Gran Turismo World Series (2025 Manufacturers Cup | April 2 - April 19)

[SPDN Stefano]

I have no problems with the race settings for Interlagos. Having a long qualifying and no tyre strategy favors the fastest driver in the lobby, which is probably how racing should be. When you can only do one fast lap in qualifying there is an element of randomness to the grid because of people making mistakes. So now there is a mix of short and long qualifyings which is good imo.

 

[dazdilly75]

I have no problems with the race settings for Interlagos. Having a long qualifying and no tyre strategy favors the fastest driver in the lobby, which is probably how racing should be. When you can only do one fast lap in qualifying there is an element of randomness to the grid because of people making mistakes. So now there is a mix of short and long qualifyings which is good imo.

Quali doesn't determine race pace. You can have someone set one good lap, but that doesn't always translate to race pace. Wouldn't you rather have more race time as opposed to an extended quali period?

I think long qualy sessions is a HUGE mistake. I foresee a scenario where unscrupulous trolls set a good time early and then spend the remaining 15 minutes interfering with everyone else’s laps to maintain their standing. You can’t do that easily if you’re only on track for 5 minutes and what’s actually the penalty for it in a qualification session?

I actually didn't think about this scenario, but it's a very good point.

 

[Moose78]

We need to talk about interlagos... I think 18 minutes of qualification could have been better used to implement a multi tyre strategy, as opposed to just time trialing for almost half the entire session!

I agree. I don't mind these sprint races, but if I want that sort of thing, I can go do a daily race. The 30-lapper we had at Interlagos a few seasons ago was something I'll remember. This, probably not so much.

I'm not a fan of the longer qualifying. I think you're right. The ability to get one great lap is not the same as the ability to maintain a consistent race pace. Mostly, though, it just seems like a dull way to spend time we could be using for real racing.

I think long qualy sessions is a HUGE mistake. I foresee a scenario where unscrupulous trolls set a good time early and then spend the remaining 15 minutes interfering with everyone else’s laps to maintain their standing.

Is this a real concern in your lobbies? Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never come across any trolls in my lobbies. Aggressive and bad drivers, sure, but nobody being intentionally nasty. I'm well aware that they exist, but it isn't something I've experienced enough to worry about it.

We've had the longer qualifying sessions for those RA-72 races -- Watkins Glen and Eiger Nordwand. I missed the first, but when I did the second, I had plenty of space in qualifying. No trolls. Plenty of time to exit out the pits and start over again if I got caught up in traffic.

 

[newmedia_dev]

If they are going to do this massive QT for interlagos why not throw in the joker and reverse the grid order?

 

[stpatty]

Back in GT Sport there was a Nations race at Willow Springs in the Civic Touring Car. 10 minute qualifying, something like a 7 lap race which only lasted about 9 minutes. I don't think that was the only time something like that has happened either.

It's a bit ridiculous but it's something different. You get to push hard in qualifying knowing if you make a mistake you're going to get another couple of chances. Then the race is just a sprint. where hopefully nobody is out of sequence and getting pushy because their qualifying was bad.

 

[MetalApe]

If they are going to do this massive QT for interlagos why not throw in the joker and reverse the grid order?

A really nice enhancement for GT8 would be multi-race events. So we could do something like F2/F3 Sprint races with at least a partial reverse grid order.

I remember years back a game I played had a format based on Aussie V8's, where they had three races. The first based on qualifying, the second reverse of the race order, the third the aggregate of race 1 and 2 finishing positions.

We could have heats that merge two lobbies, the top half finishers from each lobby get put together for the A-Final, the bottoms halfs get a B-Final. Where of course the A-Final carrys more points than the B.

I'm happy to have this extended qualifying as a change, it's better than the Nord qualifying where 8 minutes is actually qualifying, 8+ minutes is a pointless outlap, then 5+ minutes of watching the clock count down even though everyone has finished their lap.

I don't imagine we need to worry about an idiot messing up everyones laps, I'm sure he'd soon get some Karma playback in the race.

 

[newmedia_dev]

Had some time today as work is fairly quiet to do a few more laps to dial in a little bit of muscle memory.

Firstly I like the Interlagos layout but absolutely hate the rough surface feedback it feels artificially exaggerated unless my supra doesn’t have any damping…..

On to the supra, it’s actually not as bad as I thought it would be here so that’s another positive and weirdly it’s not as popular on my friends list as I’d of thought (1 out of about 30 + me using it)

I’m a little more optimistic for tomorrow now and that the car might be ok even the infield section wasn’t that bad in it.

 

[D_Dragline]

I agree. I don't mind these sprint races, but if I want that sort of thing, I can go do a daily race. The 30-lapper we had at Interlagos a few seasons ago was something I'll remember. This, probably not so much.

I'm not a fan of the longer qualifying. I think you're right. The ability to get one great lap is not the same as the ability to maintain a consistent race pace. Mostly, though, it just seems like a dull way to spend time we could be using for real racing.

Is this a real concern in your lobbies? Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never come across any trolls in my lobbies. Aggressive and bad drivers, sure, but nobody being intentionally nasty. I'm well aware that they exist, but it isn't something I've experienced enough to worry about it.

We've had the longer qualifying sessions for those RA-72 races -- Watkins Glen and Eiger Nordwand. I missed the first, but when I did the second, I had plenty of space in qualifying. No trolls. Plenty of time to exit out the pits and start over again if I got caught up in traffic.

There are a few players in my lobbies who will absolutely exploit this. It’s just a lottery as to whether I’ll match with them or not.

 

[Talon16]

Yea, I cannot make sense of PD's qualifying times. 18 mins at Interlagos for a race that will barely be longer than the quali. There's also an 18 min quali at Sardegna, which is another 12 lap race stint. And at Interlagos the fuel rate is 1x, so it's not like you can just drive around in circles for 15 mins and lighten the car for better time later on as it may help some but likely not a lot.

However, the Spa race which could likely take over an hour depending on weather is a four min qualifier; so that's a definite one shot hot lap.

Just seems to be all over the board.

All that being said, I was happy to see the Nord quali was dry for everyone. I never much liked the ones where it could rain, and some people got a good lap in where others didn't/couldn't. It also helped with keeping space between cars as if rain was threatening during quali everyone would go out at the same time and it became a cluster.

 

[goudaj]

Just finished at Interlagos. It was a 148 point GT2 session, by the end of the 18 minute quali I was starting out of P10. There is a massive gap between cars in the rolling start, more than I've ever seen before. The countdown didn't begin until right before the first hairpin, with P1 already 11 seconds in front. I managed to get up to 9th because someone ahead went off first lap, and the cars behind were battling so I kept the position. I wasn't able to gain on the car on front, so it was a pretty uneventful race.

 

[dazdilly75]

Just finished at Interlagos. It was a 148 point GT2 session, by the end of the 18 minute quali I was starting out of P10. There is a massive gap between cars in the rolling start, more than I've ever seen before. The countdown didn't begin until right before the first hairpin, with P1 already 11 seconds in front. I managed to get up to 9th because someone ahead went off first lap, and the cars behind were battling so I kept the position. I wasn't able to gain on the car on front, so it was a pretty uneventful race.

I'm guessing the most exciting part of this round will be the quali session...

 

[newmedia_dev]

GT 2 EMEA Slot 1 A/S - 162pts

Door 3 QT 10th 1.33:3

Uneventful race for most people, penultimate lap the 2 in front get in to it stupidly kill all their momentum for the straight, passing one of them and whack take a small run across the grass rejoin down 1 place while he’s picking himself out of the barrier.

Grabbed 2 more places and finished 8th for 107pts

Not going again.

 

[VTEC Driver]

I am getting tired of GTWS and overall organization.

Destroyed my first race by the usual idiot.

Waiting to enter in the next round and kicked off when the countdown finished…

I am thinking to stop here for the rest of the season.

 

[OJBrit]

Finally had a good race to arrest my current DR slip.

Not a fan of the stupidly long qualy. Did a couple of laps of which my first goes purple heading into Juncao only to be 8 thousands off at the line in P2. I go and sit in the pits after falling to 4th. With 3 mins to go I come back out for one final run and by this time I am 5th. The car in 4th has set the exact same time as me. I don't improve and loose one more place whilst waiting for the clock. But am promoted back to 5th as I set the time first the game swapped us back around. Why not do this when the time is set?

A pretty uneventful start. Everyone makes it through unscathed. I go a little deep into Juncao and the Porsche behind drags past me. But I have a better top end and am immediately back past into the Senna S. The AMG in 2nd has had a couple of slides putting them wide at megulo and the Senna S. They pick up 0.5 penalties for both and they are both very harsh on looking at the replays. I fend the Porsche off for the rest of the lap and also catch up the 3 ahead who are battling. This means I am able to slide past the AMG when it takes it's penalty. Whilst I sometimes catch up the cars ahead it is clear they are faster than me. I also start to gap the Porsche behind a little which is helped by the AMG also catching them. They spend the next few laps catching me but as the great Murray Walker once said. 'Catching is one thing, passing is another.' I knew it would come at some point but they were very patient and neither did I crumble under pressure. (For once!) It came at the start of lap 10. I made them work for it by showing them the outside of the Senna S. They held it fine and had the inside for the 2nd part.

With a 6 second gap to the Porsche behind it was a relaxed end to the race where I could just concentrate on me and bring it home for P5. Rather annoyed I didn't get a CRB but the game is strange in this regards sometimes.

Good luck all.

 

[A1an]

Yea, I cannot make sense of PD's qualifying times. 18 mins at Interlagos for a race that will barely be longer than the quali. There's also an 18 min quali at Sardegna, which is another 12 lap race stint. And at Interlagos the fuel rate is 1x, so it's not like you can just drive around in circles for 15 mins and lighten the car for better time later on as it may help some but likely not a lot.

However, the Spa race which could likely take over an hour depending on weather is a four min qualifier; so that's a definite one shot hot lap.

Just seems to be all over the board.

All that being said, I was happy to see the Nord quali was dry for everyone. I never much liked the ones where it could rain, and some people got a good lap in where others didn't/couldn't. It also helped with keeping space between cars as if rain was threatening during quali everyone would go out at the same time and it became a cluster.

It is like they are trying to get to the hour they say is the time required for the race, by making the qualifying longer, Wednesday for the Nring the time was thirteen minutes so you only had one hot lap, so one mistake on the second lap and it was all over.

 

[VTEC Driver]

I decided to take another tentative.

EMEA GT3 14:00
Qualified P2 Arrived P2.

What to say… with the ugly race of the previous round I lost some DR so I entered in a lower level group even if the lap times were better than the previous race.

The British driver in P1 was around 1 sec faster than me with its McLaren.
At the start no issues with the followers and then I was able to start with my pace.
After a couple of laps I was 1.2 sec from the first one and the same with the third one.

I kept my pace arriving at 11 seconds from the first and with around 6 seconds on the third.

Driving alone, keeping the concentration and almost relaxed at a certain point.

I wish you all to have a clean race.
This make a huge difference.

 

[Moose78]

A general racing question...

I've been doing some custom races against Sophy (boost set to 'weak') to practice for today's race. I've been finding that Sophy is much more adventurous than the regular AI when it come to diving into corners, especially at T4. On more than one occasion, I left the door open, not seen the dive coming, turned in on car, and PIT maneuvered myself. I'm finding that if I want to protect against that, I need to get defensive, and take the inside line into any corner where I'm being followed closely.

But that's gotten me thinking. How close is 'closely'? How far back does an attacker need to be before I can stop worrying about a dive being viable? Do any of you have a rule of thumb for when you defend? The approach I've been adopting in my practice races is to defend if a car is any less than 0.6 seconds behind. I'm curious if there are other ways of approaching it. Thoughts?

Good luck to everybody who has yet to race!

 

[watto79]

A general racing question...

I've been doing some custom races against Sophy (boost set to 'weak') to practice for today's race. I've been finding that Sophy is much more adventurous than the regular AI when it come to diving into corners, especially at T4. On more than one occasion, I left the door open, not seen the dive coming, turned in on car, and PIT maneuvered myself. I'm finding that if I want to protect against that, I need to get defensive, and take the inside line into any corner where I'm being followed closely.

But that's gotten me thinking. How close is 'closely'? How far back does an attacker need to be before I can stop worrying about a dive being viable? Do any of you have a rule of thumb for when you defend? The approach I've been adopting in my practice races is to defend if a car is any less than 0.6 seconds behind. I'm curious if there are other ways of approaching it. Thoughts?

Good luck to everybody who has yet to race!

This won't help but, it depends on what you think the driver behind will do, you kinda need to get in their head. If you regularly race with the same people you get a feel for when they will and won't attempt a move. For example some people I know, in the early stages of a race will work together so I know I don't need to defend even if they're riding my bumper.

Towards the end of a race the need to defend increases as people try to improve their position.

So it's all a bit situational (in my experience).

If I was going to stick a rule on it, if they're over .5s back at the braking zone I'm not defending. Of course this doesn't stop some people from trying so.....

 

[newmedia_dev]

But that's gotten me thinking. How close is 'closely'? How far back does an attacker need to be before I can stop worrying about a dive being viable? Do any of you have a rule of thumb for when you defend? The approach I've been adopting in my practice races is to defend if a car is any less than 0.6 seconds behind. I'm curious if there are other ways of approaching it. Thoughts?

This is probably the most difficult thing in “AI” and what separates every human.

I typically don’t drive a defensive style, I’d rather have the space to take the racing line or avoiding line on the inside if I need to. The racing line also give me the control of lining up a cut back/switcheroo etc. even if I’m faster I tend to pick a moment rather than keep probing or pushing just so that the race pace doesn’t drop to far.

This style of racing has another benefit is that my moves are clear, my intentions are clear and I’m not known as “weavey, blocky, over defending etc”

I posted on the dailies thread about en extremely fast driver who moved a fair bit in the braking zone to be overtaken and it’s never a classy look.

So to directly answer you, Sophy probs like more of a sweaty driver, but a lot of good drivers won’t pressure so hard but pick moments. I don’t think you can account for it other than trying to persona racing personality types?

 

[Stilva]

I entered the 12pm EST GT2 slot and had a heck of a time qualifying. I was in P12 until about 2 minutes left where I shot up to P7.

But it didn't matter as some idiot took offense to me passing them and dumped me on the pit exit straight. Good job dummy. So I go on to finish P12 and will need to run it again at 3pm as I have some errands to run.

Here is the incident. Now, I did slightly hit them, but we could have gone on our merry way.

 

[tmtk]

GT2, US first slot, low B lobby, 65 points for the win

Did a few qualy laps with best one of 33.7 (not too great, not too bad).
That gave me early 3rd spot and although I tried for a bit more, finally decided to wait the final minutes in the pits.

My 3rd spot held.

Start went uneventful, on the first lap I already noticed where I gained on the P2 Ferrari.
Starting lap 2, Ferrari did a mistake in Senna esses and that allowed me to overtake on the exit.

On lap 3 the leading Alfa Romeo went too wide in turn 7 and earned 1 second penalty, that allowed me to take the lead after Juncao. Alfa dropped to 3rd but overtook the Ferrari quite quickly. They were very quick in the Alfa and soon enough they were under 1 second behind me.

On lap 4 after the esses (which I didn't do very good) they were about 0.6 seconds behind me and strangely decided to dive to my inside on turn 4 from very far. That was never going to work and while I was already on the throttle to the apex they hit my rear axle.

My Honda was unsettled but did not spin (very stable, that car), but the Alfa spun badly and dropped way down the order.

After that I just concentrated on managing the gap behind. The Ferrari driver wasn't particularly fast so apart from my own little mistakes here and there I had no problem of keeping them in safe distance.

So that's the end of the story, I brought the lead home.

P1 and 65 points - very nice.

 

[Zorz]

Painful race for me in slot 1. This extended qualifying certainly shows up that Interlagos is not a track I'm good at. My best lap was a 1:32.679 and that was only good enough for P14, and one person didn't load in. My free practice best would have barely taken P10.

The race starts and to my sheer disbelief I got punted off turn 1 by the Lambo behind me. How on earth do you get turn 1 wrong when there's nobody behind you? The Lambo didn't even get any damage for it, just to add insult to injury.

I momentarily picked up a place when an Audi served a penalty, but couldn't hold it. I was genuinely not up to par in that lobby. I could just about keep up with the pack at the back after managing to close up from their early fighting but that was it.

At least there was some karma, as the Lambo got turn 4 wrong on lap 4 and spun himself out. He then spent the rest of the race in the pits.

I did manage to make one attempt to overtake a McLaren on lap 8 after getting alongside on the run down to turn 4. I had the inside and stopped it on the apex, but then he turned in on me as if I wasn't there, which destabilised my car on the kerb.

I ended up coming P13 in the end solely because somebody quit. I'm currently in two minds as to whether to try again. On one hand, the DR loss might put me into a lobby where I'm a bit more competitive. On the other, I really don't like all guns blazing sprint races like this.

​

 

[newmedia_dev]

On one hand, the DR loss might put me into a lobby where I'm a bit more competitive. On the other, I really don't like all guns blazing sprint races like this

This is the dilemma, I won this race last time round in the Porsche but it was a lower lobby.

This time round I’m very much gonna settle with the points. The main thing for me is just not missing a round if I can help it, just scoring and grinding through. I don’t feel ill be good at Spa or *Catalunya based on my sighting laps the grip is very different!!

All that aside race because you enjoy the race, I can’t be bothered with the QT waiting to be honest on this one it’s just not worth it when the reality is the times are fairly settled after a couple of laps.

Edit *Catalunya

 

[A1an]

😯 This happened!

 

[Fezzik]

Euro GT3. Boring sprint. All I can say is at least it wasn’t on hards. Qualified 7th, in line with practice times and 3 tenths off the front row. Picked up a couple of places through other driver’s mistakes. The podium was a couple of seconds ahead for most of the race but I didn’t have the speed, literally on the straights in the low-power Porsche.

Only 1 penalty - track limits when I missed turn 1 on the penultimate lap, cost me 4th place. DR and SR went up so can’t complain too much. Catalunya should be ok but I’m not looking forward to Spa and Suzuka much unless it rains. PD, give my RSR some of its horses back!

 

[stpatty]

Qualifying was great. I was in provisional pole for a while then the other top cars gradually eked out a few hundredths here and there before I pulled something out my arse on my last lap:

(incidentally @Zorz if I'm qualifying faster than you I wouldn't bother going again mate, no offense)

Unfortunately I didn't get settled in right away and got glued to one of the kerbs in the infield:

Lost two places, down to 4th. The Greek guy fell back a bit about halfway through but I couldn't really get close enough to go for a move. The Audi at the back of this picture caught right up at the end and forced me to go defensive a few times on the last lap, but I made it. 148 points.

I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I think the new bop makes the GT-R a bit more manageable in the twisty stuff here, but if everything is so slow that nothing can overtake then what's the point?

 

[Stilva]

I entered the 2PM slot instead of the 3PM slot and had a terrible race. This one was all on me as I had no pace or rhythm. I qualify and finish P11. I had troubles with the exit of turn 4 today for some reason. I got loose trying to correct an almost spin on lap 1 then got hit by the driver behind and that sent me flying off track. They had nowhere to go so I can't blame them. I got the same amount of points for reach race at 41. Just not a good day today.

 

[Wilsonson]

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I don't have time to read or search.

Im in GT2. 12 laps on mediums with 2x tire wear. Is this a no stopper?

Is there any rain?

Is there any other strategy or race specific tips anyone can give?

Thanks a lot. Will be my first GTWS in forever. Didn't know that they finally added later time slots again.

 

[newmedia_dev]

Sorry for the dumb questions, but I don't have time to read or search.

Im in GT2. 12 laps on mediums with 2x tire wear. Is this a no stopper?

Is there any rain?

Is there any other strategy or race specific tips anyone can give?

Thanks a lot. Will be my first GTWS in forever. Didn't know that they finally added later time slots again.

It’s a sprint race, just drive as quick as you can.

Also the race regs are on 2 of the screens you have to click though

 

[CTRL Garage]

EMEA slot 1 - race started well, going from the back of the field to mid pack. Was great for the first half with a tight respectful pack until one person came through and wrecked p7-14 by using us as their brake pedal…
5/10 race to be honest, but hey Labre competition livery this round which looked great on track