The FIA GT1 World Championship was conceived as a replacement for the FIA GT Championship, which had concluded at the end of 2009. Where the predecessor championship had featured both a GT1 class for top-level grand tourers and a GT2 category for smaller GT cars, the new series focused exclusively on GT1-specification machines in its first two seasons.
Each race weekend consisted of two races. Qualifying used a knockout format across three sessions, with the slowest cars eliminated after each session. The first race of the weekend served as a qualifying race, with its results setting the starting grid for a second, points-paying main race. Both races required a driver change and tyre stop during the one-hour duration. Championship points in the main race were awarded to the top ten finishers using the FIA's 2010 points scale; only the top three of the qualifying race earned points. To defray costs for competing teams, the SRO provided free transport for cars and equipment as well as airline tickets for ten staff members per team.
Six manufacturers contested the inaugural 2010 season. Chevrolet, Maserati, and Aston Martin carried over the Corvette C6.R, Maserati MC12, and Aston Martin DBR9 that they had raced in the former FIA GT Championship. Ford, Nissan, and Lamborghini brought new or significantly modified cars built specifically for GT1 regulations: the Ford GT1, Nissan GT-R, and Lamborghini Murciélago R-SV respectively.
For 2012 the series originally planned to allow 2009-specification GT2 cars from the former championship and current GT3-spec machines to compete alongside the GT1 cars, anticipating that a mixed-class field would maintain grid sizes as GT1 entries declined. No GT2 teams came forward and only a handful of GT1 runners were willing to continue, so the SRO decided the 2012 season would be contested exclusively with GT3-specification cars while retaining the GT1 name in the series title.
The championship toured three continents across its seasons. In Europe the series visited the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal, Silverstone in Britain, Paul Ricard in France, the Circuito de Navarra in Spain, and the Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic, as well as alternating between Nürburgring and Sachsenring in Germany and between Spa-Francorchamps and Zolder in Belgium. Silverstone held the distinction of awarding the historic RAC Tourist Trophy to its winners. In Asia the series raced at the Ordos International Circuit and Goldenport Park Circuit in China. South American rounds included Potrero de los Funes in Argentina and Interlagos in Brazil. The Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates provided the series' sole Middle East venue.
In the 2010 season, Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini, who had previously won the FIA GT Championship on three occasions, took the Drivers' Championship for Vitaphone Racing Team in their Maserati MC12. Aston Martin won the SRO Trophy for Manufacturers. For 2011, Maserati withdrew and the defending champions did not return, reducing the field to 18 cars from five manufacturers. Germans Michael Krumm and Lucas Luhr of the JR Motorsports Nissan team won the 2011 Drivers' Championship, while Hexis AMR secured the Teams' title for Aston Martin. In the final 2012 season, conducted under GT3 regulations, Germans Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock of All-inkl.com Münnich Motorsport won both the Drivers' and Teams' championships driving for Mercedes-Benz.
The FIA GT1 World Championship folded after 2012, with the series morphing into the FIA GT Series for the 2013 season. The championship struggled throughout its existence with the fundamental tension between the performance and cost of genuine GT1-specification machinery and the practical difficulty of attracting enough manufacturers and teams willing to sustain that investment across a globe-spanning calendar. Its three-year lifespan demonstrated both the appeal of a world championship format for GT racing and the commercial difficulty of sustaining one at the GT1 level of technical specification.