Genesis focusing on the basics ahead of its Le Mans debut

Genesis has come a long way in the 542 days since it launched the GMR-001 program in Dubai. The team has been assembled essentially from scratch, the car has been developed, track-tested and homologated, and made its race debut. The team also scored points in just its second WEC race at Spa last month.

But the biggest test in Year 1, the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend, looms. The Korean manufacturer has around 450 guests in attendance for the race, including Chung Eui-sun, the executive chairman of the Hyundai group, for this historic milestone in its sporting history.

Expectations internally are being kept in check, though. This is a new program, with a new car, racing in a category that is stacked with factories that have multiple seasons of experience under their belts. The main objective, like the vast majority of factory efforts in their first 24-hour race, is therefore just to get to the end.

“We’ve had to build everything, not just a race car; we had to find a workshop, a location, find technical partners, build the team,” program boss Cyril Abiteboul says, reflecting on the team’s early days in conversation with RACER. “But it’s been fairly fluid; we’ve put together a clear plan in 2024, and from there it’s been about executing.

So far this season in the WEC at Imola and Spa, both 3.2-liter twin-turbo V8-powered 001s ran well and made the finish, with the No. 17 scoring points in just its second start. But there were teething troubles to deal with, which impacted the No. 19 crew in both races: a sensor issue during the first round and a further electronics issue in the second.

“As a new entrant, you cannot show everything from a pure performance perspective. This is fine, it’s normal practice. So far we’ve felt that the car has good potential in terms of pace, while reliability is something different,” Abiteboul adds.

“The races have not been faultless; it’s not been bad, but it’s not been perfect. The only positive is that the issues have been in well-known areas; we know where we’ve got weaknesses, and if I’m honest, we have some of those weaknesses here this weekend. We have countermeasures. Will those be sufficient for 24 hours? Let’s hope so.

“The sensor issue we had 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.”

The new car and power unite have been solid thus far, although peripherals have caused the team some problems. James Moy Photography/Getty Images

Genesis has pushed hard behind the scenes to prepare for this event, but the journey to this point hasn’t been without its challenges. It completed multiple endurance tests ahead of Le Mans to prepare for its first twice-around-the-clock adventure, but they were impacted by “operational issues.” The ongoing Middle East conflict that postponed the opening round of the 2026 season in Qatar also robbed the team of a useful 10-hour race to kick off its season. And it is still waiting on the delivery of an “F1-level” driver-in-the-loop simulator and seven-post rig, plus a powertrain and full car dyno, which are set to be operational by the end of Q3. Thus, Abiteboul is proceeding with caution this week.

“At this point in the program, any chance to accumulate mileage and data is precious," he says. "It would have been a stretch for the supply chain to go make it to Qatar because we pushed the homologation timing so late. The supply chain would have been under massive stress in order to have enough spare parts. But we would have had a chance to gather more information and address weaknesses in the package.

“So this weekend our focus is truly on reliability and on execution. As for the performance, let’s see what we can do. We should be in the ballpark to be racing, not way behind, but we are clearly the underdog here.

“Statistically, if I’m honest with you, I think the chances that we don’t have to stop in the box to change something on the cars are low. But the probability that we will finish the race is high.

"We’ve got certain areas of the car that are still a cause for concern. There are parallel programs to eradicate that in the future. For now, we have countermeasures; they may be sufficient, but if something happens we will deal with it. It is what it is. We will react in a professional and structured way.”