Gran Turismo 7: Controls Guide for PS4 & PS5 and Gameplay Tips for Beginners

Gran Turismo returns with its seventh numbered installment after Gran Turismo Sport served as the buffer between Gran Turismo 6 and 7. Gran Turismo 7 maintains much of the core features from games past, meaning that it will most likely challenge you.

Whether you’re a fan of Gran Turismo or are trying it out for the first time, Gran Turismo 7 is sure to test your abilities in the driver’s seat. Read below for complete controls and tips – geared toward beginners – on becoming your own version of Ayrton Senna or Lewis Hamilton in Gran Turismo 7.

Gran Turismo 7 PS4 & PS5 default controls list

• Steering: LS
• Acceleration: R2
• Braking: L2
• E-Brake: Circle
• Reverse: Triangle
• Shift Up: X
• Shift Down: Square
• Camera Control: RS (while driving)
• Look Back: L1
• Change Driving View: R1
• Nitro and Overtake: R3
• Select MFD+: D-Pad Right
• Select MFD-: D-Pad Left
• MFD Up: D-Pad Up
• MFD Down: D-Pad Down
• Toggle Headlights: L3
• Flash Turn Signals and Hazards: Touchpad (push left, right, or middle)
• Pause Menu: Options

Note that the left and right analog sticks are denoted as L and R, respectively, with L3 and R3 indicating the action when pressing the joysticks. The above image also shows the various gaming racing wheels compatible with Gran Turismo 7.

The controller layout can be remapped to your liking. With that, here are some quick tips to help you not only win your races, but to build up your stock of cars.

Choose the settings that best fit your experience

You are given three Assist Preset settings as you begin the game: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. They have features commensurate with the difficulty. Beginner gives the most help and leeway while Expert provides virtually no in-race assistance.

For true beginners, Beginner setting is probably best. The thing that makes it stand out is the Auto-Braking applies to both braking and steering. On Intermediate, the Auto-Brake is only for braking. Both will include Driving Markers (points on the course) and Driving Line (optimal path). On Expert, only Driving Markers is activated, so your results will truly be based on your skill.

The Driving Line is probably most critical for beginners. As it reveals the ideal path for each course, it helps you maintain good discipline while also changing color to indicate when you need to brake. After racing on enough courses or races with this setting, you should gain an understanding of generally what constitutes an optimal path should you change the settings to Expert.

Further, you can decide how you want to accelerate and decelerate. If you’ve been playing racing games since the late 90s and the Aughts, you might be used to using X and Square to accelerate and brake. During the last decade, more racing games shifted to having R2 and L2 as accelerate and brake, which is also the default for Gran Turismo 7.

Between the two, flipping those also flips the manual shifting buttons should your transmission be set to manual. With the default R2 and L2 settings, X and Square become the manual shifters. On the opposite setting, R2 and L2 function as such.

The other setting is to use the right analog stick for both acceleration and braking. Pushing the right stick forward will accelerate while pulling it back will brake. R2 and L2 function as the manual shifters in this setting.

You’ll also be asked about race difficulty. Simply put, on Easy, AI cars are slower; on Normal, they run at standard speed; on Hard, AI cars are faster, making it even more challenging if your Assist Preset is Expert.

Look for the orange compass

As you explore the World Map in Gran Turismo 7, you may notice an orange compass icon appear. This icon is to help lead you to your goals and tasks. When in doubt, look for the compass.

The orange compass for the pictured Sunday Cup is indicating that the reward car is one needed for one of your tasks. Luckily, all you have to do to obtain the Gift Car is to place third or higher – though you should always go for first for the best rewards!

By the way, when you’re given your choice of three starter cars, pick whichever you please. The differences between each are negligible and any of the three should blow past AI cars in the early cups.

Restart races and make sure to get the Clean Race Bonus

To help in the above regard, make liberal use of the ability to restart races! In Gran Turismo, only your records of races you’ve finished are logged in terms of time and race position unless racing against other players on line in Sport mode. This means if you go off-track, hit a barrier, just couldn’t overtake the first-place driver, or any other hindrance, you can easily hit Options to pause the race and hit Retry with no penalty.

Another reason to retry so liberally is that you should always aim for the Clean Race Bonus, which will add 50 percent to your winnings! In the early stages of the game where the payouts are minimal, adding 50 percent will help to more quickly build up credits to purchase cars, make upgrades, and more. In later race where the winnings are far higher, adding 50 percent will turn your 80,000 credits to 120,000 credits, a cool 40,000 extra!

Nothing is more frustrating in Gran Turismo than having a clean race, but being a bit careless and scraping a wall or going slightly off-course on the last lap. However, if you do, at least you can retry.

Hit your Daily Workout for potential Gift Cars!

In Gran Turismo Sport, the Daily Workout was introduced where you would need to drive a certain number of miles or kilometers. This would generally be around 28 miles or 45 kilos. Any mode where you were racing counted – Time Trials, online, License Center, etc. In Sport, hitting this would result in a Gift Car, though after a bit of time, the Gift Cars became redundant.

Gran Turismo 7 still incorporates the Daily Workout, but a slight change has been made to the reward. You will see your Daily Workout – at least what you’ve done thus far – in the top toolbar. After every race, it will show you how many miles or kilos you earned and how many you have left. Once you hit the mark, instead of a gift car, you will receive a 1-Star Roulette Ticket.

In the above picture, the roulette landed on the large pile of coins, which added 10,000 credits. Later, a separate 1-star ticket landed on the small pile of coins, which drew 2,000 credits.

These Roulette Tickets are also given out for different aspects of the game, but you will most likely receive the majority through the Daily Workout should you play frequently. If you want to maximize Daily Workouts with prizes and the modes available, then it’s recommended to play only until you hit your Daily Workout and stop until the next day. This way, you really only have to do each race once – unless of course, you’re fine with repeating races to hit your Daily Workout in the future.

Here’s where restarting races, the Clean Race Bonus, and the Daily Workout all coalesce: while your time and credits will only apply and be recorded if you finish a race, your Daily Workout will fill no matter if you finish. So, if you retry a four-mile track three times and nearly finished each time, you’ll have added between nine and just under 12 miles to your Daily Workout. This means you can conceivably hit your Daily Workout on one track if the track is pesky enough for you to retry enough times.

In any case, your quickest way to prizes and potentially new cars will be through the Daily Workout.

Better your skills early with the Licensing Center

If you find yourself having troubles on the race track, it’s recommended to hit the Licensing Center and earn the different licenses. One, you’ll have to earn your National B license for a task early regardless, but two, each license path is meant to teach you the basics and finer points of racing with cars of different makes, models, and most importantly, speeds.

The National B license is easy enough to obtain as it’s filled with the most basic of racing exercises, like taking high- and low-speed corners, going in-out-in for S-corners, and braking, among others. The bottom of the screen will also show that you can gain two gift cars, one for finishing each path with all bronze and all gold finishes.

In addition to learning racing tips, this is also an easy way to gain cars!

If you’re still struggling, there are a few separate menus you can find in the main menu from the home screen that will take you to online tips and handbooks. These will include everything from detailed written advice on racing as well as taking photos.

There you go, your complete controls guide and tips for Gran Turismo 7. Choose the settings that best fit you and jump into the driver’s seat of “the real driving simulator.”