Two weeks on from the Genesis GMR-001’s maiden endurance test at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Portugal, the Korean manufacturer’s quartet of confirmed factory drivers have reflected on what they learned across three days of track time.
Pipo Derani, André Lotterer, Daniel Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert shared the GMR-001 during 32 hours of continuous running, with the latter pair both driving the car for the first time.
“My first laps in the GMR-001 Hypercar were an incredible experience. I loved it,” Juncadella said.
“From the get-go, what an amazing car. You can tell what a great base we have, and it’s only been like six of seven days of development on track. Of course, it was tough because I was jumping straight into an endurance test for my first ever laps in the car, but I think it was obviously a good test for my fitness and I think I did very well.”
The Spanish driver, who is racing in both LMP2 and GT3 machinery this season, is well-suited to assess how the GMR-001 fits into the current sportscar racing ecosystem:
“I think it’s a pretty good combination of the LMP2 and a GT car. I would say in terms of driveability it may be closer to a GT in many aspects. However, we have no ABS in Hypercar, so that makes it tricky.
“The Hypercar has a lot of systems that you need to think of, a lot more technical things that you need to learn to understand than in the other cars. It has some downforce in high-speed sections, very close to what an LMP2 delivers but the GMR-001 Hypercar is a lot more powerful so that’s really, really enjoyable.”
Jaubert concurs: “The driving style you need is closer to a GT than a single seater or Prototype, like the LMP2. I think it’s the weight, which is creating a lot of movement in the car and makes it really rewarding to drive fast. It was like I was dreaming.”
As part of Genesis Magma Racing’s Trajectory programme, Juncadella and Jaubert have spent the 2025 season racing in the European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport, scoring LMP2 honours in three of the five races to date.
“I think the biggest thing I’ve learned during my season with the Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory programme in LMP2 and the European Le Mans Series is what I need to do in terms of feedback,” said 20-year-old Jaubert.
“What information do I need to give to the engineer and to all the staff to improve the car. This is something very important in this kind of test with the Hypercar, where we are at the start and we need to develop the car. As drivers we need to give great feedback, but be very clear and focus on a specific point.”
The Trajectory programme was designed to develop more than just drivers, with Genesis staff also being integrated into the world of sportscar racing. This is already paying dividends for those involved.
“Having Mathieu Leroy as the engineer we are talking with makes it even easier,” Jaubert admitted. “We’ve been working together all year in ELMS, so we know each other’s language, and he knows my strengths and what I want to have with the car.”
Whilst Juncadella and Jaubert were new to the GMR-001, Derani and Lotterer could use the test to build on their previous running in the 3.2-litre twin-turbo V8-powered machine. Portimao still offered plenty of new experiences for them, however, such as running the car at night for the first time.
“There are some things that are not the priority which jump up the order when you are driving at night for the first time,” Derani explained.
“So we weren’t particularly focusing on dimming the steering wheel display, for example, and then we got to the night for the first time and I couldn’t see anything. Later we would be able to do that ourselves in the car, with the settings we control as drivers, but those comfort things haven’t been something we’ve focussed on yet.
“It’s been more about the critical systems – the engine, the chassis and so on. Once we have our heads around those things we can make sure we have a look at the little things, making sure we put all those boxes away for the car to be complete and ready to go into competition.”
With the on-track development programme still in its early days, the Brazilian is happy with the progress so far:
“Considering we’ve only done six test days, we’re moving forward quickly. There’s obviously a lot, especially on the systems side, that we need to keep working on, but the Genesis Magma Racing team has been doing an amazing job so far.
“There are a few areas where we could be better than we are, but there are others where we are better than we expected to be. That’s part of the development and here we are, after only our sixth test day, already doing a 30-hour test. The GMR-001 Hypercar is going well so far. We had some issues to fix, but that’s expected – that’s why you do tests like this.”
Three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Lotterer is all too aware of what it takes to win the FIA World Endurance Championship’s blue-riband event, which Genesis will take on for the first time next year.
“When you are planning to race at Le Mans, it’s a 24-hour race, so the car needs to be reliable. These tests are the first steps to stress the car over longer period of time and learn about all our components because everything is new,” the German said.
“It’s actually much more for the team, engineers and for the people who are behind the whole concept of the car than the driver. Of course, for us, it’s also good to get a feeling for the car over longer distances, especially learning a bit more about the tyre degradation and also comfort for the drivers.
“Usually at an endurance test you don’t do that much setup work. Instead, you focus on having the car on track as much as possible. It was good that we have managed to do that relatively early on our testing journey which only started at the beginning of August.”
The Genesis GMR-001 is scheduled to make its racing debut at next year’s FIA World Endurance Championship season opener, the Qatar 1812KM on 28th March.
Images © Drew Gibson / Genesis
