. They are all 3 at a pretty similar level in term of pace, with maybe Akagi-san a little bit over the 2 others because of his ability not to make mistakes.

- 2 / Dodge / ayumu5617 - RC_Zoky88 - Turismo-lester

The Gr.3 car : Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R 2015

The drivers : Again a pretty homogeneous team, I saw Zoky racing a lot, and ayumu and lester on streams, and they both look pretty fast, that will definitely be a team to watch at world finals, if the choice of tracks suits the Viper, they can compete at the highest level, Zoky being a very consistent driver, maybe less aggressive than he used to be, that might help him keep calm on stage, with him and lester already taking part in their own regional final, they already have the experience of the live events, and they can bring it to the stage to try to make their manufacturer the 1st ever FIA / Gran Turismo Manufacturer series world champion


- 3 / Lexus / Kawakana222 - Oscaro_Skypikmin - GT_ACADEMY2013

The Gr.3 car : Lexus RC F GT3 Emil Frey Racing 2017

The drivers : Kawakana222, who finished 2nd overall in season 3 Asian manufacturer series rankings, and showed that he was able to compete against the like of Akagi, GT_ACADEMY2013, who is replacing FT_5zigen (under aged), who, as his name tells us, has been a GT Academy finalist, and myself (finished 5th overall in EMEA region season 3 after a great top 24SS race, but I don't really like talking about myself ) will team up to represent Lexus at world finals, I think that our main strength might be consistency, and the ability to race fast without taking a lot of risks, none of us have been on a live event yet, but we can count on our experienced member to give us some advice on how to race in such conditions, I really hope we can fight for a good final spot at the event, and I also personally hope to do well for my teammates


- 4 / Mercedes-Benz / CLS63AMG-sc - force_ewerby - GumballCGT

The Gr.3 car : Mercedes-AMG GT3 AMG-TEAM HTP-MOTORSPORT 2016

The drivers : CLS63AMG-sc being one of the top drivers in Asia, force_ewerby being one of the top drivers in EMEA, and GumballCGT being also qualified for the Nations cup world final, the Mercedes-Benz team is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the rankings in the world finals, CLS63AMG-sc is a driver that is able to compete with the likes of Kawakana222 and even with Akagi if the track/car suits him, so he will definitely be a driver to watch in this final, force_ewerby is a really fast and clean driver with who I had great battle on track and you can find some more about GumballCGT in the Nations cup part, CLS63AMG-sc also took part in asian regional final and also in Salzburg world tour event, bringing him some live event experience, force_ewerby went to the Nurburgring world tour so that's an extra experienced member for team Mercedes
Team Mercedes-Benz is the team that I think is the closest to Team Lexus in term of pace and drivers, so I consider them as our rival in this competition


- 5 / BMW / okasan-joestar07 - Der_Heizer - FT_NicoR

The Gr.3 car : BMW M6 GT3 2016 (Or maybe another one but that's the one we see the most)

The drivers : okasan-joestar07 is another alien from Asia, able to fight against the other Asian aliens mentioned before, so he might share the lead of the BMW team with NicoR, who is also in the Nations cup final, talking about Der_Heizer, if the tracks suits him, then he will be pretty fast for sure, however he might not be as fast as the 2 other (again no offense ), but we can hope that they will bring him some advice to help him get faster throughout the event


- 6 / Porsche / blackbeauty-79 - serfonseca - FT_Solid

The Gr.3 car : Porsche 911 RSR 2017

The drivers : The Porsche team drivers are all pretty good, blackbeauty-79 competes in the top Asian lobbies as does FT_Solid in the America region, and again if the track suits the Porsche they could one of the best teams of the event, but with rick-918-bmx being under aged and so not able to compete, serfonseca will have to take his place and I think he might not be as fast as rick, even if he also race in the top lobbies in EMEA, but the important thing is that he is a consistent driver who always tries not to make mistake, and that's what his teammates will need from him, it is also worth mentioning that blackbeauty-79 and FT_Solid took part in their Nations cup regional finals and so already have live event experience


- 7 / Honda / s-shohei - Oscaro_Slent - FT_DieGodlike

The Gr.3 car : Honda NSX Gr.3

The drivers : s-shohei is again another Asian alien, so he might be considered as the team leader, Slent is one of the top EMEA driver, his major weakness being the strategy I would say, and unfortunately I don't really know DieGodlike so I can't say much about him The NSX major problem being quite the same as the Ferrari, that is to say the rear tires are burning really fast, thay will need a good race strategy to make the most out of their car


- 8 / Citroën / minamiya95 - Oscaro_MansoN - FT_LLOYDZELITE

The Gr.3 car : GT by Citroën Race Car Gr.3

The drivers : Team Citroën at worlds will be able to count on the experience of LLOYDZELITE, who attend at the America's regional final, and qualified for Nations cup world finals, he will be able to bring his experience of live events racing with 2 really fast guys, minamiya95, who finished 22nd overall in Asia manufacturer series rankings in season 3, and Oscaro_MansoN, who had to fight until the last top 24 SS checkered flag to secure his spot for world finals, finishing 10th overall in the EMEA region rankings


- 9 / Mitsubishi / gilles_honda_v12 - JAdams2010 - Z28

The Gr.3 car : Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition Gr.3

The drivers : Team Mitsubishi is made of 2 drivers that are qualified for Nations cup final, gilles_honda_V12 and Z28, some more informations about them are in the Nations cup part, and JAdams2010, who did show his pace during the final top 24 race at Interlagos, finishing this race in 2nd place by being consistent and careful with the penalties, which might be a great advantage when it comes to the final races, given the drivers that will run in it, this team could very well be a top contender a the world final


- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them


- 11 / Toyota / yamado_racing38 - RC_Miura - ORMA_Aspicito

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the FT-1 Gr.3 and the GR Supra Racing

The drivers : yamado_racing38 went to the Salzburg live event and showed great performance, he also qualified for the Nations cup world finals and showed that he was able to compete with the best GT Sport drivers by taking 2nd place at the Asian regional finals, so he will obviously bring some experience and speed to the team, as for RC_Miura, he is a young fast driver, able to battle against the best in the championship, he also got some live event experience and he is able to handle the pressure quite well. Again I don't know much about ORMA_Aspicito, so any information you can give to me will be welcome


- 12 / Chevrolet / GSN538 - mclaren6 - FT_Ant

The Gr.3 car : Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3

The drivers : Again here we have a quite homogeneous team, with two members; mclaren6 and FT_Ant, that already raced on stage at live events before this year, this team could be very competitive at the world finals, GSN538 being a consistent driver in the top Asian lobbies (finishing 11th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in Asia) , FT_Ant finishing 7th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in America, and mclaren6 (who decided to have quite a relaxing top 24ss at Interlagos) being as fast as his teammates and a very clean and consistent driver when he his focused on the race, team Chevrolet is a team that will surely be competing at the top in the world final


- 13 / Ferrari / yukiku - mthomas_95 - Deafsun96

The Gr.3 car : Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 2013

The drivers : Ferrari team also got some of the best drivers from each region, as I already presented yukiku and Deafsun96 in the Nations cup rundown, I will talk a little bit about mthomas_95, also know as "the trash talker" , jokes aside, I think that, as he always complains about the Ferrari tires, I think that it might be good for them if the multiplier isn't too high on tire wear. The Ferrari was a good car during the official seasons, but it went down a bit since then, so let's keep an eye on the update to see if the BoP changes again, mthomas_95 also took part in live events before that year, so he already have some experience with racing on stage

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more


- 15 / Renault Sport / mish12calsonic - Williams_Coque14 - JIM_FacuDudu

The Gr.3 car : Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 2016

The drivers : Each of the Renault Sport team drivers are competing consistently at the top of their respective region rankings, so that's a pretty good team to watch for in the world finals, with Coque also in the Nations cup final, and the fact that FacuDudu took part in the America regional final, that's already some stage experience for them that can be a great advantage in events like the world final, as for mish12calsonic, he is a great Asian driver, so they might have a chance at a good spot in the world finals


- 16 / Aston Martin / legacy0193 - cubertom - hendrix323

The Gr.3 car : Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 2012

The drivers : I honestly don't know much about legacy0193 and hendrix323, apart from seeing them consistently being in the top lobbies of their region, and finishing with good ranks at the end of season 3 (legacy brought Aston Martin at the 8th place in the manufacturer series season), talking about cubertom, he is a clean and nice driver, who always give his best when entering a race, they might not look in a good spot with that 16th and last qualifying place, but they might be a more homogeneous team than some others and that could help them at the event


Hope you guys enjoyed it, feel free to tell me if something is wrong, and also to give more informations on the drivers that you know better than me (And if you want more stuff about the manufacturer series finalists I can always try to find some more things to say )
See you all guys at Monaco

Wow. You sir own the internet for at least 2 days after that post.

I have been a member here >10 years and I don't think I've ever come across a better post.

 

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@perrolocomcquee beats out @mclarenLB for the most memetic expression?
View attachment 777983

My god xD.
They couldn't have found a better moment LMAO. At least was pretty obvious that i was happy asf

 

[perrolocomcquee]

Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines ) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone (and remember I can still edit the post ), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there

Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this ), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew )

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 (again some information would be welcomed )

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ?


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you ). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds .

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment . I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language ) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event , then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 ), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations ) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again ), but if he's there then he might be quite fast He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate

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And now the teams for the Manufacturer series world final (2 pictures cause it was too big to fit in only one ) (Some of you may not have heard at all about this as for the moment it seems only Nations cup had been advertised )

Red squares on some names means that I think the drivers will not show up (underage or whatever reason) and so being replaced by the driver who finished 2nd for the manufacturer in their respective region, so for derek737_DK_, I've heard that he would not come by a few other guys (not 100% sure), should be replaced by The_sliders1324, for rick-918-bmx, seems he is underage, should be replaced by serfonseca, and for FT_5zigen, same reason, should be replaced by GT_ACADEMY2013.

- 1 / Nissan / Akagi_1942mi - TRL_LIGHTNING - IOF_RACING17

The Gr.3 car : Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Shulze Motorsport 2013

The drivers : Well, each of the 3 drivers being respectively regional champion in their region, the team automatically gets the favorite status, as I already presented the 3 drivers in the Nations cup rundown, I'll ask you to refer to these presentation if you want to know more about them, however, I can say that Nissan has been a pretty dominant manufacturer throughout the official seasons, and so that everyone is waiting for them to shine at the world finals, given their drivers potential. They are all 3 at a pretty similar level in term of pace, with maybe Akagi-san a little bit over the 2 others because of his ability not to make mistakes.

- 2 / Dodge / ayumu5617 - RC_Zoky88 - Turismo-lester

The Gr.3 car : Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R 2015

The drivers : Again a pretty homogeneous team, I saw Zoky racing a lot, and ayumu and lester on streams, and they both look pretty fast, that will definitely be a team to watch at world finals, if the choice of tracks suits the Viper, they can compete at the highest level, Zoky being a very consistent driver, maybe less aggressive than he used to be, that might help him keep calm on stage, with him and lester already taking part in their own regional final, they already have the experience of the live events, and they can bring it to the stage to try to make their manufacturer the 1st ever FIA / Gran Turismo Manufacturer series world champion


- 3 / Lexus / Kawakana222 - Oscaro_Skypikmin - GT_ACADEMY2013

The Gr.3 car : Lexus RC F GT3 Emil Frey Racing 2017

The drivers : Kawakana222, who finished 2nd overall in season 3 Asian manufacturer series rankings, and showed that he was able to compete against the like of Akagi, GT_ACADEMY2013, who is replacing FT_5zigen (under aged), who, as his name tells us, has been a GT Academy finalist, and myself (finished 5th overall in EMEA region season 3 after a great top 24SS race, but I don't really like talking about myself ) will team up to represent Lexus at world finals, I think that our main strength might be consistency, and the ability to race fast without taking a lot of risks, none of us have been on a live event yet, but we can count on our experienced member to give us some advice on how to race in such conditions, I really hope we can fight for a good final spot at the event, and I also personally hope to do well for my teammates


- 4 / Mercedes-Benz / CLS63AMG-sc - force_ewerby - GumballCGT

The Gr.3 car : Mercedes-AMG GT3 AMG-TEAM HTP-MOTORSPORT 2016

The drivers : CLS63AMG-sc being one of the top drivers in Asia, force_ewerby being one of the top drivers in EMEA, and GumballCGT being also qualified for the Nations cup world final, the Mercedes-Benz team is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the rankings in the world finals, CLS63AMG-sc is a driver that is able to compete with the likes of Kawakana222 and even with Akagi if the track/car suits him, so he will definitely be a driver to watch in this final, force_ewerby is a really fast and clean driver with who I had great battle on track and you can find some more about GumballCGT in the Nations cup part, CLS63AMG-sc also took part in asian regional final and also in Salzburg world tour event, bringing him some live event experience, force_ewerby went to the Nurburgring world tour so that's an extra experienced member for team Mercedes
Team Mercedes-Benz is the team that I think is the closest to Team Lexus in term of pace and drivers, so I consider them as our rival in this competition


- 5 / BMW / okasan-joestar07 - Der_Heizer - FT_NicoR

The Gr.3 car : BMW M6 GT3 2016 (Or maybe another one but that's the one we see the most)

The drivers : okasan-joestar07 is another alien from Asia, able to fight against the other Asian aliens mentioned before, so he might share the lead of the BMW team with NicoR, who is also in the Nations cup final, talking about Der_Heizer, if the tracks suits him, then he will be pretty fast for sure, however he might not be as fast as the 2 other (again no offense ), but we can hope that they will bring him some advice to help him get faster throughout the event


- 6 / Porsche / blackbeauty-79 - serfonseca - FT_Solid

The Gr.3 car : Porsche 911 RSR 2017

The drivers : The Porsche team drivers are all pretty good, blackbeauty-79 competes in the top Asian lobbies as does FT_Solid in the America region, and again if the track suits the Porsche they could one of the best teams of the event, but with rick-918-bmx being under aged and so not able to compete, serfonseca will have to take his place and I think he might not be as fast as rick, even if he also race in the top lobbies in EMEA, but the important thing is that he is a consistent driver who always tries not to make mistake, and that's what his teammates will need from him, it is also worth mentioning that blackbeauty-79 and FT_Solid took part in their Nations cup regional finals and so already have live event experience


- 7 / Honda / s-shohei - Oscaro_Slent - FT_DieGodlike

The Gr.3 car : Honda NSX Gr.3

The drivers : s-shohei is again another Asian alien, so he might be considered as the team leader, Slent is one of the top EMEA driver, his major weakness being the strategy I would say, and unfortunately I don't really know DieGodlike so I can't say much about him The NSX major problem being quite the same as the Ferrari, that is to say the rear tires are burning really fast, thay will need a good race strategy to make the most out of their car


- 8 / Citroën / minamiya95 - Oscaro_MansoN - FT_LLOYDZELITE

The Gr.3 car : GT by Citroën Race Car Gr.3

The drivers : Team Citroën at worlds will be able to count on the experience of LLOYDZELITE, who attend at the America's regional final, and qualified for Nations cup world finals, he will be able to bring his experience of live events racing with 2 really fast guys, minamiya95, who finished 22nd overall in Asia manufacturer series rankings in season 3, and Oscaro_MansoN, who had to fight until the last top 24 SS checkered flag to secure his spot for world finals, finishing 10th overall in the EMEA region rankings


- 9 / Mitsubishi / gilles_honda_v12 - JAdams2010 - Z28

The Gr.3 car : Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition Gr.3

The drivers : Team Mitsubishi is made of 2 drivers that are qualified for Nations cup final, gilles_honda_V12 and Z28, some more informations about them are in the Nations cup part, and JAdams2010, who did show his pace during the final top 24 race at Interlagos, finishing this race in 2nd place by being consistent and careful with the penalties, which might be a great advantage when it comes to the final races, given the drivers that will run in it, this team could very well be a top contender a the world final


- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them


- 11 / Toyota / yamado_racing38 - RC_Miura - ORMA_Aspicito

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the FT-1 Gr.3 and the GR Supra Racing

The drivers : yamado_racing38 went to the Salzburg live event and showed great performance, he also qualified for the Nations cup world finals and showed that he was able to compete with the best GT Sport drivers by taking 2nd place at the Asian regional finals, so he will obviously bring some experience and speed to the team, as for RC_Miura, he is a young fast driver, able to battle against the best in the championship, he also got some live event experience and he is able to handle the pressure quite well. Again I don't know much about ORMA_Aspicito, so any information you can give to me will be welcome


- 12 / Chevrolet / GSN538 - mclaren6 - FT_Ant

The Gr.3 car : Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3

The drivers : Again here we have a quite homogeneous team, with two members; mclaren6 and FT_Ant, that already raced on stage at live events before this year, this team could be very competitive at the world finals, GSN538 being a consistent driver in the top Asian lobbies (finishing 11th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in Asia) , FT_Ant finishing 7th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in America, and mclaren6 (who decided to have quite a relaxing top 24ss at Interlagos) being as fast as his teammates and a very clean and consistent driver when he his focused on the race, team Chevrolet is a team that will surely be competing at the top in the world final


- 13 / Ferrari / yukiku - mthomas_95 - Deafsun96

The Gr.3 car : Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 2013

The drivers : Ferrari team also got some of the best drivers from each region, as I already presented yukiku and Deafsun96 in the Nations cup rundown, I will talk a little bit about mthomas_95, also know as "the trash talker" , jokes aside, I think that, as he always complains about the Ferrari tires, I think that it might be good for them if the multiplier isn't too high on tire wear. The Ferrari was a good car during the official seasons, but it went down a bit since then, so let's keep an eye on the update to see if the BoP changes again, mthomas_95 also took part in live events before that year, so he already have some experience with racing on stage

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more


- 15 / Renault Sport / mish12calsonic - Williams_Coque14 - JIM_FacuDudu

The Gr.3 car : Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 2016

The drivers : Each of the Renault Sport team drivers are competing consistently at the top of their respective region rankings, so that's a pretty good team to watch for in the world finals, with Coque also in the Nations cup final, and the fact that FacuDudu took part in the America regional final, that's already some stage experience for them that can be a great advantage in events like the world final, as for mish12calsonic, he is a great Asian driver, so they might have a chance at a good spot in the world finals


- 16 / Aston Martin / legacy0193 - cubertom - hendrix323

The Gr.3 car : Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 2012

The drivers : I honestly don't know much about legacy0193 and hendrix323, apart from seeing them consistently being in the top lobbies of their region, and finishing with good ranks at the end of season 3 (legacy brought Aston Martin at the 8th place in the manufacturer series season), talking about cubertom, he is a clean and nice driver, who always give his best when entering a race, they might not look in a good spot with that 16th and last qualifying place, but they might be a more homogeneous team than some others and that could help them at the event


Hope you guys enjoyed it, feel free to tell me if something is wrong, and also to give more informations on the drivers that you know better than me (And if you want more stuff about the manufacturer series finalists I can always try to find some more things to say )
See you all guys at Monaco

I can help you with some guys.
-Adam_2167 is former Pad driver that always did very good at every GTAcademy test. He's a very fast and smart driver, specially when it comes to Road Cars. Now he's obviously playing with the wheel, but most of his GT carreer was with the DS3/DS4.
-FT_Diegodlike is the big brother of FT_NicoR, so the gens for being a very fast driver are there. He has put a lot effort for keep himself at the very top level. He's an experienced driver that always that's practicing like hell to improve his skills even more.
ORMA_Aspicito: Aspicito is Kart racing driver that started playing Gran Turismo seriously this year. He was signed for the ORMA Team, and he was the runner up at the South Cone of the Logitech Challenge.
-JIM_Facududu is new driver using the Steering wheel(Just 3 months with it). He's playing since the BETA, and he has put an immense effort to be at the top of the leaderboards every time. He's definetly one of the fastest at Monza.
-BLKJ_Evolution: His a member of the Thrustmaster Official team. He's a GTAcademy finalist back on 2013 (correct me if i'm wrong). He was one of the stewards that we had at the Americas Regional finals along with GTAcademy_2013. He's a very consistent driver that i've heard always does incredible at presencial events.
Wish i could have help you with more.

 

[BLKJ Evolution]

-BLKJ_Evolution: His a member of the Thrustmaster Official team. He's a GTAcademy finalist back on 2013 (correct me if i'm wrong). He was one of the stewards that we had at the Americas Regional finals along with GTAcademy_2013. He's a very consistent driver that i've heard always does incredible at presencial events.

Thank you for the kind words @perrolocomcquee. I was a national finalist in 2013, and eventually made it to Silverstone in 2015. Our series unfortunately never aired though .

 

[anthaliscious]

What a great way to spend my birthday with everyone in Vegas It was awesome meeting everyone and being able to attend SEMA for the first time was a great experience. Can’t wait for what’s in store at Monaco! See you all there

 

[K32]

Ok so time for the big post (66 drivers might take some lines ) I will tag @Jimmy B here as this might help even if I think he'll be given a lot of information, but if we can all debate kindly after this post it might be nice for him to have a sort of "community opinion" on some drivers to mention it during the live stream

Apologies if the pictures are not high quality and/or barely readable, and if I missed some guys that would not show up in manufacturer series or if I misunderstood some things feel free to tell me (and as always, forgive me if I do some language mistakes, as English is not my primary language)

Important thing before reading: all this work is based on my opinion, from what I saw in the live events, the experience I have racing some of these guys, and the FIA race streams I look at since months where a lot of these guys are featured, if someone doesn't like what I'm saying, well as I said it's my opinion, and then you're entirely free to post and explain to me why you thing I'm wrong about someone (and remember I can still edit the post ), and obviously there will be more personal thoughts about EMEA region drivers because I use to race them frequently

So first here are the Nations cup finalists by region, before I start running down the list I want to wish all of you the best of luck at world finals representing your country and region, and tell you that even finishing last at this event is an accomplishment because you went through online seasons and regional finals to get there

Ok so to explain how I'm going to proceed, I will run down the list in the following order: Asia - EMEA - America, so if you want to see informations on a particular driver if will be easier for you to find him.

So let's start with Asia (not much personal opinion because the event was already a month ago and since then I didn't saw many of these guys racing) :

- 1 / Ryota Kokubun / Akagi_1942mi

Leading driver from Asia, Ryota is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) GT Sport driver in the world, he qualified himself for both Nations cup cup regional finals and Manufacturer series world finals by finishing rank 1 in both championships in season 3 of the 2018 série ! Then in Asia/Oceania regional final, he was the 1st to qualify for world finals by winning the 1st block race of the day, and on the second day, he topped it all in race 1 and 3 to take the Asian crown, an 0.4s penalty preventing him from leading the field in race 2
From what we saw on live events, he looks like a favorite to win it all, because of his consistency and his ability to make 0 mistakes when racing.

- 2 / Tomoaki Yamanaka / yamado_racing38

Runner-up for Asian region, Tomoaki qualified himself for regional finals by finishing 7th in the season 3 Nation cup rankings (5th for Japan), and then qualified for the world finals by already taking 2nd behind Kokubun in the Japan block race, on day 2, he went stronger and stronger, finishing 3rd in race 1, 2nd in race 2, and again 2nd in race 3, securing him the 2nd spot for world finals, he also qualified for the manufacturer series world finals as a Toyota driver.

- 3 / Kai Hin Jonathan Wong / saika159-

Third in the official season, and 3rd at the live event, that may not seem related, but to be good in these events, you need to stay calm, like if you were driving in your room, and it seems that saika159 is capable of it, 1st Honk Kong representative, he did a really great performance at regional finals by winning his block race, and then on day 2 he went 2nd-1st-3rd, being the only one able to fight against Akagi and yamado_racing,

- 4 / Shogo Yoshida / gilles_honda_v12

Qualified as 4th for Japan (6th overall) in the season 3 Nations cup, he had to go the repechage before securing his spot for the nations cup world finals (as he is also in team Mitsubishi for the manufacturer world final), in the block race, he took 3rd behind Kokubun and Yamanaka, and then he took 2nd in his repechage race, while Shirakawa took first. On day 2, he was consistent in his performance, taking 4th-4th and 5th,

- 5 / Cody Nikola Latkovski / Nik_Makozi

I think he might be the youngest driver to attend to world finals, (@K32 will surely confirm this ), Cody qualified for worlds by winning his block race by a 7s+ margin, however he didn't had the best races on day 2, when competing against the Japanese and Honk Kong drivers, finishing 6th and 8th in the first 2 races, and 4th in the last one. He is the best hope for Oceania region, so let's hope that with his young age and being the best of his country he will not suffer from to much pressure when racing at world finals

- 6 / Yuki Shirakawa / yukiku

Yuki is a really fast driver, I raced him on some lobby races when training for FIA manufacturer races and he was always really fast, he is also in manufacturer series world final for Ferrari. He secured his spot by winning his repechage race (A) after finishing 5th in the Japan block race, on day 2, he was pretty consistent during the first 2 races, finishing in 5th in both of them, but in the final race he only took 8 points (finishing 7th), that explains why he only finished 6th of the event, he also looked a little bit nervous during the races, let's hope that the regional final experience will help him at world finals

- 7 / Yat Lam Law / NegiFISH_NaF

He secured his spot in his block race with a 2nd place finish behind saika159-, and then on day 2 he built up in confidence after a last place finish in race 1, he took 7th in race 2 and 6th in race 3, so it seems that he needed some times to get up to pace in the final day, but with the level of competition that the Asia/Oceania region provides, we can think that he could be a great competitor at world finals

- 8 / Matthew Simons / MINT_GTR

He took 2nd in his block race behind Nik_Makozi and then finished 7th-8th-8th in the final races, so maybe he just played it relax on the final day because he knew he was already in for worlds I don't have much more to say about him so if someone got more infos then feel free to tell me (and apologies to you Matthew )

- 9 / Adam Wilk / Adam_2167

Qualified for world after a great battle in repechage race B against I think his brother, only took 2nd by an 0.3s margin, I think he wanted to have a relax day 2 (again some information would be welcomed )

- 10 / Daniel Holland / TRL_holl01

Hmm... did he want to relax or did karma hit him during the final 3 races seeing the bm on the repechage race ?


Then we will go on to the EMEA drivers, I will give more personal opinion because I race them a lot :

- 1 / Mikail Hizal / TRL_LIGHTNING

Well... We all saw what happened at the regional finals Qualified for world final by finishing 2nd in his block race and then dominating day 2 with 3 victories, he is the best EMEA region driver, he is also in team Nissan for manufacturer series world final, alongside Akagi and IOF_RACING, yes... the 3 regional champions will team up in manufacturer series but we'll talk about it later (see the manufacturer series part to know more). When he start from the front row, it's pretty much already over if you don't overtake him by the first corner honestly, however (and no offense to you mate that's an objective analyzing work ) we saw in the online season than sometimes when under pressure he could make some mistakes, as a lot of the other, "top drivers" (I mean the likes of him, Fuvaros, NicoR, Giorgio and few others (don't punch if I didn't mentionned you ). What that means is, when they start from the front and go away then they should win with no problem, but at the world finals, with the level of competition this is unlikely that we will have this scenario, and that's why I put Akagi-san on an even higher level, because I can't remember seeing him doing any big mistake in online race or in the live event, but we'll see it at worlds .

- 2 / Adam Suswillo / GTP_Aderrrm

Dominating the online season, Adam is one of the greatest in EMEA, winning his block race sent him directly to world finals, and then on day 2 he took 5th-3rd-3rd to finish 2nd in the regional final with a convincing performance, we saw him trying to push really hard on the final race at catalunya, leading to a mistake but we all know that it can happen to everyone, he is a clean driver and being consistent seems to be one of his strenght, so that could help him in the world finals, where nerves will come into play.

- 3 / Giorgio Mangano / Giorgio_57

He is the best ranked of those who had to go to the repechage races to qualify (finished 3rd in Block A race and then won repechage 1), and I think that a lot will agree that Giorgio is one of the fastest EMEA driver, however it seems he has a tendency to do mistakes when attacking, on live events and also on online races, we saw in day 2 of the EMEA final that he could compete with LIGHTNING in term of pure speed, but he made some mistakes that probably cost him a better spot at the end of the event, he took 2nd in a race he could have won, then again 2nd and 6th in the final race (auto-drive involved we all saw that), I think he might have a great chance at world finals if he make no mistakes.

- 4 / Jorge Lopez / Williams_Coque14

Coque was on home ground at the EMEA regional final, and that may have helped him winning his block race ahead of LIGHTNING, securing his spot for worlds in his first race, he is also qualified for manufacturer finals with team Renault Sport, he had a quite weird day 2 however, finishing 8th and 7th in the first 2 races, and then on Catalunya, finishing at an astonishing 2nd place after a little "battle" with LIGHTNING, but they were on different strategies and LIGHTNING managed to win by a very large margin at the end. Maybe if Coque can race the same way he raced this catalunya final at world finals he can have a chance at a good finishing spot in the Nations cup world finals

- 5 / Pierre Lenoir / RC_Snake91

Pierre did qualify by winning repechage B race after finishing 5th in his block race, his repechage race was a convincing win, with him able to get out of the fight and build up a good gap between him and others, then in day 2 he finished 3rd-5th and 7th in the final race at Catalunya, his major strength being his ability to manage pressure during live events, he could be a major actor of the world finals if he manages to get the maximum pace out of the car he drives

- 6 / Carlos Salazar / pcm_stj

A bit of a surprise for me to see Carlos did get through honestly, big gg to him for such an accomplishment . I think that even if Carlos might not be the fastest driver out there, it seems that he has what it takes to compete in live events, his 2nd place in repechage race 1 after a 4th place finish in block B race shows that he can handle the pressure pretty well, and take any opportunity that he sees to overtake, as we saw in repechage, so congrats to you and good luck for world finals

- 7 / Patrik Blazsan / TRL_Fuvaros (Williams_Fuvaros)

Patrick is a very well known driver in the top level of GT Sport, he already took part in multiple live events and had some great performances, however, it seems that driving in the middle of the pack and under pressure might be his greatest weakness as we saw in the Nurburgring live event and also in day 2 of the EMEA finals. However, when starting in front he is a driver that doesn't make much mistakes and can increase the gap pretty quickly as we saw in his dominant block race win (probably the most dominant block race win of the event). In day 2 he took 4th in both 1st and 2nd race, and he had a bad final race, only finishing 9th. But keep in mind that if he manages to qualify in front, that means 80% of the work done for him

- 8 / Florent Pagandet / Jomas_74

Jomas (or Romas, or Yomas, depending of your native language ) is a driver I did raced a lot, and with who I have a good friendship now in game, so I can tell you he is a driver that thinks a lot about strategies, and he also is a pretty patient driver, waiting for a mistake or for any good opportunity. He do not take many risks when racing, but if you let the door open he will surely try to overtake He qualified for world finals with a 2nd place in repechage B race, after a close battle with a few other drivers, leading to the best reaction moment of the event , then on day 2, let's say he didn't had the best cars to compete in race 1 and 2 (diablo and r8 ), finishing 10th and 9th but in race 3, where everyone had the same car, a good strategy helped him get 4th place with a good use of the different tire compounds, so if he gets a good car at world final, he could pretty much take a podium finish

- 9 / Anthony Duval / RC_Atho

Qualified for world finals with a 2nd place finish in block B race, Anthony is a great driver that is quite patient but knows when to be aggressive. He finished 7th, 8th and 8th in the 3 final races, but I think that doesn't really reflects his true level, he could compete with Blaszan at Nurburgring world tour, so I think even with this 9th spot in EMEA region, he can still have a great world final. I think it is also worth mentioning he was close to qualify in manufacturer series for Honda but the game servers didn't let him enter the last top 24 where he could have compete against Slent to be the EMEA Honda representative, so Anthony is a driver that can be fast on a lot of different cars, and that might help at world finals

- 10 / Martin Grady / GTA_Tidgney

Martin didn't had the best final 3 races to be honest, it all started at Alsace last turn but let's not talk about that again He secured his spot for world finals by finishing 2nd in his block race, less than 1s behind Adam Suswillo, he his a very friendly guy and can be freaking fast if he gets in the flow of the track and the car he drives. He also brought to us the most thrilling story of the manufacturer series online season and the Pugtrain meme
He is well know by a lot because of his YouTube channel and he does a lot for the community with his cars/events/Bop reviews, so cheers to you Martin and best of luck at worlds

And to finish with the nations cup cup drivers, let's see who are the America region representatives (because the Block races and repechages were not streamed I'm sorry I don't have a lot of informations ) :

- 1 / Igor Fraga / IOF_RACING17

Igor secured his spot for world finals by winning his block race in front of NicoR, the battle that a lot wanted to see, we already saw in online season that he was really fast and consistent, so that was not a surprise to see him in front at the start of the event, however, in the 1st race of the final, he didn't get the best result, "only" finishing 4th, (might being due to the car and tire wear), so everything was still open. But in race 2 and 3, he showed his dominance by winning the 2 races, and on the final race he won by a really large margin so he was undoubtedly the fastest on this combo, now everyone is waiting to see how he does against the likes of Akagi and LIGHTNING in the world finals, and to complete the Nissan team, he will join them as the America representative for Nissan

- 2 / Fabian Portilla / FT_McQueen91

His win in repechage group 2 race sent him right in the world finals (finished 3rd in block races behing Fraga and Rubilar), then in the final 3 races, he had a nice strategy on race 1 that helped him win the race, finished 2nd in race 2, and 4th in the final race. He seems to be a driver that do not really like to be overtaken, and that is quite aggressive when being someone (just facts, no offense ), so he might be a problem to overtake and also put pressure on other drivers at world finals, he can also be really fast when focused, so definitively someone to watch

- 3 / Andrew McCabe / TRL_doodle

Winning his block race by a 0.071 margin secured his spot at world finals, he is said to be to kind with his surroundings when racing, and we could saw that in the final 3 races, he took 2nd and 4th in the first 2 races, and then 3rd in the final one, taking the 3rd overall place at the America's regional final. In term of pure speed, he got what it takes to compete against the like of LIGHTNING and IOF, but I hope he will be a little bit more aggressive when defending and attacking in the world final races, cheers to you and good luck at worlds

- 4 / Jeffrey Gallan / FT_LLOYDZELITE

The first of the 3 canadians that will go to world finals for Nations cup, Jeffrey won his block race and only missed the podium by 1 point at the end of the event, he is a clean driver that knows when he can attack and also how to defend without losing too much time, being consistent at world finals races will be key, and I'm pretty sure that he is able of such thing, in the final 3 races, he finished 5th, 5th and 2nd, so when it comes to one-make races, he can really compete at the highest level, he is also in for Citroën in the Manufacturer series world final, so see you on track Jeffrey

- 5 / Nick McMillen / GumballCGT

Already in for Mercedes in manufacturer series, Nick (who won the us gt academy in 2013), also qualified for the Nations cup world final by taking 2nd spot in his block race behind TRL_doodle, then in the final races, he finished 7th, 3rd, and th when it came to the one-make race. His experience as a real world racing driver might help him at world final to handle the pressure better than the other drivers, we'll see how he does

- 6 / Nicolas Rubilar / FT_NicoR

Expected to be on top of the rankings, it didn't went really good for Nicolas in the final races, he secured his spot with a 2nd place finish behind Igor Fraga in his block race, and then took 3rd in the 1st of the final races, but then he finished 8th in the 2nd race because of the pressure and the frustration, he did some mistakes, and then he took 6th in the final race, let's hope this regional event will help him learn how to handle the pressure better and that he will show is full potential at world finals, where he will also be racing for team BMW in manufacturer series

- 7 / Adriano Carrazza / CRT-Didico15

I really don't know much about Adriano, he won his world final ticket by finishing 2nd in the group 2 repechage race, and then showed pretty nice pace in the finals, finishing 9th in first race, then 6th in the second one, and without a mistake on the last race, he was in a good spot to end the day on a high note but unfortunately finished 7th. Great job for qualifying to worlds, see you in Monaco and best of luck

- 8 / Andrew Brooks / Deafsun96

America's Ferrari representative for the manufacturer series, Deafsun was already know to have good pace, he also secured a spot at Nations cup final with a 2nd place finish in his the Canada/Central America block race, then he started the finals with a 6th place finish on race 1, but unfortunately a last place in race 2 took away his chances at a good final spot, he finished the final race in 8th.

- 9 / Jay Szkoruda / Z28

Jay had to go to repechage to get through and he finished 2nd of the group A repechage race to get his ticket for worlds, well know because of his YouTube channel, a lot of people in the chat were interested in his performance, however he was quite anonymous in the final races (10th-7th-9th), but anyway it's a great performance to be in the world finals, and he might have a better chance if the combos suits him better in Monaco, and he is also in the Mitsubishi team for Manufacturer series, so double great performance, cheers mate

- 10 / Jacob Goertz / JGOERTZ5

I don't really know Jacob (apologies again ), but if he's there then he might be quite fast He won the group 1 repechage race after a 6th place finish in his block race, and in his final races he finished 8th, 9th, and 10th, maybe he was already happy to go to Monaco and took it relax, see you in Monaco mate

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And now the teams for the Manufacturer series world final (2 pictures cause it was too big to fit in only one ) (Some of you may not have heard at all about this as for the moment it seems only Nations cup had been advertised )

Red squares on some names means that I think the drivers will not show up (underage or whatever reason) and so being replaced by the driver who finished 2nd for the manufacturer in their respective region, so for derek737_DK_, I've heard that he would not come by a few other guys (not 100% sure), should be replaced by The_sliders1324, for rick-918-bmx, seems he is underage, should be replaced by serfonseca, and for FT_5zigen, same reason, should be replaced by GT_ACADEMY2013.

- 1 / Nissan / Akagi_1942mi - TRL_LIGHTNING - IOF_RACING17

The Gr.3 car : Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 N24 Shulze Motorsport 2013

The drivers : Well, each of the 3 drivers being respectively regional champion in their region, the team automatically gets the favorite status, as I already presented the 3 drivers in the Nations cup rundown, I'll ask you to refer to these presentation if you want to know more about them, however, I can say that Nissan has been a pretty dominant manufacturer throughout the official seasons, and so that everyone is waiting for them to shine at the world finals, given their drivers potential. They are all 3 at a pretty similar level in term of pace, with maybe Akagi-san a little bit over the 2 others because of his ability not to make mistakes.

- 2 / Dodge / ayumu5617 - RC_Zoky88 - Turismo-lester

The Gr.3 car : Dodge Viper SRT GT3-R 2015

The drivers : Again a pretty homogeneous team, I saw Zoky racing a lot, and ayumu and lester on streams, and they both look pretty fast, that will definitely be a team to watch at world finals, if the choice of tracks suits the Viper, they can compete at the highest level, Zoky being a very consistent driver, maybe less aggressive than he used to be, that might help him keep calm on stage, with him and lester already taking part in their own regional final, they already have the experience of the live events, and they can bring it to the stage to try to make their manufacturer the 1st ever FIA / Gran Turismo Manufacturer series world champion


- 3 / Lexus / Kawakana222 - Oscaro_Skypikmin - GT_ACADEMY2013

The Gr.3 car : Lexus RC F GT3 Emil Frey Racing 2017

The drivers : Kawakana222, who finished 2nd overall in season 3 Asian manufacturer series rankings, and showed that he was able to compete against the like of Akagi, GT_ACADEMY2013, who is replacing FT_5zigen (under aged), who, as his name tells us, has been a GT Academy finalist, and myself (finished 5th overall in EMEA region season 3 after a great top 24SS race, but I don't really like talking about myself ) will team up to represent Lexus at world finals, I think that our main strength might be consistency, and the ability to race fast without taking a lot of risks, none of us have been on a live event yet, but we can count on our experienced member to give us some advice on how to race in such conditions, I really hope we can fight for a good final spot at the event, and I also personally hope to do well for my teammates


- 4 / Mercedes-Benz / CLS63AMG-sc - force_ewerby - GumballCGT

The Gr.3 car : Mercedes-AMG GT3 AMG-TEAM HTP-MOTORSPORT 2016

The drivers : CLS63AMG-sc being one of the top drivers in Asia, force_ewerby being one of the top drivers in EMEA, and GumballCGT being also qualified for the Nations cup world final, the Mercedes-Benz team is ready to fight for a spot at the top of the rankings in the world finals, CLS63AMG-sc is a driver that is able to compete with the likes of Kawakana222 and even with Akagi if the track/car suits him, so he will definitely be a driver to watch in this final, force_ewerby is a really fast and clean driver with who I had great battle on track and you can find some more about GumballCGT in the Nations cup part, CLS63AMG-sc also took part in asian regional final and also in Salzburg world tour event, bringing him some live event experience, force_ewerby went to the Nurburgring world tour so that's an extra experienced member for team Mercedes
Team Mercedes-Benz is the team that I think is the closest to Team Lexus in term of pace and drivers, so I consider them as our rival in this competition


- 5 / BMW / okasan-joestar07 - Der_Heizer - FT_NicoR

The Gr.3 car : BMW M6 GT3 2016 (Or maybe another one but that's the one we see the most)

The drivers : okasan-joestar07 is another alien from Asia, able to fight against the other Asian aliens mentioned before, so he might share the lead of the BMW team with NicoR, who is also in the Nations cup final, talking about Der_Heizer, if the tracks suits him, then he will be pretty fast for sure, however he might not be as fast as the 2 other (again no offense ), but we can hope that they will bring him some advice to help him get faster throughout the event


- 6 / Porsche / blackbeauty-79 - serfonseca - FT_Solid

The Gr.3 car : Porsche 911 RSR 2017

The drivers : The Porsche team drivers are all pretty good, blackbeauty-79 competes in the top Asian lobbies as does FT_Solid in the America region, and again if the track suits the Porsche they could one of the best teams of the event, but with rick-918-bmx being under aged and so not able to compete, serfonseca will have to take his place and I think he might not be as fast as rick, even if he also race in the top lobbies in EMEA, but the important thing is that he is a consistent driver who always tries not to make mistake, and that's what his teammates will need from him, it is also worth mentioning that blackbeauty-79 and FT_Solid took part in their Nations cup regional finals and so already have live event experience


- 7 / Honda / s-shohei - Oscaro_Slent - FT_DieGodlike

The Gr.3 car : Honda NSX Gr.3

The drivers : s-shohei is again another Asian alien, so he might be considered as the team leader, Slent is one of the top EMEA driver, his major weakness being the strategy I would say, and unfortunately I don't really know DieGodlike so I can't say much about him The NSX major problem being quite the same as the Ferrari, that is to say the rear tires are burning really fast, thay will need a good race strategy to make the most out of their car


- 8 / Citroën / minamiya95 - Oscaro_MansoN - FT_LLOYDZELITE

The Gr.3 car : GT by Citroën Race Car Gr.3

The drivers : Team Citroën at worlds will be able to count on the experience of LLOYDZELITE, who attend at the America's regional final, and qualified for Nations cup world finals, he will be able to bring his experience of live events racing with 2 really fast guys, minamiya95, who finished 22nd overall in Asia manufacturer series rankings in season 3, and Oscaro_MansoN, who had to fight until the last top 24 SS checkered flag to secure his spot for world finals, finishing 10th overall in the EMEA region rankings


- 9 / Mitsubishi / gilles_honda_v12 - JAdams2010 - Z28

The Gr.3 car : Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition Gr.3

The drivers : Team Mitsubishi is made of 2 drivers that are qualified for Nations cup final, gilles_honda_V12 and Z28, some more informations about them are in the Nations cup part, and JAdams2010, who did show his pace during the final top 24 race at Interlagos, finishing this race in 2nd place by being consistent and careful with the penalties, which might be a great advantage when it comes to the final races, given the drivers that will run in it, this team could very well be a top contender a the world final


- 10 / Volkswagen / ilovecat-k - The_sliders1324 - Thiago_Bica

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the Beetle Gr.3 and the GTI VGT Gr.3

The drivers : The Volkswagen team did qualify because of derek737_DK_ that apparently will not show up at world finals, I already saw The_sliders1324 racing in the top lobbies, showing good pace but being quite inconsistent, as for the other 2 members, I have to apologies but I don't know anything about them


- 11 / Toyota / yamado_racing38 - RC_Miura - ORMA_Aspicito

The Gr.3 car : Pick one between the FT-1 Gr.3 and the GR Supra Racing

The drivers : yamado_racing38 went to the Salzburg live event and showed great performance, he also qualified for the Nations cup world finals and showed that he was able to compete with the best GT Sport drivers by taking 2nd place at the Asian regional finals, so he will obviously bring some experience and speed to the team, as for RC_Miura, he is a young fast driver, able to battle against the best in the championship, he also got some live event experience and he is able to handle the pressure quite well. Again I don't know much about ORMA_Aspicito, so any information you can give to me will be welcome


- 12 / Chevrolet / GSN538 - mclaren6 - FT_Ant

The Gr.3 car : Chevrolet Corvette C7 Gr.3

The drivers : Again here we have a quite homogeneous team, with two members; mclaren6 and FT_Ant, that already raced on stage at live events before this year, this team could be very competitive at the world finals, GSN538 being a consistent driver in the top Asian lobbies (finishing 11th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in Asia) , FT_Ant finishing 7th overall in the official season 3 in manufacturer series rankings in America, and mclaren6 (who decided to have quite a relaxing top 24ss at Interlagos) being as fast as his teammates and a very clean and consistent driver when he his focused on the race, team Chevrolet is a team that will surely be competing at the top in the world final


- 13 / Ferrari / yukiku - mthomas_95 - Deafsun96

The Gr.3 car : Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 2013

The drivers : Ferrari team also got some of the best drivers from each region, as I already presented yukiku and Deafsun96 in the Nations cup rundown, I will talk a little bit about mthomas_95, also know as "the trash talker" , jokes aside, I think that, as he always complains about the Ferrari tires, I think that it might be good for them if the multiplier isn't too high on tire wear. The Ferrari was a good car during the official seasons, but it went down a bit since then, so let's keep an eye on the update to see if the BoP changes again, mthomas_95 also took part in live events before that year, so he already have some experience with racing on stage

- 14 / Subaru / Kerokkuma_ej20 - TgTenka - BLKJ_Evolution

The Gr.3 car : Subaru WRX Gr.3

The drivers : Kerokkuma went at the Salzburg world tour event, meaning he already have some experience in live events, as for TgTenka, he was the only one able to bring the WRX to a really high level, my thoughts about him are that he can be really fast, be has a tendency to make mistakes when racing online, maybe putting too much pressure on him, or simply attacking too much when he shouldn't, but he can keep it on track then he can be a great opponent in a race . As for BLJK_Evolution, I don't have any information about him so I'll ask you guys to tell me some if you know more


- 15 / Renault Sport / mish12calsonic - Williams_Coque14 - JIM_FacuDudu

The Gr.3 car : Renault Sport R.S.01 GT3 2016

The drivers : Each of the Renault Sport team drivers are competing consistently at the top of their respective region rankings, so that's a pretty good team to watch for in the world finals, with Coque also in the Nations cup final, and the fact that FacuDudu took part in the America regional final, that's already some stage experience for them that can be a great advantage in events like the world final, as for mish12calsonic, he is a great Asian driver, so they might have a chance at a good spot in the world finals


- 16 / Aston Martin / legacy0193 - cubertom - hendrix323

The Gr.3 car : Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 2012

The drivers : I honestly don't know much about legacy0193 and hendrix323, apart from seeing them consistently being in the top lobbies of their region, and finishing with good ranks at the end of season 3 (legacy brought Aston Martin at the 8th place in the manufacturer series season), talking about cubertom, he is a clean and nice driver, who always give his best when entering a race, they might not look in a good spot with that 16th and last qualifying place, but they might be a more homogeneous team than some others and that could help them at the event


Hope you guys enjoyed it, feel free to tell me if something is wrong, and also to give more informations on the drivers that you know better than me (And if you want more stuff about the manufacturer series finalists I can always try to find some more things to say )
See you all guys at Monaco

I think he's the only driver that's 18 years old, judging by looks at least. As far as I know he's the youngest of the World Finalists in Monaco.

I honestly can't wait to see how he goes, the car choice he got stuck with for the Regional final (bar the Aston for the block race) didn't seem to give him a fair shot at the top guys from Japan and Hong Kong and thus hindered his performance.

And this is why we need one make races. N500 is really being pushed as a viable category by PD but it isn't, while Gr.2, which is a very good class with almost equal cars, is not being used at all. Perhaps a RB x2014 only final in Monaco wouldn't be bad.

 

[Timlour]

FT_Diegodlike is the big brother of FT_NicoR, so the gens for being a very fast driver are there. He has put a lot effort for keep himself at the very top level. He's an experienced driver that always that's practicing like hell to improve his skills even more.

Very interesting. I was his closest rival in Honda for a while in terms of points but I never actually got to race against him because we were never in the same lobby (well, we were at T24 Maggiore but we all know what happened there), so I couldn't really compare my skill to his. Nevertheless, he'll definetely be one of the drivers I root for in the Manufacturers Final.

 

[Aspicito]

[QUOTE="
ORMA_Aspicito: Aspicito is Kart racing driver that started playing Gran Turismo seriously this year. He was signed for the ORMA Team, and he was the runner up at the South Cone of the Logitech Challenge.
[\QUOTE]

I LOVE YOU perro! Hahahahaha

 

[perrolocomcquee]

Very interesting. I was his closest rival in Honda for a while in terms of points but I never actually got to race against him because we were never in the same lobby (well, we were at T24 Maggiore but we all know what happened there), so I couldn't really compare my skill to his. Nevertheless, he'll definetely be one of the drivers I root for in the Manufacturers Final.

And i can asure you that he remembers you very well . Would have been great to see you guys fighting each other in the same rooms. He’s looking forward to give his very best since his teammates are insanely strong

 

[Slentom]

And i can asure you that he remembers you very well . Would have been great to see you guys fighting each other in the same rooms. He’s looking forward to give his very best since his teammates are insanely strong

And don't worry I will train him a lot as soon as we get the schedule

 

[RZQSPEED]

And don't worry I will train him a lot as soon as we get the schedule

Lobby: Honda Practice
Max. Amount of People: 3
Driver List: s-shohei_ (JPN), Oscaro_Slent (FRA), FT_DieGodLike (CHL)

Is that good enough?

 

[Slentom]

Lobby: Honda Practice
Max. Amount of People: 3
Driver List: s-shohei_ (JPN), Oscaro_Slent (FRA), FT_DieGodLike (CHL)

Is that good enough?

Perfect !

 

[FitzyWATP]

Ok so time for the big post

................
See you all guys at Monaco

There should be a Thank button for posts as informative and helpful as this.