Qualifying for an official sim racing competition in 2026

Two of the competitions we follow have an entry point open to everyone: the Gran Turismo World Series, through the Sport mode of Gran Turismo 7, and the Porsche Esports Supercup, through a public qualifier on iRacing. The F1 Sim Racing World Championship publishes none for 2026. The 2026 qualifiers of the first two are closed. On Le Mans Ultimate, the GMR Esports Series opens its own on 6 October.

The conditions below are those the organisers publish for the 2026 season, read on 30 September 2026. They change from one season to the next, and the rules of the year are what counts.

The online qualifiers are raced in the Sport mode of Gran Turismo 7, on PS4 or PS5. They are open from the age of 7 (6 in Japan) to residents of a participating country, France included, with parental permission under 18. Entry is free, but Sony's French rules require a PlayStation Plus subscription for the whole competition.

Each driver is placed in a league according to their Driver Rating at the time of their first race: GT1 for rating A or above, GT2 for B, GT3 for C and below. Only drivers from the GT1 league can be selected. Each cup has six online rounds, and the final ranking keeps the best five.

In 2026, the Manufacturers Cup qualifiers ran from 14 to 31 January, and the Nations Cup qualifiers from 11 to 28 February. The Nations Cup keeps twelve drivers: the top three from the 2025 ranking and nine qualifiers, four of them from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The live events then require drivers to be 18.

The outcome of that selection can be read on the 2026 season page. France's Kylian Drumont, first in the regional qualifying order for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has 10 Nations Cup points there after the three world series rounds, two fewer than Jose Serrano, ahead of the Tokyo final.

The Porsche Esports Supercup is raced on iRacing, on PC, which requires members to be 13. Two routes lead to the regional championship. The first goes through a national Porsche championship: for 2026, Porsche lists the Porsche Esports Carrera Cup Great Britain, its North American counterpart and the Endurance Trophy Nürburgring, each qualifying up to three drivers. The second is the global open qualifier.

In 2026, it ran from 13 May to 6 June on four circuits, Spa-Francorchamps, Sebring, Suzuka and the Nürburgring, in 30-minute races on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It was open to anyone holding a Sports Car class C licence on iRacing. Up to 32 drivers per region then move on to the regional championship, five races between 27 June and 29 August, whose top eight in each region join the world championship.

The world championship thus brings 32 drivers together over five rounds, from 19 September to 24 October, for $30,000 in prize money, $10,000 of it for the winner. Porsche then invites up to five of them to a selection at the Porsche Esports Performance Center in Cologne, where the best get to drive a real race car. Porsche Motorsport will support one selected candidate, with a Porsche one-make cup as the goal. The current standings are on the 2026 season page.

Formula 1 publishes no qualifier open to the public for its world championship. The nine teams each field a squad of three drivers, two of whom race at every round. The official 2026 driver line-up shows two paths: internal promotion, like Jan Haladej, promoted from development driver to race driver at Aston Martin, and arrival from other series, like Gabor Csontos, who came from the FIA F4 Esports Regional Tour and the Global Mazda MX-5 Cup.

The only open competition launched by Formula 1 in 2026 is an Indian national championship, the F1 Sim Racing India Open, on the F1 25 game: time trials and online qualifying rounds, then national finals. The world championship's roll of honour is on its page.

Genesis Magma Racing opens eight weeks of qualifiers on Le Mans Ultimate on 6 October, free, on PC. The top 20 in the global standings and the top 10 drivers registered in South Korea race a four-race final in December, and the winner will be offered a seat in GMR's esports team for 2027. Entry conditions are detailed in our news article.

The FIA F4 Esports Global Championship invites the top ten eligible drivers from each of its three Regional Tours, Europe, America and Asia-Pacific, held during iRacing Season 3. You must reside in the region of the tour you qualify through. The 2026 season runs from 31 October to 21 November.

Online qualifiers are raced at home, on your own hardware. On Gran Turismo 7, that means a PlayStation-compatible wheel, which our console licensing guide helps you check. On PC, with iRacing or Le Mans Ultimate, any recognised USB device works.

Live events supply the rigs. In 2026, Fanatec announces its Gran Turismo DD Extreme on every rig at the Gran Turismo World Series live events, and the F1 Sim Racing championship was raced on the brand's ClubSport Racing Wheel F1, as the pages of these two seasons show.