Genesis Magma Racing prepares for first 24 Hours of Le Mans

Genesis Magma Racing expect a tough challenge as it makes its 24 Hours of Le Mans debut. Despite promising results in the first two rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), including a first points finish at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the team has reset expectations for its first start in the centrepiece of the season.

Team prepared for milestone event

The team, who enter a pair of GMR-001 Hypercar in the race, will become the first South Korean manufacturer ever to compete in the famous endurance race. To mark the occasion, the team’s two cars will run in a special livery returning the design to the Magma orange to red gradient design first shown at Le Mans last year on the GMR-001 Hypercar showcar in the manufacturer village. 

Recognising that the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a rigorous test of any team and car, and even more so for a squad in its position – going into just its third-ever competition – Genesis Magma Racing has set humble ambitions for the race. The team’s immediate aim is for both its cars to be recorded as classified finishers, requiring the cars to complete 70% of the total distance completed, as well as be running at the end of the race. This goal requires not only reliability from the cars, but also a mistake-free performance from the pit crew making the race an all-round test for the team. 

For the race weekend, Genesis Magma Racing will also host guests from the growing number of Genesis markets around the world, along with the senior leadership across its global organization. In addition to the Genesis booth in the Manufacturers’ Village, Genesis will also have a strong presence in the paddock this year, bringing to the circuit a taste of its hospitality philosophy of treating every customer as its ‘Son-nim’ (honoured guest) at its global network of studios and showrooms. 

To complete its preparations, Genesis Magma Racing completed an endurance test at Le Castellet. The test gave each of the team’s drivers, including Official Reserve driver Jamie Chadwick, time at the wheel of the GMR-001 Hypercar. A night stint gave Paul-Loup Chatin his first laps in the car in darkness, gaining his first experience of the strong pool of light created by the car’s Two-Line headlights – a signature element of all Genesis designs.

As well as the experience of the 24-hour test, the team continues to learn with each session it completes. Through this process the team has been able to implement many small advances – both technical and operational – based on issues encountered in the first two rounds that will benefit the team at Le Mans.  

Genesis Magma Racing Team Management Quotes

Cyril Abiteboul, Genesis Magma Racing Team Principal said:

Our debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is a huge moment for Genesis Magma Racing. From the moment we made the announcement of the programme, there have been a lot of eyes on this date. Becoming the first South Korean manufacturer to compete at Le Mans is a huge honour, and we will have many guests from Genesis around the world that we can show our work to and bring into the world of motorsport and the unique atmosphere of the 24 Hours of Le Mans specifically.  However, we know that the race is going to be a massive challenge for us – for the reliability of the car, for our operations as a team – so we have to be realistic with what we expect, even after a good start to the WEC season. If we can bring both GMR-001 Hypercar to the finish, that will be the biggest positive we can take for the rest of the year.

Gabriele Tarquini, Genesis Magma Racing Sporting Director said: “The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the race for a driver and an iconic race in motorsport. It is a unique challenge. For Genesis Magma Racing, it is our first Le Mans, and being part of it represents another important step in our story. From a sporting perspective, our target is to have a clean race and maximise every opportunity and keep improving throughout the event. The race is not only about speed, but also about managing energy – the car’s and your own – concentration and avoiding mistakes over the 24 Hours. The most important thing for a driver is to be able to arrive at the start of the race fully prepared and 100% physically and mentally. Le Mans is very demanding from the first day at the track until the chequered flag. Every detail matters to make the weekend as smooth as possible. Clear communication between driver and engineer, traffic management and consistency over the length of a stint are all crucial.”

Justin Taylor, Genesis Magma Racing Chief Engineer said: “There is no race on the calendar that stresses a programme quite like Le Mans. The combination of high speeds, long hours and inclement weather creates a unique set of technical challenges that you simply cannot fully replicate in testing or other WEC events. Reliability is the fundamental requirement for a race of such nature and it is our focus for now. The first two rounds of the season gave us a clearer picture of where our car and our processes needed to mature. We identified specific areas of sensor failure recognition as well as driver interface usability that were holding us back and we've worked hard to implement solutions ahead of Le Mans. We have setup a test plan for the prologue to validate our efforts and allow for adaptation before the race week begins. In the race, our objective is straightforward: finish with the chequered flag waving.” 

Driver Quotes - #17 GMR-001 Hypercar

Pipo Derani

Pipo Derani said: “I'm very much looking forward to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s such a special race. Of course, there's the World Endurance Championship, but Le Mans is such a special race, if not the most iconic race in the world. We were not expecting the result we had at Spa. We worked hard for it, but as a team we want to keep our feet on the ground and make sure we tackle Le Mans with humility. It's not going to be an easy task. It’s by far the biggest challenge we've had so far. But as we've already proved, we are ready for any task. Regardless of how difficult it is, we throw ourselves in. We want to gather as much experience as possible, hopefully get the GMR-001 Hypercar to the end, so that we can use all that knowledge to become a better package for the second half of the season and into next year, and any result we achieve this year is a bonus.”

Mathys Jaubert

Mathys Jaubert said: “My Hypercar debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans is obviously something very special for me. It’s a race every driver dreams about, so to be part of it with the #17 team is a proud moment. I’m really looking forward to the atmosphere, the fans and experiencing the race from inside a Hypercar for the first time. The goal is to have a clean race, maximise every opportunity and bring home a strong result for Genesis Magma Racing. After the strong result at Spa, the team has good momentum, but Le Mans is a different race and we need to stay focused and execute everything perfectly over 24 hours. My LMP2 experience from last year will definitely help because I already know how intense the event is, especially with traffic, night driving and the rhythm of the week. But racing the GMR-001 Hypercar at Le Mans will still be a completely new challenge.”

André Lotterer

André Lotterer said: “The 24 Hours of Le Mans means a lot, not only to me, but all the drivers competing there. It has so much history. It has created heroes of brands and drivers. It's a race where everyone wants to shine. It’s even sweeter if you win, which I've been lucky to taste three times, so Le Mans has been good to me. I always love going there. It's a pleasure to drive on that track, and I'm very excited to go there with our new team and drive the GMR-001 Hypercar there for the first time. The special livery is a real success. The design team did really well. The gradient came out nicely and it will be a nice pop of colour on track. For the race we’re focusing on ourselves, trying to do the best with what we have learned so far. It's always also a big task to be able to reduce the amount of problems and avoid penalties for 24 hours, but who knows? There's always a lot that can happen at Le Mans.”

Driver Quotes - #19 GMR-001 Hypercar

Paul-Loup Chatin

Paul-Loup Chatin said: “Le Mans is special. Its the most important and most beautiful race of the year. I come from Chartres, which is only an hour from Le Mans, so it's completely my home race. A lot of the efforts we make the entire year are for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, so I cannot wait to be there. My first laps in the GMR-001 Hypercar were really good, a super first impression. The team have done a really good job with the lights – the visibility is impressive. We know that Le Mans by night is magic, but if you are capable to see a tiny bit more than the others you have a bit more confidence. The whole car looks great. I think everybody expected an orange livery for us to start the year, but it was nice to start the year with the liquid metal and black, and now we have arrived at the big one to have the full Genesis Magma colour on our car.”

Mathieu Jaminet

Mathieu Jaminet said: “I’m really looking forward to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s the highlight of the year for every single team and driver. I always feel that it is a very special event, especially being French and having a lot of fans there, so you get to feel a bit like a rockstar for a few days. It’s only our third race as Genesis Magma Racing, and our first race that’s more than six hours. Looking at the first two races, we know that the GMR-001 Hypercar has great potential, but we’ve still had small issues here and there that the team has been pushing flat out to solve and be as prepared as possible. As a team we’ve been working well since the start of the season, so we want to keep it that way and have a clean race. Seeing the chequered flag without any issues would be a bit of a win, and if we manage that we should also have a bit of pace to challenge some other cars, so let’s see where we end up.” 

Dani Juncadella

Dani Juncadella said: “I’m excited for our debut at Le Mans – it’s the biggest race of the year and to be taking part with a Hypercar is something to be proud of.  Le Mans is obviously a highlight of the year. It’s a race that I’m super experienced with – I’ve only done it two times before in LMGT3, so it’s a new challenge for me in the Hypercar class. It’s going to be a long week of preparation with the Prologue, which will help us get some lap already and I can see how it compares to the GT car. Physically, Le Mans is not the hardest race because you have a lot of long straights where you can rest, but it’s nevertheless a 24-hour race so it’s always a big test for everybody. We did an endurance test at Le Castellet, so we think we’ve made some steps forwards to move on from the small setbacks we’ve had at Imola and Spa, so the car should be in a good place.”