As the new kid on the grid, Genesis Magma Racing approached its maiden FIA World Endurance Championship outing at Imola last weekend (17-19 April) with no real performance objectives but aiming primarily to get both of its cars to the chequered flag. It did rather better than that.
The South Korean marque’s preparations for its motor racing bow were distilled into 499 days of intensive design work, testing and development. Its pair of GMR-001 prototypes subsequently took to the track during the pre-season Prologue group test around the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, demonstrating impressive reliability as they logged 319 laps between them and winding up just under two-and-a-half seconds shy of the leading pace.
In qualifying for the 6 Hours of Imola, Mathieu Jaminet more than halved that deficit – marking a promising benchmark for the brand new team and car – although the #19 entry that the experienced Frenchman pilots alongside team-mates Paul-Loup Chatin and Dani Juncadella lost significant time early on in the race due to an electronic sensor issue that took half-an-hour to resolve.
On the other side of the Genesis Magma Racing garage, the #17 GMR-001 crewed by two-time world champion André Lotterer, multiple IMSA title-winner ‘Pipo’ Derani and rising star Mathys Jaubert enjoyed a trouble-free run.
The latter – the youngest driver in the 2026 Hypercar class at just 21 – benefitted from the team successfully avoiding issues and navigating Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car periods, while taking advantage of those who did not, to climb into the top ten at one stage as Genesis ably showcased both its competitive credentials and pit-stop prowess.
The Frenchman passed the mantle to Derani from 12th position at the conclusion of his double stint behind the wheel, but the decision not to change tyres – in anticipation of rain that never truly materialised – left the Brazilian unable to match the speed of the cars around him. Rather than take any undue risks, he focused on bringing the #17 entry safely to the finish in 15th place, two spots ahead of the sister Genesis.
“This is only ‘Day Zero’, and we should all be proud of our achievements and the massive job we have done,” Derani reflected. “We have come such a long way to be here, we arrived with the intent of finishing the race and we got both cars to the chequered flag, learning so much in the process.
“I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to the whole team, particularly to Cyril [Abiteboul – Team Principal] for putting so much trust in me so early on and to the Genesis group for taking this leap into the unknown – and here we are finishing our first race with a very competitive car and great things to look forward to.”
“I think it was a very emotional moment for everybody at Genesis Magma Racing to reach the end of the race and achieve the target we wanted,” agreed Lotterer, for whom Imola marked a return to FIA WEC for the first time since clinching his second world championship crown at the end of 2024. “It was not an easy task to build a team and be operational in less than 500 days – and we really were operational.
“I had fun in the car in the first two stints and was able to stay with the pack. Mathys was in the mix during his stints, too, and then we made a strategic choice – when he handed over to Pipo, we took the decision not to change the tyres because we expected we would soon have to switch to wets, but the rain didn’t come!
“Thank you to Genesis for having me, for putting together this group and putting so much heart into it. We didn’t look stupid and we have built a good base to work with. From now on, there is a lot of hard work, there is no rest, there is always the hunt for performance and you demand more and more. This is just the beginning!”
Notwithstanding the frustration of losing so much time in the opening hour of the race, Jaminet, Chatin and Juncadella echoed their stablemates’ positivity. The Spaniard hailed a ‘seriously competitive’ performance and Fuji winner Chatin professed himself ‘incredibly impressed by the team’, while acknowledging ‘without a doubt’ that ‘the pace is there’ – sentiments wholeheartedly shared by compatriot Jaminet.
“I feel bad for the guys who prepared the #19 car, because they were faultless and did a mega job,” the Frenchman mused. “The issue we had with the sensor does not represent them or how we ran without any problems all week, so it shouldn’t bring anyone down.
“We saw our sister car prove that it can run inside the top ten, I think our pace improved again in the race and all the set-up changes we tried worked. We are definitely in the mix, we have a very strong base and a lot of data to analyse and I’m really looking forward to the next races, because I’m sure you’re going to see Genesis more and more towards the front.”
Having led the ambitious project from the outset, Team Principal Abiteboul was quick to praise ‘the strength of our foundations and the potential of our racing team’, which he stated was ‘exactly where we worked to be’. Team Manager, Anouck Abadie was similarly encouraged.
“It’s a first step, but a very good one,” the Frenchwoman underlined. “We are extremely happy. It was our objective to finish the race, no matter the position, and we achieved that. I have no other words but ‘thank you’ to the entire Genesis Magma Racing team and to the drivers – they did a perfect job.
“The most important thing I take away from this experience is how the team came together to perform in a way that you wouldn’t have imagined it was our first race. I think we have surprised a lot of people in the paddock, and now we can look ahead with the confidence of having shown we know what to do.”
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