Genesis Magma Racing takes best WEC result at Lone Star Le Mans

Genesis Magma Racing scored its best FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) result so far at Lone Star Le Mans, with the #17 GMR-001 Hypercar of Pipo Derani, Mathys Jaubert and André Lotterer finishing seventh. On a day which demanded that the drivers cope with changing conditions and high temperatures, the team reached new heights in its debut season.

Strong pace and reliability are rewarded with result

The strong pace and excellent reliability that the team was aiming for were apparent from the very start of the weekend at Circuit of the Americas. Both GMR-001 Hypercar ran without mechanical issues during every session and, in Qualifying, both cars secured a place in Hyperpole for the first time in sessions using the WEC’s regular qualifying format.

Lotterer looked to improve further on Jaubert’s eighth-placed qualifying results. He moved from eighth to fifth over the first racing lap, following two extra formation laps after rain fell during the pre-race ceremonies. His progress continued until an abortive move for third at the end of the back straight, which resulted in contact and a spin that dropped the German to the rear of the Hypercar field and drew an additional five-second penalty. As a result, the #17 team turned their focus to recovering the lost positions while managing energy and tyres.

A Safety Car in the middle of Pipo Derani’s double stint helped bring the team back into contention, and, following a second single stint for Lotterer, a Virtual Safety Car with just over an hour remaining, delivered the chance to gain further ground, by changing only left-side tyres as Jaubert climbed back aboard for the final stint of the six-hour race.

For the final hour, the youngest driver in the Hypercar class went wheel-to-wheel with his more experienced rivals – some of whom had four new tyres to his two. A move in traffic moved the #17 car to eighth, which became seventh due to a penalty for the #12 Cadillac – improving on the eighth place scored at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps in May.

The strong weekend for the team was completed by the #19 entry of Paul-Loup Chatin, Mathieu Jaminet and Dani Juncadella. Though the final Safety Car fell outside of their pitstop window, and forced them to make a final stop after the restart, Jaminet made sure to keep the car on the lead lap during the frantic final hour to tick off a major pre-season goal for the team to begin the second half of the season.  

Genesis Magma Racing Team Management Quotes

Gabriele Tarquini, Genesis Magma Racing Sporting Director said:

Overall, I’m very pleased with the performance the GMR-001 Hypercar showed both in qualifying and the race. It’s our best finish of the year so obviously we are happy. We will continue to work on the details to take another step forward in the next races. Of course, I’m a little disappointed because we had the potential to have both cars in the top 10 and scoring points. From a race management point of view, it wasn’t easy because the weather conditions changed throughout the race, and the drivers had to adapt, especially during the first part. Today, the difference between all the cars in the race was just a few tenths of a second, which shows just how tight the competition is. It makes the result even more encouraging and gives us confidence that we can achieve even better results in the upcoming races.

Justin Taylor, Genesis Magma Racing Chief Engineer said: “We have to look at the positives from this weekend. We got both cars to finish on the lead lap. That was a big goal for us. We got one of the cars in the top 10. Neither car saw the garage with a technical issue, not only in the race, but in any of the practice sessions. I think we can be really proud of that. We've made some big steps, but we've got a long way to go and this race is gonna give us some motivation for that. On the flip side, we made several mistakes in several different areas, so it was a bit of a wake-up call. We need to polish up our procedures and be a bit smarter next time we come to the track to battle these guys.“

Driver Quotes - #17 GMR-001 Hypercar

André Lotterer said: “It’s more points, and our best result so far this year in seventh, so we managed to recover well from the early race mishaps and after I started super well. I had a great start and we started to move forward, but then I went for the move on the Ferrari. We had a good car and a good setup all weekend. From my side, I had fun in the car – it was great to drive, and we were able to achieve some of our goals. Unfortunately, the sister car couldn’t make it into the points, so we need to see what happened. We still need to improve some aspects, but we're here to grow, to become stronger. We've come to Austin and learned more about what we can do for the rest of the year.”

Mathys Jaubert said: “It was not the easiest final stint. I was fighting with very experienced guys and I was struggling because it was very, very warm in the cockpit. It was tricky because we know our car. We are still developing it and in terms of braking, traction, everything, so fighting with them was even harder. Some cars behind me had four new tyres, so I knew it was impossible to fight with them. But I knew that the BMW, the Peugeot, the Cadillac were on the same strategy, so I tried my best to fight with them and I think I did a good job. We had the pace for the points and I think we deserve this position. I pushed a lot, trying my best to overtake them. I’m very happy about this result. We would still like to have two cars in the points. There are still three races to go, so in terms of strategy, development, pit stop, everything, we still have a lot to learn and to progress.” 

Pipo Derani said: “We'll obviously take this result. It was a very eventful race with lots of Safety Car and Full Course Yellow interventions. It was so crazy. We were at the top, we were at the bottom, and then here we are, finishing P7, taking our best result home and some other big positive points as well. Considering that it's our first year, I think we should be proud of what we achieved today. I couldn't be any happier. We could have done a couple of positions better, but that's almost about it. And I'm proud of how we evolved through the weekend, how we got this car to the checkered flag, and how we continue to develop as a team. It’s been a great weekend for us and there’s still a few more to go, so hopefully we can continue to improve a bit.”

Driver Quotes - #19 GMR-001 Hypercar

Dani Juncadella said: “Overall, it’s a nice result for Genesis Magma Racing, with the sister car finishing seventh and achieving our best result so far. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get both cars into the points, we just missed out. We need to take the positives from this weekend and analyze what we can do better in the future. There is still plenty to learn, but we can be happy with the progress we’ve made. We’re looking forward to the next round, and I think we’ll keep getting better and better. I think we can improve on our restarts and how we can manage in traffic. In endurance racing, that’s obviously a way that you can gain some time and positions, but you can also lose a lot. We’ve shown again what the team and GMR-001 Hypercar can do.”

Paul-Loup Chatin said: “I’m very happy for our sister car to finish seventh, which is a great result for the team and for Genesis. I think we showed some positive things with the work we did throughout the week, with good pace in practice and qualifying and excellent reliability on both sides of the garage. We were running together with the sister car until, unfortunately, towards the end of the race we made a mistake with the strategy on our side. These things can happen, but we need to learn from it, because we had the potential to bring both cars home inside the top ten. We’ll take the lessons from this weekend and come back stronger for the rest of the year.”

Mathieu Jaminet said: “Unfortunately, P15 is not the result we wanted, but it was positive to see our sister car finish P7. However, for the first time, we brought both cars home on the lead lap without any technical issues, so that is an important target achieved. On the other hand, today we had the pace and the cars to have both GMR-001 Hypercar in the points, so it is disappointing not to have converted the potential that we showed in qualifying into a race result. There are clearly areas we need to review, as we did not operate at the level we want to as a team. We will keep learning, keep progressing and make sure we take those lessons into the next race.”