Gran Turismo and FIA to launch Online Championship

The Gran Turismo series of video games have always emphasised realism and track accuracy. This level of realism is now getting official recognition by one of the most prestigious agencies when it comes to automobiles – the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Recently, the FIA and Gran Turismo developer, Polyphony Digital Inc. (PDI), entered a long-term partnership to further develop the Gran Turismo series.

FIA has certified four of the circuits that feature in Gran Turismo 6, after they conducted an inspection on the track models used by the games creators by comparing them to their real life counterparts. Other circuits are set to undergo further evaluation.

As a second key element of the partnership, FIA and PDI plan to launch an official FIA Online Championship in 2015 with the intention of offering a large number of Gran Turismo players and motor sport fans the opportunity to engage with real motor sport.

Its certainly an interesting prospect for the game, especially as it increasingly becomes an avenue for some into actual racing. Further details of how the championship will work have yet to be announced, with the main prize for winning such a series also still a question. But with the FIA onboard and a championship in the works, such an avenue will only become more apparent as the costs of becoming a racing driver at an amateur level are increasingly high.