The greatest compliment you can pay Genesis Magma Racing right now is that, as a new team in a deep Hypercar field packed with established factories, it looks like year two instead of year one for its LMDh programme.
The young Korean brand’s first foray into motorsport has taken no time at all to turn heads in its first season. Both GMR-001s finished on debut at Imola, the #17 crew scored their first World Championship points in Round 2 at Spa and finished the Le Mans 24 Hours, and now, with a race weekend to spare, Mathys Jaubert has scored the team its first pole at Barcelona.
Genesis has become the 11th brand to score an overall pole position in the FIA WEC, and Jaubert can now claim to be the championship’s youngest-ever pole-setter at just 21. His pole lap, which he admitted to DSC was a little messy but still quick enough to beat the other nine drivers’ efforts in the Hyperpole shootout, was a major progress marker.
Still, the ‘Baby Driver’ is all business and keen not to get complacent ahead of the race.
“It’s a track that suits me; it’s where I won my first race with Genesis in LMP2 last year, and where I have my first pole,” he explained. “In the end we put everything together in Hyperpole, and we did it.
“It means a lot; I’m happy about the result, and the whole team is. But I’m thinking about tomorrow already. It’s probably going to be the most important one of the year.”
For Cyril Abiteboul, the GMR team principal, today’s performance was also validation not only in the team he has assembled, but in his decision to invest in a Trajectory Programme and Jaubert, who burst onto the scene and looked special the moment he pulled out of the pit lane in an LMP2 car last year in the European Le Mans Series season opener.
“We’ve been making statements; we’ve been feeling the car was good, that our drivers were capable, and the team was coming together,” he said. “But you know, it’s one thing to say it, it’s another thing to do it in certain sessions and deliver when it really matters. We all know Barcelona is a benchmark track, so to do that here is really good.
“It’s also nice to do it with Mathys, because he’s been with us since day one. It was a daring choice to build the programme with him, but I am very happy to have done this journey today.
“When we decided to take on this journey in WEC, I proposed to top management that we should invest in a young generation and give an opportunity to drivers who have been around but maybe not given the right opportunity. Mathys was clearly coming from the right formula; in GT racing, we know the parallels, and so it’s good to have this result.”
Tomorrow’s race brings with it a lot of unknowns. The Genesis team, by its own admission, has made some key operational errors through its first six races. There’s still a lot to learn, and it remains to be seen whether it is ready to put everything together and claim silverware after six hours of racing.
There’s also the threat of rain tomorrow, which is sure to affect the hierarchy, especially as many of the Hypercar teams haven’t yet tested the brand-new Michelin wet tyre compound, which debuts this weekend.
Still, whatever happens tomorrow shouldn’t detract from the achievement of today. Jaubert’s teammate Andre Lotterer said he felt that the result in Hyperpole shows that Genesis “means business”. He’s right.
Genesis looks like a real disruptor in Hypercar, a new force that’s almost ready to challenge for wins and titles on a regular basis and put the other manufacturers on notice.
Pictures courtesy of DPPI
