The development of Genesis Magma Racing’s GMR-001 Hypercar reached a key milestone earlier this month, on July 9th, when the first development car was successfully fired up at Le Castellet.
The chassis in question is Genesis’ first full test car, which will be used for the rest of the year for track testing ahead of the brand’s FIA WEC debut season in 2026.
Work on building the GMR-001 Hypercar test chassis began immediately after the Le Mans 24 Hours last month. Taking place at ORECA’s workshop, located near the site of Genesis Magma Racing’s new Hypercar base and Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France, the initial build work was completed by ORECA’s technicians, with mechanics and engineers from Genesis Magma Racing involved at key stages.
“In a project like this, you have certain dates circled and this was one of them,” said team principal, Cyril Abiteboul.
“The car fire-up was the GMR-001 Hypercar coming to life – a huge step in the story of Genesis Magma Racing. To reach this point on schedule is already a huge achievement and a perfect way to start the next stage of the development process.”
In addition to running the engine through its rev range in each of the seven gears in the transmission, engineers were also able to test the car’s hybrid system, charging the batteries from the engine and then directing the energy to the rear driveshafts.
Work on the engine began in June 2024 with Hyundai Motorsport’s Powertrain Department starting work on the design, which is derived from the motor in the team’s championship-winning FIA World Rally Championship entries. The engine was first successfully fired up in February.
Since then, the company’s engineers have put the engine and transmission through months of testing on different dynos to validate simulations of performance and efficiency. The successful integration of the engine into the GMR-001 chassis now opens the way to the next stage of testing and development work, with the first track running planned for the end of August.
The close co-operation between Genesis Magma Racing and the team’s chassis partner, ORECA, has been central throughout the car build and fire-up process, with the two groups working in tandem to meet the tight deadlines dictated by the GMR-001’s development schedule.
Genesis Magma Racing Technical Director FX Demaison said: “The car build has been about bringing everything together – all the expertise we have within Genesis Magma Racing and at ORECA.”
“It’s now when we can start physically connecting all the different strands of development work that we’ve been following for the last year with our Powertrain and Design teams. The successful GMR-001 fire-up is confirmation of our work so far, but also the start of the next stage of the development that comes with testing.”
ORECA and Genesis staff are now finalising the first chassis for the start of track testing next month before moving on to additional chassis builds.
Images courtesy of Genesis
