Genesis Goes from Scale Model to Le Mans in 18 Months

In December, Genesis launched its own motorsports division, Genesis Magma Racing (GMR), and confirmed plans to enter its newly developed LMDh racing car, the GMR-001 hypercar, in the premier hypercar and GTP classes of the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA Sports Car Championship The company confirmed its plan to compete in the highest level hypercar and GTP classes of the FIA World Endurance Championship and the IMSA Sports Car Championship.

Genesis said at the time that it aims to have the GMR-001 hypercar ready in time for the 2026 season of the World Endurance Championship, whose premier event is the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Entry into the sports car championship is scheduled for 2027.

This is a tight schedule that means Genesis will only have 18 months to prepare for Le Mans, which usually takes place in June. Incredibly, development work on the project is hardly complete; Road & Track reported Thursday that Genesis only has a half-scale model of the GMR-001 hypercar it unveiled earlier this month.

However, Genesis already has a good start, as LMDh rules require race cars to use chassis from approved suppliers. It has decided to use the same Oreca chassis as Acura and Alpine. Acura has already used this chassis in the sports car championship and won big.

Also, to accelerate development, some compromises had to be made on the powertrain, Cyril Abiteboul, former Caterham and Renault F1 team manager and GMR team principal, told “Road & Track. Instead of tuning the powertrain from the Genesis portfolio, Genesis will fuse two inline-four engines from Hyundai's successful World Rally Championship program to form a V-8.

Despite the tight deadline, Genesis will not partner with an existing racing team for this program. Toyota is currently the only rival team with experience winning top-level endurance races.

The first drivers to join the Genesis program will be Le Mans winner and current World Endurance Drivers Champion Andre Lotterer and Pipo Delani. Both drivers, along with six-time Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx, who joined Genesis as brand ambassadors in February, will support development beyond 2025. The first circuit shakedown is scheduled for mid-2025.

For more drivers, Genesis has partnered with French racing team IDEC Sport to launch a driver development program. The program will begin next year with LMP2 entries in the European Le Mans Series. American Logan Sargent, recently fired from the Williams F1 team, will be one of the first drivers in the program, along with Jamie Chadwick and Mathis Jobert.