Genesis Magma Racing celebrated its best result thus far in the FIA World Endurance Championship earlier this month in Texas, and while the team knew it could have been better still, it will nonetheless head into the final three outings of the 2026 campaign with strong cause for optimism.
Mathys Jaubert hinted at the GMR-001’s potential around Austin’s Circuit of The Americas by clocking the third-fastest lap in FP2 in FIA WEC’s high-calibre, 17-strong Hypercar field. Compatriot Mathieu Jaminet subsequently surpassed that feat in FP3 to go second-quickest, a scant four-thousandths-of-a-second adrift of the outright benchmark.
The two Frenchmen then got both Korean prototypes through to the top ten Hyperpole shootout in qualifying for only the second time, as they secured eighth and tenth positions on the grid for Sunday’s six-hour contest.
When the lights went out, two-time world champion, André Lotterer was immediately a man on the move, climbing three spots to fifth over the course of the opening tour behind the wheel of the #17 Genesis.
The German demonstrated his intent as he relieved Alpine’s Ferdinand Habsburg of fourth, but his charge came unstuck when a failed attempt to pass the Ferrari of eventual winner Miguel Molina for third culminated in a spin that dropped him to the back of the pack and incurred a five-second penalty for the contact.
That prompted an impressive fightback by Lotterer, ‘Pipo’ Derani and Jaubert, aided by the race’s various Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car interruptions. With just over an hour to go, Genesis rolled the dice on strategy by electing to replace only the left hand-side tyres during the final pit-stop phase to vault Jaubert up the order, from where the youngest driver in the Hypercar class grittily went wheel-to-wheel with his more experienced rivals – some of whom had the benefit of completely fresh rubber.
Eighth place at the chequered flag became seventh when the #12 Cadillac was penalised for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage – marking Genesis’ finest finish to-date.
“I had a great start to move forward, and we managed to recover well from the early-race mishaps,” reflected Lotterer. “We had a good set-up all weekend and from my side, I had fun – the car was great to drive, and we were able to achieve some of our goals. We still need to improve some aspects, but we’re here to grow and to become stronger. We’ve learned more about what we need to do for the rest of the year.”
“We’ll obviously take this,” opined double IMSA title-winner, Derani. “It was a crazy and very eventful race with lots of interventions. We were at the top, we were at the bottom and then here we are, finishing P7, taking home our best result and some other big positives as well.
“Considering it’s our first year, I couldn’t be happier. We could have done a couple of positions better, but that’s about it. I’m proud of how we evolved through the weekend, how we got this car to the chequered flag and how we continue to develop as a team. It was a great weekend for us and there are still a few more to go, so hopefully we can continue to improve.”
With the sister #19 entry piloted by Jaminet, Paul-Loup Chatin and Daniel Juncadella winding up 15th, Genesis successfully fulfilled its pre-event objective of getting both cars to the finish on the lead lap. Furthermore, neither crew encountered any technical or mechanical issues, underscoring the GMR-001’s reliability in a race characterised by changing conditions and exceptionally high temperatures. It was, acknowledged Sporting Director, Gabriele Tarquini, an excellent effort.
“Overall, I’m very pleased with the performance we showed,” the Italian summarised. “It was our best finish of the year, so obviously we are happy. We will continue to work on the details to take another step forward in the next races.
“Of course, I’m a little disappointed because we had the potential to have both cars in the top ten and scoring points, but from a race management point-of-view, it wasn’t easy since the weather conditions changed throughout and the drivers had to adapt, especially during the first part.
“The difference between all the cars was just a few tenths-of-a-second, which shows how tight the competition is. That makes the result even more encouraging, and gives us confidence that we can achieve even better results in the upcoming races.”
“We’ve taken some big steps, but we’ve got a long way to go and this race will give us motivation for that,” added Chief Engineer, Justin Taylor. “On the flipside, we made mistakes in several different areas, so it was a bit of a wake-up call. We need to polish up our procedures and be a bit smarter next time we come to the track to battle these guys.”
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