Genesis Magma Racing has taken another major step in the development of its GMR-001 Hypercar, as the focus turned to performance running for the first time during a three-day test at Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours last week.
The test was conducted by the Korean marque’s four confirmed drivers: Pipo Derani, André Lotterer, Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella.
The French venue has become a second home for Hypercar’s newest manufacturer in recent weeks, with Genesis Magma Racing making multiple visits to Magny-Cours since it completed its maiden endurance run at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve in September.
“From our previous tests, I think we have made big progress on the system side.” said Derani. “As we get to the part of the development where things have been stabilized, we can switch focus to getting the maximum from the package we have in the GMR-001 Hypercar and begin to look at performance a bit more.”
“It was a good test for me personally to get more mileage in the car,” Juncadella added. “But it was also a very good test because it’s the first time where we have had a range of conditions at the same circuit to try things with the mechanical setup. We were always moving in the right direction.”
Genesis Magma Racing planned to artificially wet the circuit for the final day of running, to gather experience of the car in wet conditions. Rain on the second day, however, meant that this wasn’t required.
“It was perfect timing,” explained Sporting Director Gabriele Tarquini. “It was planned to test in the wet on the third day, but fortunately, the second day was completely wet, so we didn’t have to wet the track artificially. It actually helped us a little, because we got to run on a very wet track, but also while the circuit was drying as well.
“Wet weather testing is always important with any new car. We know we will face wet conditions in race circumstances at some track, and it could easily be the biggest race of the year, so the team and drivers need to know how the car reacts in difficult conditions.”
Jaubert reflected: “The car was really nice in the wet conditions. We did some running in damp conditions, but also when it was really wet during the night. Overall, we made a lot of systems improvements in the traction control. It’s difficult to compare because we are the only ones on track, but the car balance feels great.”
The relatively low temperatures at the test, which peaked at 17°C on the coldest day, offered a stark contrast with some of Genesis’ prior running over the summer. This gave the team the opportunity to practice new items, such as working on the tyre warm-up process which has proven challenging for many Hypercar newcomers.
“We got a chance to play a little bit outside the box in terms of what you would need to do warming up a tyre to have it ready to race,” said Chief Engineer Justin Taylor. “We can learn things which we wouldn’t get a chance to do during a race weekend and start to build strategies to get heat into the tyres.”
Another new factor for this test was a version of the 2026-spec Hypercar tyre, which was made available for Genesis by Michelin.
“We ran a near 2026-spec tyre for the first time, so we got some experience of how the wet tyres behave with our car,” Lotterer said. “We worked on our systems for first time in the wet, which was very important. We learned about our traction control and all the up- and downshifts to make sure everything works correctly in the wet.”
“We still want to do a lot more kilometres, but this was a very positive three days,” Tarquini reflected. “Everybody is happy about the car behaviour in the wet, and the drivers were able to give good feedback. We had some small problems which we were quick to solve, and we know the direction to go for the next tests, which will be very important.”
The Genesis GMR-001 will make is competition debut at next season’s FIA WEC season opener, the Qatar 1812KM, on 26th to 28th March 2026.
Images courtesy of Genesis Magma Racing
