The GMR-001 Hypercar Genesis Magma Racing enters Le Mans with has a combined 12 hours of competitive race running in the books after rounds one and two. Those 12 hours have been successful in part, with the #17 taking home points for the team at Spa, but ultimately, as expected, exposed some growing pains.
Talking to DSC about the GMR’s prospects in terms of reliability thus far into the WEC season, team principal Cyril Abiteboul expressed concerns about fixing known electrical issues with the car as the big race nears.
“Reliability at races has not been faultless, it’s not too bad, but it’s not been perfect, so the only positive is that the fact that it’s really well-known areas, we know where we’ve got weaknesses, and if I’m honest, we still have some of those weaknesses here this weekend,” he told DSC.
It seems the South Korean marque has a plan to address the technical problems it brings to this round; however, it will depend on how much time and personnel can be dedicated to mending it in time for the race.
“The sensor issue we had (at Imola) was an easy fix but the whole electronics side of the car still has weaknesses. It’s not the powertrain itself, which so far, touch wood, has been good; it’s the things around it, so they need to be put under the right control.
“Not everything has been fully fixed in the way that we would like. We have some countermeasures, but will those countermeasures be sufficient for 24 hours? Let’s see, we hope so,” he continued.
“We’ve got limited capacity in the way we can address issues that we are facing; we are already flat out [working] on so many things that we have to do. The limitation is not really information, limitation is the time and the number of people that are working on this programme, which is increasing, but that’s another story.”
Genesis went endurance testing to prepare for the season, logging hours behind the wheel to tease out gremlins in its new LMDh car. Operational issues were cited when Abiteboul shared that the team was not altogether pleased with the mileage they completed. And with the planned 10-hour opener at Qatar postponed, the team is still playing catch up.
“We are in the process of completing the time that we didn’t have at the track when we did the endurance test to complete the mileage,” Abiteoul noted.
Only time will tell whether the Genesis team can cope with these persistent issues over the weekend when it embarks on its first 24-hour race. For now, its team boss has conservative expectations, anticipating a possible bout of mechanical bandaging during the race, but is hopeful they can go the distance.
“Statistically, I think the chances that we don’t have to stop at some point and box to change something are low, but the probability for us to compete in the race and still be qualified in terms of race distance, I think, are high.”
