New Genesis Hypercar challenger starts testing as WEC preparations ramp up

The new Genesis World Endurance Championship Hypercar class challenger has hit the track for the first time.

Genesis Magma Racing gave the GMR-001 LMDh a roll-out earlier this month on Paul Ricard’s training track adjacent to the full circuit.

Both Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani, the first drivers contracted for the Hyundai brand’s two-car WEC assault next year, drove at what was described as a “successful shakedown”.

Derani drove first at the run, which was a prelude to the start of a full development` programme at the end of this month.

No mileage completed has been given for the maiden run of a car which has the full name of GMR-001 Hypercar.

Francois-Xavier Demaison, technical director of the Hyundai Motorsport organisation masterminding the programme, said: “Every bit of running we do with the GMR-001 Hypercar in 2025 is extremely valuable.

Pipo Derani, Genesis Magma Racing, GMR-001 Hypercar

Photo by: Genesis

“The work in preparation that Andre and Pipo have done on the simulator and during the shakedown means that we have a good starting point for the first tests.”

The car that ran at the start of August was the first of three development chassis to be completed and handed over to the Genesis team by ORECA Motorsport, the marque’s development partner for the LMDh project.

A shakedown of the car followed the first fire-up at ORECA’s premises nearby to Paul Ricard at Signes in the south of France last month.

Genesis has stressed that so far it has hit all the targets laid out in its schedule on the launch of its programme in Dubai late last year. Beginning an on-track development programme for the GMR-001 by the end of the summer was among them.

“We are at a time where we seem to be passing milestones every day, but that is exactly what we must be doing,” said team principal Cyril Abiteboul.

“After planning for and talking about these moments for the past eight months, to be able to see a finished car running exactly as we planned is incredibly exciting.”

André Lotterer, Genesis Magma Racing, GMR-001 Hypercar

Photo by: Genesis

The first proper run is scheduled for the full circuit at Paul Ricard, which is adjacent to the new race operations base set up for the WEC programme.

Genesis is in the process of moving into the facility built by Groupe IDEC, the parent company of the IDEC Sport team with which it is running its so-called trajectory programme in the European Le Mans Series.

Together Genesis and IDEC are fielding an ORECA-Gibson LMP2 to help train staff ahead of the start of the WEC season in Qatar next March.