It was highly encouraging to see Genesis Magma Racing move through its first weekend in the FIA WEC’s Hypercar class last month with no show-stopping issues. The team’s pair of GMR-001s, for the most part, ran like clockwork; a sensor issue for the #19 during the race was the only blot on the page.
The big question now, with Le Mans on the horizon, is whether the Korean brand’s new factory outfit can put in an equally strong follow-up performance in its second outing at Spa tomorrow. Driver Mathieu Jaminet certainly believes they can.
“It was very unfortunate that on our side, we had a sensor that didn’t work as expected, which took a bit of time to fix,” he tells DSC, reflecting on the brand’s maiden outing. “The pace we had in the race was quite strong, and the cars have been pretty reliable. We were overall closer than I expected us to be; we completed a good amount of laps across the first week.
“Testing is not racing, but everyone was pretty relaxed, and I was surprised by how we worked as a team. We had things that didn’t go perfectly here and there, but we expected it to be more hectic. It reflects the preparations that we completed over the winter testing ahead of homologation, then in the gap when we should have been at Qatar. I feel the team has stepped up since I joined.”
Jaminet (above, middle), previously a member of Porsche’s Hypercar setup, says the GMR-001 has taken a significant step since he first drove the car back in November last year.
“It’s the reliability of the car that’s really improved,” he adds. “We were running quite a bit in testing, with two cars at the same time, meeting targets, and it all seems to be working well. The car has been able to run for hours without issues, so you can start to focus on unlocking performance.
“I think on the (twin-turbo V8) engine we’ve had some small issues here and there, but it was things around it or on the chassis. The team in Germany has done an incredible job to get it together. It’s been smooth, and I hope it’s going to stay like that because, at the moment, we don’t need to think about it too much. But we should make sure we don’t get too confident about the reliability, because it’s still super early.”
This week in Spa, the team is keen to prove that its showcase of reliability in Imola wasn’t a fluke and that its package will be capable of passing the crucial test to come next month at La Sarthe. But optimising the car’s performance for single laps and multiple stints is gradually becoming a higher priority.
Crucially, though, there is a key difference between the visits to Imola and the Spa: the team already had a baseline established for the former, as it had tested there prior to the Prologue.
This time round, the team is starting from scratch and playing catch-up to its rivals, though there have been encouraging signs during practice. Both cars have run like clockwork, and Jaminet sits 15th in the combined fastest lap ranking ahead of qualifying with a time just 1.2 seconds off the benchmark set by Alpine’s Jules Gounon.
“We have to be realistic with our targets, as this is only our second race,” Jaminet says. “But we’ve done a lot of laps so far. The car is behaving as we expected from our prep, and we have a solid base.
“There’s a lot more margin for improvement, though. We do feel that we are in the mix on longer runs, though, due to degradation. We want consistency over six hours and prove what we can do before Le Mans. It’s exciting.”
Images courtesy of Paul Foster & Genesis
