As we enter our fourth year of the FIA Certified Gran Turismo Championships I am no less excited than I was back in 2018. Last year was a fantastic season of racing and we eventually saw a dominant display from Japanese racer Takuma Miyazono that saw him become Nations Cup Champion as well as being part of Team Subaru, alongside Mikail Hizal (TUR) and Daniel Solis (USA), who won the Manufacturer Series.
Due to the effect of Covid-19, we are missing the atmosphere of our live World Tours and the opportunity to meet our wonderful competitors directly, but we’re lucky that we can still test new ideas and continue to grow the FIA Gran Turismo Championships even in this online only environment.
We’re excited by the new format for the series this year and, with new developments in our broadcast production integrating new technologies, we are certain that we can show everyone even more exciting racing action.
While we are looking forward to getting back to meeting up with competitors and audiences in person, we feel it is right to keep the Championships purely online in 2021. I wish the best of luck to all of the fantastic competitors who will participate within the competition.
The FIA Gran Turismo Championships will start on Wednesday, April 21 – so if you want to enter then make sure you sign up in Sports Mode on GT Sport – you can find the full terms and conditions here.
Details of the different stages and all of our new broadcasts can be seen below. As a reminder, the Championship comprises a ‘Nations Cup’, where drivers compete for their country, and a ‘Manufacturer Series’, where they compete for one of the manufacturers featured in-game, each has a slightly different structure. For anyone interested, make sure you follow us on our social channels and check out gran-turismo.com to be sure not to miss any of the action and get full details on how to participate, and watch the 2021 Season. No doubt we will see some breath-taking, high-level racing again this year in both the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series.
ONLINE STAGE 1 – runs from April 21 and concludes on June 26. Competitors from around the world will race online over 10 rounds of the Manufacturer Series (taking place on Wednesdays) and 10 rounds of the Nations Cup (on Saturdays).
‘WORLD SERIES’ 1 & 2 – this period will also see the global top 16 Nations Cup and top 12 Manufacturer Series competitors (initially selected from the 2020 World Finals) taking part in two new ‘World Series’ events that will be broadcast on Sunday, June 6, and Sunday, July 11, respectively.
‘WORLD SERIES SHOWDOWN’ – The end of Online Stage 1 gives a chance to its best 16 Nations Cup competitors to challenge for a place in the World Series and World Finals against the 16 elite players who contested the first two World Series events. At the same time, team duties will return for the Manufacturer Series with 12 teams of three racers contesting their ‘Showdown’ with World Finals points at stake. The Manufacturer Series World Series Showdown will be broadcast on Saturday, August 21 and the Nations Cup on Sunday, August 22.
ONLINE STAGE 2 – Running from July 7 until September 25 a further 10 rounds each for the Nations Cup and Manufacturer Series provide a chance for competitors to win their place in December’s World Finals.
‘WORLD SERIES’ 3 & 4 – A new-look elite group of players will contest two more race events set to be broadcast on 3 October and 14 November.
WORLD FINALS – Three days of World Finals will be broadcast on Friday 3, Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 December. Friday features the support series, Toyota Gazoo Racing GT Cup. Saturday’s Manufacturer Series final will again see 12 manufacturer teams of three drivers contesting a series of races. Sunday’s finale will be the Nations Cup World Final with the 16 established World Series competitors challenged by 16 new racers who have won their place in Online Stage 2.
