To many casual sports fans, there is only one form of motorsport, that being Formula 1. The truth is, when you look past Formula 1, there is a whole world of different types of motorsport to enjoy. Motorsport Manager has so far focused on open wheel action with their in-game pyramid leading to their in-game equivalent of Formula 1. They are ready to expand their view of the motorsport world with an upcoming slice of DLC that will include GT racing.

Releasing this coming Wednesday, the GT Series DLC (£5.99) is described by the developers thus:

The GT Series expands the world of Motorsport Manager by adding the thrilling new challenge of managing a closed-wheel racing team. Managers can fight it out in two series, the proving ground that is the GT Challenger Series before stepping up to the prestigious International GT Championship. Both championships will be populated with new teams, drivers and staff.

Colour me interested! Despite playing the game at EGX and writing an effusive preview, I haven’t actually checked the game out since it was released. The addition of GT racing should see me getting in on the action. I’m intrigued to see how Play Sport Games have handled the introduction of GT racing, unlike open wheel formula racing where it is fairly straightforward to explain away all of the cars looking the same, in GT racing there are radically different looking cars on the grid.

In the Blancpain GT series, there are cars from 11 different manufacturers, with some having different models competing. Hopefully Motorsport Manager has embraced the ability to really define the shape of your GT racer, but even if they haven’t, some other introductions should make this DLC worthwhile picking up. The handling model has been entirely re-written to make these cars behave more realistically, while new features such as an Energy Recovery System and Three Stage Qualifying are also debuting. The following descriptions are taken from the Steam store page:

Our beautiful GT cars utilise the brand new Energy Recovery System, which is a real game-changer. As the car moves around the track, it harvests energy, which managers can decide to use in two ways: Hybrid mode, which saves fuel, or Power mode, which gives your car an huge surge of energy, allowing for dramatic overtakes and defences of a position.

A ballast system (exclusive to the GT series) changes up practice sessions, impacting the way that managers think about their drivers, with driver weight impacting how flexible your setup can be. Meanwhile, Three Stage Qualifying makes its first appearance in Motorsport Manager, bringing a new challenge on Saturdays. Cars are eliminated after each qualifying round, meaning that getting through to the final stage is all-important. The top 10 cars have their tyre choices locked for the start of the race, forcing more care over tyre usage, as well as new qualifying and race-start strategies.

There will also be corresponding changes to the finances behind the team management. Sponsorship deals are smaller in GT racing, and this will have a direct impact on your budgets, and in turn, affect what you will be able to focus your development on. The new ERS and Qualifying modes can also be transitioned to the open wheel series if you want to meddle further with the technical regulations. I haven’t seen anything yet to say whether you can manage a team that competes in both open wheel and GT series’. That would be an interesting mixture of races to manage.

Alongside the GT Series DLC, there will be a free DLC update called Create Your Own Team, which does what it says on the tin:

The player will be able to customise their team colours, name, logo and uniform.  The update gives the player greater control by allowing them to create and personalise their very own team, and to be their own chairman.

It’s certainly nice to see this coming along as a free bit of content. Combine these together, and I’m certainly keen to get into the hot seat and manage some racing action.