Genesis Magma Racing “proud” after encouraging FIA WEC debut weekend

Genesis Magma Racing achieved many of its goals on its debut weekend in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), with both cars finishing the 6 Hours of Imola. The GMR-001 Hypercar proved its reliability and racing credentials over the combined Prologue test and race week, its record spoiled only by an issue in the opening hour of the race for the #19 car.

Team benefit from humble approach

Both GMR-001 Hypercar showed strong pace throughout the series’ official Prologue test and practice sessions. The team’s preparations for the race culminated in qualifying, when Mathieu Jaminet set a best lap just 1.2 seconds from the fastest time in the first qualifying session – a promising benchmark for the brand-new team and car. The result was evidence of the hard work put in during the 499 days between the initial announcement of the team’s WEC entry and the first competitive track sessions for the 2026 season.

The honour of starting Genesis Magma Racing’s first race was given to André Lotterer and Dani Juncadella, in the #17 and #19 respectively. From the start, the team kept to their pre-event aims – focusing on the aspects of the race within their control, the reliability of the GMR-001 Hypercar and avoiding risks and penalties. The performance of the car was strong enough that this humble approach began to pay off. 

Jaubert – the youngest driver in the 2026 Hypercar class - ran as high as the top ten, the Frenchman benefitting from the team successfully avoiding issues, while taking advantage of those who did not. As the drivers on track began to accomplish their aims, so did the team, executing each pitstop efficiently and navigating the Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car periods that punctuated the first half of the race. Mathys Jaubert pitted from twelfth at the end of his double stint. However, the choice not to change tyres – waiting for rain that was never heavy enough to affect track conditions – left Pipo Derani unable to match the pace of those around him.

Rather than take risks in defence, the Brazilian focused on Genesis Magma Racing’s own targets to bring the car to the finish. He crossed the line two laps down, though the second lap was only given up on the final tour, congratulating the team over radio on making fine first steps with the car as he did so. 

Though both GMR-001 Hypercar had run without any serious issues throughout the pair of Prologue test sessions and the race weekend, the importance of reliability in WEC competition was reinforced within the first 15 minutes of the race. A sensor issue in the #19 car, started by Dani Juncadella, necessitated a 30-minute stop in garage for the team to solve the problem before returning to the race, running without any further problem until the chequered flag to gain vital experience for team and drivers – Jaminet and Paul-Loup Chatin – ahead of the coming WEC events.

Genesis Magma Racing Team Management Quotes

Cyril Abiteboul, Genesis Magma Racing Team Principal said:

All the way since we arrived for the Prologue, the team had a very encouraging start. As a new entrant, we would never be set on outright performance, therefore we had assigned ourselves targets of reliability, and execution. We started the week by focusing on accumulating mileage, something we achieved without issue or mistake during the Prologue and the free practices. Qualifying went to plan, but we could feel for the first time the pressure from a real competitive session. It was no different today, and the race did not start well with an electronic issue on the #19 car that we elected to fix in the pits. On their side, André and Mathys in #17 car could enjoy some very exciting racing against a number of other cars, but unfortunately the rain expected did not come when we pitted P9 for driver change. From that point, Pipo had to manage both tyres and energy until the end. The main conclusion of this week is the strength of our foundations, and the potential of our racing team. I am very grateful to everyone who have entrusted both Luc Donckerwolke and myself to establish this program, our Executive Chair, our Vice Chair, our CEO. I really hope that we made them and the entire Hyundai Motor Group proud of Genesis debut in such a highly skilled World Championship. I am very pleased with the work achieved by the team and after this week we have lots to analyse back at base. But for today we are exactly where we worked to be at the start of our programme.

Gabriele Tarquini, Genesis Magma Racing Sporting Director said: “We did it! Our plan was to finish with both cars. The #17 was great – very good pace, and our approach was really conservative on the tyre choice but the pace was there. The first four stints were very good. And at the end, Pipo was very, very good and had a lot to deal with but he also showed the speed. The #19 car unfortunately had the small problem with a sensor in the beginning and lost 22 laps. That was a shame but after this problem they showed very good pace as well. Both cars were classified and watching the team we did not lose a single second on the pit stops. We have mechanics here who have never approached the WEC before. This really is our first time, and the team didn’t lose a second on any pit stop and we should be very proud of the job from the team.”

Justin Taylor, Genesis Magma Racing Chief Engineer said: “I don’t want to say that I can’t believe it, because what we have achieved was our target – but I can’t believe it! We did not just bring both cars to the finish but we were actually discussing strategy calls and racing hard against other cars that have been here for some years. That makes me incredibly proud of the team and the drivers and the engineers and mechanics – everyone. It’s really cool to put this particular foundation down as a base to work from. Of course we want to win every race, but success looks like this for us today. All we wanted to do was learn, not repeat any mistakes that we made and we did that. It’s going to take a while to download all the data, we’ve only run as far as we have this weekend once in testing before now. But really, I think that we can be proud of every aspect of what we have achieved not only on the track but also behind the scenes in the way that the Genesis brand has been represented, with the look and feel that has been created, and in the level of support we have enjoyed from headquarters to reach this point. Now the hard work begins!”

Anouck Abadie, Genesis Magma Racing Team manager said: “It’s a first step but a very good one. We are extremely happy. It was our objective to finish the race, no matter the position, and really 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 mega job. Perfect. Thanks to Genesis for their support and belief in us, I think that this performance reflects that belief. I think the most important thing that I take away from this first experience is the way that the team came together to perform in a way that you couldn’t have imagined for what was their 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 that we know what to do.”

Driver Quotes - #17 GMR-001 Hypercar

André Lotterer

André Lotterer said: “It’s a very emotional moment, I think, for all Genesis Magma Racing to reach the end of the race and achieve the target we wanted. I see a lot of smiley emotional faces because it was not an easy task, you know, in 500 days to build a team and be operational – and we really were operational. We were in the mix at some points with the #17 GMR-001 Hypercar, P10, I had fun in the car in the first two stints and I was able to stay with the pack. Mathys was in the mix for his stints. Then we had a strategic choice, we expected the rain to come right after the pit stop handing over from Mathys to Pipo so we took the decision not to change the tyres because we expected we would soon change to wets. And the rain didn’t come! So Pipo did a really good job to keep our race alive on those old tyres, it was not so fun for him but it’s just the beginning. I think we can be really proud of everyone. Thank you to Genesis for having me, for putting together this group and so much heart into it. We didn’t look stupid and we have built a good base to work with, and now the machine has started. 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. So we have started now and there’s no getting out of it!”

Mathys Jaubert

Mathys Jaubert  said: “I was quite excited to start this first race with Genesis Magma Racing. Watching André and Dani at the start was a good feeling, with lots of excitement, and then it was my turn. I have to say I am really happy with what I did on track. We had a lot of fights with other manufacturers, this was no issue for us, we took no penalty, nothing, so we have to be happy with this. The team can be proud of how it has started its FIA World Endurance Championship story I think.”

Luis Felipe ‘Pipo’ Derani

Pipo Derani said: “We just tried something different with the tyres on my stint because we knew there was a lot of potential for a lot of rain so decided to keep the worn tyres on the car, try to gain a few seconds, anticipating that we would anyway have to come in for rain tyres. But the rain never came! Nevertheless, I am so proud of our achievements today, we have come such a long way to be here, we arrived with the intent of finishing the race and here we are with two cars at the chequered flag. We’ve learned so much during the week and I can only be proud of the massive job we have done. This is Day Zero and we should be proud of how we have started. I want to say a big thank you to the whole team, particularly to Cyril for putting so much trust in me so early on and for the whole Genesis group to have taken 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.”

Driver Quotes - #19 GMR-001 Hypercar

Dani Juncadella

Dani Juncadella said: “A lot of positives to take from the week. We’ve been seriously competitive considering it’s been our first weekend. We started with a faultless Prologue test and ended with our sister car in the top 10 with two hours to go. Both cars made it to the finish. It is all really encouraging because we are here to compete, we’re here to race, so we can take a lot of encouragement from our performance and the fact that there really were no issues at all until the sensor on my car cost us time. But although it was an interruption it doesn’t take anything away from this positive first week for the team, or how we look ahead to the rest of the season from here. Now we go to Spa, one of my favourite tracks, so we will see how much we can learn from today and carry that with us.”

Mathieu Jaminet

Mathieu Jaminet said: “Getting two cars to the finish is the biggest goal for this week achieved. I feel bad for the guys who have prepared the #19 car because they have been faultless, they have done a mega job, and the issue that we had with the sensor does not represent them or how we have been running all week. We have been running without any issues all week, so it’s a bit disappointing, but it shouldn’t bring anyone down. We have seen our sister car prove that it can run in the top 10, I think our pace in the race improved again, the setup changes and things we have tried are all working. 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 to the front. I think Imola is more of an old school track, Spa will probably give us some more answers before we go to the big one in France but then later in the year I think we will have learned a lot from here this week.”

Paul-Loup Chatin

Paul-Loup Chatin said: “We have to be proud tonight. We brought the car back in one piece and we learned a lot. We have done such a lot of mileage and without a doubt the pace is there in the car. I am incredibly impressed by the team, with all of the work they have done. Now we need to work super hard, we need to focus on process, because the Hypercar class is incredibly competitive and the gaps between the cars are so close. We know now that the base is there, that the car is good, that the team is good and step-by-step we will work towards our goals.”