A notification that the player has been given a 1.5 second penalty for barrier contact in GT Sport.
The start of a penalty zone in Tsukuba Circuit in GT Sport.
A Penalty is a punitive action against the player that features in all games since Gran Turismo 4. It is used as a deterrent for dirty racing by slowing your car down to a speed of 50 km/h (31 mph) for a minimum of 3 to a maximum of 20 seconds (3 to 10 seconds in GT6). In GT5 Prologue, GT5, and GT6, penalized cars will become semi-transparent and can't collide with other opponents. If a False Start Check occurs, any cars that do not continue to apply the brakes when the race starts will incur a penalty, and will only accelerate to 10 km/h (6 mph) for 4.5 seconds.
Penalties were also incorporated into Gran Turismo Sport and Gran Turismo 7, where it varies depending on the driver's poor conduct. Should the player incur penalty time, and the "Slow Down" message is flashing, after 20 seconds the player will incur an extra 1 second of penalty time every 2 seconds of race time which was later reduced to 50% of draining following the March 2019 Update. In online races, if the amount of penalty time is over 60 seconds, the player is at risk of disqualification which only occurs in GT Sport's Sport Mode which would be applied before the March 2019 Update.
Penalties are applied automatically from GT4 to GT6, however, in GT Sport and GT7, penalties are the player's responsibility. Driving slowly and carefully will subtract time from the total penalty, however in Sport Mode races (from November 2018 onwards, after being tested at Gran Turismo World Tour events as early as September 2018) drivers will be unable to serve penalties and at any point of the race and they can only be served at a specified penalty zone, where the car will automatically ghost and slow down when crossed. Should the driver not follow the tire/pit requirements during a race if the setting is turned on (for example, in Sport Mode races as of September 2019), then the driver will receive a 20 second post-race penalty (later increased to 1 minute in April 2020 for FIA races; the penalties remain 20 seconds in Daily Races until this was also later increased to 60 seconds).
In GT Sport and GT7's Sport Mode, most penalties (usually excluding shortcut penalties) also result in Sportsmanship Rating deduction. In rare situations, it is also possible to be disqualified from a Sport Mode race for being involved in too much accidents (the game will give a final warning before this), after which the player is placed under probation and must earn a minimum, specified SR rating in succeeding races to be removed from the probation (GT Sport only; not yet known for GT7). Pausing or stopping the car on the road for too long is also grounds for disqualification.
The penalty system in both GT Sport and GT7 were often critized for the penalty algorithm often penalizing players that were deliberately rammed off by other players whereas offenders that deliberately caused the crash rarely receiving penalties themselves. The penalty system was also critized further for AI opponents that never receive penalties for both corner cutting and ramming, with these reasons left completely unexplained by Polyphony Digital.
For Arcade Mode and online lobby races, penalties can be turned off in the options menu or lobby settings menu respectively (by the room owner), if desired.
For World Tour events in GT Sport and GT7, including tape-delay race events, penalties are assessed by human stewards, instead of the in-game penalty system. This caused a controversy during the 2020 Asia-Pacific Online Regional Finals where several drivers from the Australia/New Zealand region were penalized for allegedly crossing the red area of Fuji International Speedway's pit entry road, despite the incident occurring due to the players in question suffering from latency (typically, penalties are not given if the game proves the incident was caused by network latency issues).
Causes[]
GT4 & GT4 Prologue[]
- Colliding with walls or barriers
- Colliding with opponent cars
- These only apply to Special Conditions events and Arcade Mode (when enabled); however, the game will always penalize the player, even if the AI opponent had caused the incident
GT5, GT5 Prologue, and GT6[]
- Colliding with walls or barriers
- Colliding with opponent cars
- Cutting the track
- False starts (online only)
- Finishing the race with the wrong tires or with no pit stop (if the setting is toggled on with minimum amount of pit stops or tire change requirement)
GT Sport and GT7[]
(Note: These penalties do not apply for AI opponents, even if they have caused incidents such as corner cutting and ramming.)
- Colliding or grinding with walls or barriers
- Colliding or ramming with other opponent cars
- Cutting the track or running wide
- False starts (online only)
- Ignoring colored flags
- Yellow flag: Overtaking or passing any car, except incapacitated cars
- Blue flag: Refusing to let a faster driver give way to a lapped car (depending on ghosting settings, it is impossible to ignore blue flags, such as in Sport Mode).
- Finishing the race with the wrong tires (in Sport Mode races requiring use of specific tire compounds)
- Finishing the race without meeting the required number of pit stops (in Sport Mode races)
- Blocking another car (occurs randomly; invoked in World Tour/Online Finals events if the blocking is deemed illegal)
- Bump drafting (occurs randomly)
- Crossing the pit lane lines (in World Tour events only in GT Sport; also applies for all players in GT7)
- However, improper pit entry may be grounds for reduction of SR in GT Sport's Sport Mode races.
- Driving dangerously post-race accident (in World Tour events only)