Genesis Magma Racing reveals GMR-001 Hypercar for 2026 FIA WEC season

Genesis Magma Racing has unveiled the GMR-001 Hypercar that will represent the manufacturer in its first season of motorsport, competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The car is the product of a tightly packed schedule of design, building and development.

Design shows close connection between road and race cars

The GMR-001 Hypercar is proudly ‘Designed by Genesis’ – a statement carried on the front bodywork of the car. The design – the result of cooperation between Genesis’ own design centre and chassis partner ORECA – takes Genesis’ commitment to ‘Athletic Elegance’ in its designs to the extremes permitted by designing a high-performance race car for the highest tiers of motorsport. The aerodynamic requirements provoke long, simple flowing lines interrupted only where necessary, emphasizing the Genesis brand’s luxury credentials.

Most noticeably, the GMR-001 Hypercar features Two-Line design headlights, similar to those found on Genesis road cars. These were specially designed for the race car – a risk given the importance of good lighting in WEC competition. Happily, the design of the lights, and their performance, were quickly validated during the first endurance test of the car, which took drivers through the night at the Circuit Internacional do Algarve in Portugal in September. 

The connection between road and race cars is underlined as the GMR-001 Hypercar carries the Genesis wing logo prominently on the centre of the nose – truly representing the manufacturer on track.

Team hit development schedule on tight deadlines

Despite the tight time frame dictated by a 2026 debut, Genesis Magma Racing has reached every milestone on schedule. The first Genesis G8MR 3.2l Turbo V8, based on Hyundai Motorsport’s in-line 4-cylinder engine from the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC), was fired-up in February 2025, exactly as planned. 

While testing of the first powerplants was underway, adding further powertrain components as the work progressed, the first GMR-001 Hypercar chassis were built to the LMDh technical regulations by chassis partners ORECA, close to Genesis Magma Racing’s own base at Le Castellet. Chassis and powertrain were united for the first time in August 2025, and testing began later that month. 

“From the start we wanted to be working with the best partners and resources we could,” said Genesis Magma Racing Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul. “Working with ORECA and the experience they have was a natural choice, while using the base Hyundai Motorsport’s WRC engine gave us strong, proven high-performance engine. These choices were very important in the early development to help us meet the deadlines we had set ourselves.”

Early reliability targets passed during testing

The first running specifically took place at Circuit Paul Ricard to allow ORECA technicians and Genesis Magma Racing’s own engineers to quickly find solutions to any issues that arose during the first runs. Over the course of track testing the GMR-001 Hypercar completed nearly 25,000km on circuits representative of those on the WEC calendar, with one engine completing nearly 9,000km – a vital target.

“We set some high mileage targets for various components and we achieved most of them, but more importantly, the mileage has been productive,” said Genesis Magma Racing Chief Engineer Justin Taylor. “As well as endurance, we also focused on making sure we could run consistently to our full potential within the WEC technical regulations.” 

Good progress on those targets during early testing allowed the team to increasingly hone the performance of the car, including simulating the demands of WEC events and runs in different conditions, including on a wet Magny-Cours circuit in October.   

“Our first target this season is to finish races,” Taylor looks ahead to the start of the 2026 season. “No problems. No penalties. Then we can start to look to move forward in the Hypercar class, step-by-step, Hyperpole appearances, achieving finishes on the lead lap, challenging for top fives on pace.” 

Livery takes Korean identity on track

The two GMR-001 Hypercar that will take to the track for the start of the FIA World Endurance Championship season will proudly carry the Korean flag, announcing Genesis as the first Korean manufacturer to enter the series. As well as the national flag, the car livery also features the traditional Korean Hangeul lettering for ‘Magma’ – “마그마”. The characters are central to Genesis Magma Racing’s identity, with its consonants “ㅁ, ㄱ, ㅁ” inspiring the geometric Genesis Magma Racing logo that will be carried in the team’s signature Magma colour on the engine cover of both GMR-001 Hypercar.

Hyundai Motor Group President and Chief Creative Officer Luc Donckerwolke said:

The design work started during the very first test at Paul Ricard circuit in August where we had a full naked carbon fiber car as canvas. While applying our design philosophy principle “athletic elegance” to the livery, we focused on respecting the shapes of GMR-001 Hypercar and its details such as the Two-Line headlights and the parabolic line in the body. As a Korean manufacturer, we also wanted to honour our roots and heritage by utilising the word “magma” written in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet. Throughout the design evolution, this element became a strong graphic identifier that we decided to use not only for GMR-001 Hypercar but also for our garage, structures and team uniforms.