This year is shaping up to be a landmark one for Hyundai’s premium brand Genesis as it gears up to move into the top-end of sportscar racing with the GMR-001. While we won’t see it race under its own banner this season, we will likely see and hear plenty from the Korean brand as its new LMDh-spec challenger approaches homologation.
By opting to go down the LMDh route, with its common hybrid system, gearbox and chassis spine, Genesis has reduced the time it will take to be race-ready. It will also benefit from the key learnings of all the other manufacturers who have spent the past two years getting up to speed with the new formula. But that does not mean it won’t have technical challenges to meet along the way.
The first hurdle to jump will come in the next few weeks when its engine hits the dyno for the first time. The GMR-001 will house a twin-turbo V8 based on Hyundai’s WRC inline-four unit, which lest we forget, has already been paired with a spec-hybrid system for its application in rallying; this should at least make integration with the Bosch hybrid unit straightforward. However, nailing the software development associated with marrying the electric and internal combustion power sources will likely prove a complex task.
The decision to use the WRC engine as the base for the LMDh program, according to Hyundai Motorsport’s technical director François-Xavier Demaison, made the most sense against the defined timeframe. And the clock is ticking, as the entire project needs to come together in less than 60 weeks from now if Genesis is to make its FIA WEC Hypercar debut in the 2026 season opener. Therefore, developing a brand-new unit from scratch would have been a colossal task with plenty of risks attached.
“There were more options (for the engine), but that was the only one which fitted in the timeline,” Demaison told RACER. “It was the main reason. We didn’t have time to make two loops on the engine development so we had to shorten the process as much as we could.
“Reusing parts that we knew would not introduce any issues or risks, because we need an engine to start in February on the dyno and then run without any problems. So in the end there was only one choice to use the base of the WRC engine and put it together into a V8.
“The choice was the capacity, which was 400 cc, so if you multiply it by six it’s 2.4 litres, which is not enough, you have to push it too much to make the required 500 kilowatts. So 3.2 litres was a better choice. For sure we would have preferred to use a V6, mostly for weight reasons, but it would have introduced too many question marks and risks for homologation.
“There are some parts which normally need a validation process, like the valve train, the pistons, the conrods, the piston rings, all these parts will be 1 to 1 and for sure we have to redesign the cylinder head. We just want to minimise the number of parts to be fully redesigned and signed off to have an engine ready in time for the project.
“We chose a twin turbo for drivability and it’s the easiest option. If you’re not forced to have one it’s better to have two. If you have one the position in terms of centre of gravity is not that optimum. You have the hybrid but it’s better to have twin-turbo. If you lose one you also have one to finish the race!”
Demaison – who previously served as the technical head at Williams F1 before joining Hyundai – is also in the midst of staffing up for this program. While there will be movement from the Hyundai WRC project, the Frenchman explained that Genesis plans to recruit new staff members with relevant experience for the effort too.
“We really want to benefit from different experiences and cultures so we are recruiting people with various experiences in powertrain like we do for chassis and the race team,” he said. “There will be people well-known in WEC or Formula One joining us in the future.
“The big challenge is to build the team,” he added, “because we have a technical partner in ORECA. We use their spine which is homologated, the style comes from our styling department so it’s our responsibility to adapt it.
“For sure the powertrain is a big challenge too. We have a short timeline to build a team to make the best software possible and the most reliable hardware for the engine as possible, and to race the car in the best way.”
The engine hitting the dyno essentially represents the first major step in Genesis’ road to homologation with the GMR-001 at the end of the year. Then in Q2 the race base in Le Castellet (France) is set to open, before track testing gets underway in Q3.
The on-track program is already mapped out according to Demaison, and it may not be as intense as you’d expect for a manufacturer new to the sport.
Alongside its preparatory LMP2 campaign in the European Le Mans Series with IDEC Sport, Genesis Magma Racing will test the GMR-001 “mainly in Europe” during 2025, before running on circuits in the United States after homologation in 2026 ahead of the brand’s GTP debut in 2027.
“That’s the target at the moment,” Demaison explained. “With the timeline we have it’s difficult to have cars to test in the US, to do wind tunnel testing and to do testing in Europe with two cars. At the moment it’s mostly Europe and at Le Castellet.
“It’s good to be close to a circuit where we can go and test and even spend two hours at the end of the day to sign off new software, spend the night to implement changes then test the next day.
“We have a validation process (to follow) based on what we expect to do with the engine. It’s different for the (ORECA-based) chassis because it’s a known product. The sign-off for all the chassis parts aside from bodywork is already done.
“It’s (the ORECA spine) a proven solution. It gives us flexibility because we don’t have to sign off transmission and the chassis. And a lot of validation of the engine will be done on the dyno.”