GT Academy, the notable racing program made as a result of cooperation between Nissan and PlayStation, quickly gained recognition for offering PlayStation and Gran Turismo users an opportunity to take part in real racing. Currently running strong in its 8th year of existence, the program has life in it yet as, according to recent news, there are more things to come.
In a conversation with Nissan’s new global motorsport director Mike Carcamo, portal Drive.com gleaned several interesting pieces of information that suggest we could soon witness a great broadening of GT Academy’s program once GT Sport hits shelves in November this year:
“The big question mark was the wait in the GT Sport game. We need a game to play – that’s a big part of it. We can now proceed forward. A lot of people were waiting.”
Taking Polyphony Digital’s partnership with FIA into account, GT Academy will have even more options to track down talented drivers. After all, Carcamo noted that the gamer-to-racer paradigm is still going to be part of Nissan’s planning logistics. Allegedly, preparations for a new entry should be ready for 2017.
Carcamo emphasized the proven success of GT Academy, alluding to several graduates who quickly became part of the real world racing landscape upon completing GT Academy’s curriculum. Lucas Ordonez and Jann Mardenborough in particular fought fiercely in some of the world’s toughest endurance events against some of the finest drivers racing stage can offer. These drivers still successfully compete in various motorsports domains, with Mardenborough claiming his first Formula 3 victory just last month.
Naturally, not all GT Academy graduates can follow such a path. With limited space for new team members, many drivers with good credentials had to step back and pass the baton to others:
“The prize for winning has only ever been one event or one season, we have more drivers than we have rides for. GT Academy contenders need to prove themselves quickly.”
Examples include 12 Hours of Bathurst winner and 2015 Blancpain Endurance Series champion Wolfgang Reip, two-time Le Mans contender Mark Shulzhitskiy, and 2014 European GT Academy winner Gaëtan Paletou, are just a few of the 19 graduates who are not going to enjoy a seat with Nismo in 2016. Rationalization of racing spots is an unfortunate situation for all involved drivers as they may find it difficult to seek motorsports opportunities elsewhere, risking ending their racing careers almost as quickly as they started.
”The difficult part is getting new fans – getting through to them and connecting with them. It’s really important to the brands that customers and fans come out to the events. That, to me, is something all racing series are working hard at. The Australian V8 series is incredible because of the high number of fans that turn out to those events – they’re doing something right. In other series we need to work on it.”
Nissan’s Australian division already gave their full support to the project. They plan on sending GT Academy graduates to the Australian V8 series, with the famous Bathurst 1000 event being their possible first stop. In addition, Australia’s first GT Academy winner Matthew Simmons is already driving for Team RJN in Blancpain GT Endurance Series.
GTPlanet looks forward to continuing our GT Academy coverage.
See more articles on GT Academy, Nissan, and Polyphony Digital.
Well some of us V8 Supercars fans (aka Virgin Australia Supercars Series now…) are waiting for Nissan to make a decision on whether or not they are going to stick around past 2016, so I guess the comments at the end kind of confirm that they are?
I’ve been saying this since GTSport was announced (especially considering the FIA connection). Not surprised, and glad it’s confirmed!
Considering nothing has been said about 2016, it’s more or less a restructuring and setup for GT Sport which is why they haven’t mentioned GT Academy, also I think they are expanding into more markets so it’s probably a better idea to not hold one this year while they nail other aspects down as well as wait for GT Sports release. Want to bet GT Sport will be the go to for GT Academy for the next few years, all the pieces are there all the FIA interaction, real race rules and sportsmanship, etiquette and such in that game. They’ll probably be using the weekly championships to gauge drivers and shape upcoming Academy events.
With sell through of PS4 half of PS3’s lifetime sales already, one would not question the idea to move GT Academy to PS4’s upcoming GT Sport. 40+ million is a significant amount of potential buyers and even if only 3% buy GT Sport that’s still 1.2 million and it’s GT we know it’s going to fly past that number easily. Even with disgruntled leaving it will still bring in folks who like to race online minus the madness that you get normally and if the events are really monitored it will really bring some authenticity to the whole affair. The more I see of GT Sport the more I am convinced that it will really bring a fresh perspective to GT, I’ve got Forza 6 and well aside from doing Time Trials there are no real events at all and public rooms are horrendous when you don’t land in a room with players who drive rather than try to crash to win because their life depends on them winning at any cost. If GT Sport can help alleviate some of that unsportmanlike conduct, racing online could become something we didn’t think. I mean the spectator mode already sounds excellent, unlimited viewership so I can guess we may have officiating from the spectators who watched incidents and actual officials can chime in. There are many things that can grow from what PD decided to do with GT Sport, I think I’ll give this game a fair shake just because it’s a console game going beyond what everyone else has done, brings more legitimacy to all driving games with it. Why not?!
The only thing I would add to that is that GT6 was good enough to hold the 2014 and 2015 Academy qualifiers.
So why not 2016?
If I had to guess, I would put it down to an assumption that too many players have moved on from the PS3.
And therefore quality of the field may be lowered.
Nothing but pure speculation on my part.
“The big question mark was the wait in the GT Sport game. We need a game to play – that’s a big part of it. We can now proceed forward. A lot of people were waiting.”
Well that’s all well and good for 2017.
But what about 2016?
Has it been moth-balled?
2014 and 2015 were almost literally done and dusted by this time of the year.
I don’t see the big deal if they skip a year.
Well it certainly isn’t a big deal for me. :)
Other than enjoying the challenge.
It’s mainly the complete lack of news either way.
And this is the first thing I’ve heard since the running of 2015.
I have been anticipating hearing something for the past few months.
But I guess it’s fair to assume 2016 won’t happen now.
I already knew it was coming, GT Academy 2017 was teased back when I was at the Indonesia International Motor Show (IIMS), a big poster was displayed suggesting the 2017 edition at a side booth on the Nissan display, although the Gran Turismo pods were running GT6 on PS3’s.