The full schedule for the 2022/23 Exhibition Series of the Gran Turismo 7 Online Championship has been announced, with a handful of changes as the series previews the upcoming esports event.
It’s set to be a considerably shorter series than we’ve seen in the past, with only three races in each of the two championships — the Nations Cup and Manufacturers Cup — running for two weeks each.
The action gets underway on Wednesday December 28 in the Manufacturers Cup and Saturday December 31 in the Nations Cup. Each subsequent round is one week after the previous event, with the full schedule being as follows:
2022/23 Exhibition Series Season 1 – Manufacturers Cup
- Round 1 – December 28 – Deep Forest Raceway Reverse/Gr.3 – 18 laps
- Round 2 – January 4 – Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta/Gr.4 – 16 laps
- Round 3 – January 11 – Autopolis International Racing Course/Gr.3 – 16 laps
2022/23 Exhibition Series Season 1 – Nations Cup
- Round 1 – December 31 – Suzuka Circuit/Honda Civic Touring Car – 8 laps
- Round 2 – January 7 – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Rallycross/Gr.B – 8 laps
- Round 3 – January 14 – Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta/X2019 – 24 laps
For the most part the events are relatively simple in terms of tire requirements. Three races have mandatory tires — Manufacturers R1 and R3, Nations R3 — but in each case the tires required are both of the available compounds for the race. Nations Cup R1 also has a mandatory pit stop though no change of tire is required.
In every race, players will have a five-minute qualifying session in which to set their best lap time to determine the grid order — even on the short Barcelona Rallycross course — although the start type hasn’t been specified for all races yet.
One big change for this series is the increase in entry slots available. There’ll be ten in total, mostly comprising two banks of five slots each with a race every hour and a pause between them (except for Oceania in the Nations Cup, which has no pause). That means races will run across the bulk of the day, covering up to 12 hours in some cases.
Entry Slot Timings (UTC)
- Asia (Nations): 0200, 0300, 0400, 0500, 0600, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400
- Oceania (Nations): 0100, 0200, 0300, 0400, 0500, 0600, 0700, 0800, 0900, 1000
- Asia-Oceania (Manufacturers): 0400, 0500, 0600, 0700, 0800, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400
- Europe/Middle East/Africa: 0800, 0900, 1000, 1100, 1200, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800
- Central/South America (Nations): 1400, 1500, 1600, 1700, 1800, 2100, 2200, 2300, 0000 (+1), 0100 (+1)
- North America (Nations): 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, 2300, 0000 (+1), 0100 (+1), 0200 (+1), 0300 (+1)
- Americas (Manufacturers): 1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, 2300, 0000 (+1), 0100 (+1), 0200 (+1), 0300 (+1)
However, as we’ve seen throughout the life of the official Gran Turismo esports series, no matter how many slots you enter you will only score points in the last one you enter — even if you disconnect and score zero. There’ll likely be a rush to score points in the first and last slots, but more sensible driving in the others.
Once again the series operates on a bracket system, with players who have a Driver Rating of A or better in the “GT1 League”, those with a DR of B in the “GT2 League”, and those of DR C or lower in the “GT3 League”.
Although your Driver Rating may change across the course of the event, you will be locked into the League appropriate to your Driver Rating when you enter your first race in each championship.
Only those players in GT1 League will be eligible for finals events — although we don’t expect any invitations on the strength of this series, you never know — and the coveted “S” Driver Rating rank. However you’ll score championship points, relative to the Driver Rating score of all players in your particular race, no matter which League you are in.
Given the “Season 1” tag, we’re expecting to see more Exhibition Series coming in early 2023, ahead of an announcement of the official 2023 championship and Gran Turismo World Tour.
See more articles on Gran Turismo World Series.
