When a tire company is declared the Official Race Tire of a one-make championship, the argument here is simple. All drivers in the grid, in all cars, every round, have confidence in that tire to go to the extreme. No cover behind the differences in setups, no other compound options. The tire either provides uniform grip, heat, and predictability to 17 teams, 58 drivers, and 44 cars or not. In the case of the 2026 Lotus Cup China season, that role is assigned to Giti Tire and its GitiCompete GTR1 high performance tires, which will be fitted to all Lotus Emira Cup cars in a five round calendar between April and December 2026. It is also the most recent twist in a motorsport tale that traces back to some of the toughest racing grounds in the world, in the case of Giti.
The Lotus Cup China: What the Championship Is and Why It Matters
centersThe Lotus Cup China is a one-make racing series based on the Lotus Emira Cup race car, the racing variant of the Emira, the final internal-combustion-engined two-door sports car in the current Lotus line. The hosts of the series are the Lotus sports cars and Mitime Group, and it is run by Beijing Mitime Sports Industry Investment Company. It employs a controlled, specification-based format in which all the cars in the grid are made identically ready, which is exactly what makes it such a challenging environment as a tire supplier. When all the cars are powered in the same way, have the same chassis, and are limited to the same setup, then the differences in performance between drivers are reduced to their capability, their race strategy, and, more importantly, their knowledge and familiarity with the tire beneath them.
The 2026 season opens at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on 3 to 5 April, a deliberate statement of intent. The Lotus Cup China used Sepang as its 2025 season finale, and has now repositioned the Malaysian circuit as its 2026 season opener, expanding its international footprint as the championship grows. The 2026 grid stands at 17 teams and 58 drivers with 44 car entries, making it one of the most competitively populated running of the championship to date.
Sepang International Circuit: Why This Venue Tests Every Tire
The Petronas Sepang International Circuit is unkind to any tire or driver. The circuit, which was designed by German circuit architect Hermann Tilke, and opened in March 1999, is 5.543 km long and hosted the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix between 1999 and 2017, and the MotoGP Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. It features long, high-speed straights, sweeping high-speed corners, a tight hairpin complex, and the Malaysian tropical climate that is relentlessly hot and wet, all of which add up to conditions that put extraordinary thermal and mechanical strain on the tires in each and every session.
Sepang has one of the most unpredictable climates in the motorsport calendar. The temperatures on the circuit face are habitually greater than 50 degrees Celsius during the dry season, and thunderstorms can alter the circumstances in a matter of minutes. In the case of a slick tire that has no tread grooves to direct the water, the difference between the optimum operating temperature and overheating is lower than in temperate European weather. Controlling tire temperature accumulation within a stint, especially in a single-vehicle championship, is a requirement that requires a compound that generates heat faster and, at the same time, dissipates it uniformly to prevent degradation. This is precisely the kind of real-world stress data that Giti engineers collect at every race event, and precisely why Sepang is such a valuable opening venue for the championship’s tire partner.
The GitiCompete GTR1: The Tire at the Centre of It All
The GitiCompete GTR1 is a special motorsport slick tire made by Giti designed to be specifically used in closed-circuit motorsport. The tire is the same one Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing used throughout the Nürburgring Nordschleife during several seasons of the ADAC Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie and the 24-Hour race, which could not be more foreign to Sepang in terms of climate, track character and thermal cycling. It is that breadth of demonstrated performance in conditions that are fundamentally different that gives the GTR1 its plausibility as a single-make championship tire.
In the case of the Lotus Cup China 2026, the GTR1 will be provided in two dimensions: 240/650 R18 on the front axle and 300/650 R18 on the rear. This staggered fitment indicates the rear-wheel-drive design of the Emira Cup car and the resulting disparity in the mechanical load between the front and rear tires during acceleration, braking, and cornering. The rear tire is wider, and has a greater contact patch area to work with when under power; the front is limited to maintaining a balance between steering response and braking stability.
The GTR1’s engineering centres on four performance pillars that are particularly relevant in a spec racing environment. The advanced compound and optimized contact patch geometry are designed to deliver maximum mechanical grip through high-speed corners and under hard braking, the two moments when a driver either gains or loses ground against an equally matched car. The thermal management of the tire enables it to maintain consistent performance over multiple laps, instead of spiking grip during the first lap and wearing out quickly, like in a spec series, which puts the tire wranglers and tire-wastes in different categories. The feedback provided by steering, using the sidewall structure, allows drivers to receive accurate information on the level of grip, which is crucial when competitors are within a fraction of a second per lap of each other. The stability of the compound also ensures that there is no variation in the performance window over a complete stint of a race, and all drivers on the grid have the same set of tools to play with.
A Motorsport Journey That Began on the Green Hell
The answer to why Giti Tire is more than a branding exercise to participate in the Lotus Cup China can be understood by looking back into the history of the company in motorsport, as the GTR1 tire that will be fitted to all cars in the Emira Cup at Sepang was designed and tested over years of racing in one of the most hostile environments of the motorsport world.
Its first appearance was at the Nürburgring 24-Hour race in 2017 when Giti Tire entered one car in its initial season and won second place in the SP8 category. It made a comeback in 2018, bringing along two cars and resumed its activities at the most challenging endurance circuit in the world. The 170-corner, 20.8 km historic racing circuit, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, or the Green Hell, features dense forest and changes in weather so fast that even one lap can start in sunshine and finish in fog. To a tire developer, it is the ultimate test of compound life, thermal control, wet weather transition capability, and mechanical integrity when subjected to constant mechanical load.
As of 2019, Giti had competed four times in the 24-Hour race. In the same year, the Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing Girls Only: Ready to Rock the Green Hell all-female project by the company was the first all-female crew, drivers, engineers, mechanics, and management included, to race at the Nurburgring 24-Hour. The team had entered in a Volkswagen Golf GTI and had made it despite a disastrous engine breakdown that took 14 hours of work to get over the finish line, a feat that had attracted massive international media attention. In Giti 2019 entry, all of the cars were powered by the GitiCompete GGR1.
The culmination of the progress that the Girls Only project had been making was in the next season. The all-female group now racing in an Audi R8 LMS GT4 as an SP8 category car won their first class at the Nürburgring 24-Hour. Carrie Schreiner set the car on pole position in the category with a lap time of 9:19.646 which she had set in wet conditions and Célia Martin set the fastest lap by the team at 9:11.605 minutes. The team managed to complete 52 laps in the course of the race weekend that featured a 14-hour delay caused by fog making it the shortest ever 24-Hour in the history of the event. The class win was a decisive victory with 121 cars taking the start and 99 completing one of the most difficult versions of the race.
Giti’s presence at the Nürburgring has continued to grow each year. In 2024 the team entered an unprecedented five BMW race cars at the 24-Hour, a BMW M4 GT4 for the ‘Girls Only’ project, a second BMW M4 GT4 in the SP8T class, two BMW 330i cars and a BMW 125i in the production-based VT2-R+4WD group. The ‘Girls Only’ car secured a third-place class finish, while a BMW 330i also achieved a class podium. In 2025, Giti entered two cars simultaneously at the 24-Hour, collecting all four vehicles across the finish line, a feat of reliability and consistency in race conditions that lasted 24 continuous hours across one of the world’s most demanding circuits. The NLS season finale that year also saw Giti close out the campaign with all three entered vehicles finishing.
Beyond Endurance: Speed Records and EV Frontiers
Giti’s motorsport program is not limited to endurance racing in Europe. In 2025, the company’s tire technology reached a fundamentally different kind of performance boundary. On 8 August 2025, the BYD YANGWANG U9X electric hypercar reached a new EV land speed record of 472.41 km/h at the German Automotive Testing Papenburg proving grounds, powered by Giti-provided GitiSport e.GGR2 Pro tires, a tire pattern that was created in close cooperation with the YANGWANG engineering team. This record was not to last long. The identical hypercar was reintroduced on 14 September 2025 into the ATP grounds again with a new set of GitiSport e. German racing tire producer GTR2 Pro and German track guru Marc Basseng drove the YANGWANG U9X to a new world record land speed of 496.22 km/h, beating the previous world record of that type set by the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ in August 2019. Giti engineers were on hand in the test to see that the tires were ready and in the best shape to attempt it.
The engineering demands of a tire designed for a production car travelling at nearly 500 km/h are categorically different from those of an endurance slick designed for the Nürburgring. At those speeds, centrifugal forces on the tire structure are extreme, compound temperature management becomes critical within milliseconds, and the contact patch must maintain aerodynamic stability under conditions that no road tire will ever experience. The fact that the GitiSport e.GTR2 Pro achieved the record twice within six weeks is a validation of the development process, the production precision, and the compound engineering behind Giti’shigh-performance passenger car tires programme.
These achievements across endurance racing and land speed records are not separate from each other in Giti’s engineering philosophy, they are connected. Each discipline generates data and insights that inform the others. The thermal management principles refined through hundreds of Nürburgring laps apply to compound development at extreme speeds. The structural integrity requirements of a high-load endurance tire inform the belt and casing architecture of a performance slick for a spec series like the Lotus Cup China.
How Motorsport Feeds Road Tire Development
The connection between what happens on a race circuit and what ends up in a road tire is direct at Giti, and it is measurable. Every race weekend generates data on tire wear patterns across changing temperatures, grip levels under sustained high-speed load, thermal cycling characteristics through repeated braking zones, and compound behaviour as fuel loads change during a stint. This information feeds directly into Giti’s R&D processes at its European Development Centre in Hannover, Germany, and its global facilities in China, Indonesia, and the USA.
The GitiSportS2+ ultra-high-performance summer tire, which earned an ‘exemplary’ rating and fourth place overall from AutoBild’s 2026 Summer Tyre Test from a field of 50 tires, carries compound and structural technologies that are traceable to lessons from the Nürburgring programme. The wet braking improvements and high-speed stability characteristics of that tire reflect the same engineering disciplines that make the GTR1 competitive at Sepang. Similarly, the AdvanZtech 2.0 technology platform that underlies all of Giti’s new passenger car and SUV tires, covering safety and grip, control and handling, endurance, and efficiency, is built on a foundation of real-world validation that motorsport accelerates significantly.
When a driver pushes a Lotus Emira Cup car through Sepang’s Turn 5 and 6 high-speed complex at racing speed, the data being generated, lateral G-force distribution across the contact patch, heat build-up in the sidewall, compound deformation and recovery, informs the next generation of Giti’s road tires in ways that no laboratory simulation can fully replicate. That is the core argument for motorsport involvement as a development tool, and it is the reason that Giti’s presence in events from the Nürburgring 24-Hour to the Lotus Cup China represents a coherent engineering strategy, not just a marketing exercise.
The 2026 Lotus Cup China Season Schedule
Frequently Asked Questions About Giti Tire and the Lotus Cup China 2026
What tire is being used in the Lotus Cup China 2026?
Every car in the 2026 Lotus Cup China season runs on the GitiCompete GTR1, Giti Tire’s dedicated motorsport slick tire. The GTR1 is supplied in sizes 240/650R18 for the front and 300/650R18 for the rear of the Lotus Emira Cup race car.
What is the Lotus Cup China?
The Lotus Cup China is a single-make racing series featuring the Lotus Emira Cup race car, hosted by Lotus sports cars and the Mitime Group. Because every car on the grid runs identical mechanical specifications, the series is a pure test of driver skill and tire management. The 2026 season spans five rounds from April to December, with 17 teams, 58 drivers, and 44 car entries.
What is the GitiCompete GTR1?
The GitiCompete GTR1 is Giti Tire’s purpose-built motorsport slick tire, used in closed-circuit competition events around the world. It has been the tire of choice for the Giti Tire Motorsport by WS Racing team at the Nürburgring 24-Hour and NLS endurance series, as well as in multiple other racing programmes across Asia and Europe.
What is Giti Tire’s history in motorsport?
Giti Tire debuted at the Nürburgring 24-Hour in 2017 and has participated every year since. Highlights include fielding the first fully all-female team to compete at the Nürburgring 24-Hour in 2019, securing a class victory with the ‘Girls Only’ Audi R8 LMS GT4 crew, achieving four class podiums in 2020, fielding an unprecedented five cars at the 2024 24-Hour, and entering two cars simultaneously in the 2025 edition. Beyond endurance racing, Giti tires powered the YANGWANG U9X to the production-car land speed world record of 496.22 km/h in September 2025.
How does motorsport involvement benefit Giti’s road tires?
Race events generate thermal, structural, and compound performance data under conditions that exceed what road use or laboratory testing can replicate. Wear patterns, heat cycling, grip levels under sustained load, and wet-dry transition behavior all feed into Giti’s R&D processes at its development centers in Hannover, Germany and globally, directly informing the compound and structural engineering of its passenger car and SUV tires.
How many rounds does the 2026 Lotus Cup China season cover?
The 2026 Lotus Cup China season spans five rounds, beginning at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on 3 to 5 April and concluding at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China on 18 to 20 December. The other rounds take place at the Shanghai, Ningbo, and Wuhan international circuits.
The Bottom Line
Being named the Official Race Tire of a single-make championship is the most transparent validation a tire company can pursue in motorsport. There are no variables to hide behind, no setup differences that make one manufacturer’s product look better than another. Every driver runs the same car, on the same tire, at the same track. The GTR1 earns its place at Sepang, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wuhan, and Zhuhai by delivering consistent grip, heat management, and predictability across a grid of 58 drivers, the same qualities that Giti has been developing and proving at the Nürburgring since 2017, across 24-hour endurance races, at land speed record attempts in Germany, and through the compound engineering programmes that ultimately reach the road tires that everyday drivers fit to their cars.
The Lotus Cup China 2026 season is both a competition and a laboratory. Giti’s presence as the Official Tire partner connects a prestigious Asian single-make championship to a decade of motorsport development that has been tested on some of the most demanding circuits and conditions in the world. For the 58 drivers who will compete across these five rounds, that pedigree matters every time they brake late into Turn 1 at Sepang.
To follow Giti Tire’s motorsport programme across the 2026 season and beyond, visit giti.com/motorsports.
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