Minassian: IDEC Aiming to “Guide” Genesis to Hypercar

Nicolas Minassian said IDEC Sport is aiming to ‘guide and help’ Genesis through its LMP2 effort as the Korean manufacturer prepares to step up to an in-house FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar program in 2026.

The French squad was selected by Genesis as a development partner, which will manifest in a two-car LMP2 effort in the European Le Mans Series next year.

One of those cars is set to be piloted by Logan Sergeant, Jamie Chadwick and Mathys Jaubert as part of a trajectory program, with all three having the opportunity to graduate to the Hypercar program in future.

Speaking to media gathered at Genesis’ launch event in Dubai, Minassian explained that the Genesis-IDEC partnership was born of “good synergies,” pointing to the proximity between IDEC’s facility in Signes to the headquarters of Genesis chassis partner ORECA and the Paul Ricard circuit as an example.

“I think it’s about last year I contacted Cyril [Abiteboul, Genesis team principal],” said Minassian.

“I wanted to meet Cyril because I can see somebody that has done great stuff in his life as a team principal.

“We met and they didn’t even know they were doing this kind of racing and then it happened that when they announced they are going to start doing this, we carried on the contact because there was some synergy there.

“The feeling was good between each other, which is a big thing as well. And as everything moved forward [with] the choice to go with ORECA, our location [is] very close to the circuit, but very close to ORECA. IDEC is only five minutes away from ORECA.

“And I think our knowledge of racing sports cars, even if it is LMP2 and not Hypercar, we still have a know-how from Le Mans, from regulations, from the sporting side of things, from a relationship with the ACO and the FIA, and it makes sense for them to put a fit on us to be able to not start from scratch.”

IDEC’s tie-up with Genesis coincides with the team returning to a two-car LMP2 effort in ELMS for the first time since 2021, recently confirming a driver lineup of Paul Lafargue, Job van Uitert and Paul-Loup Chatin for its second car.

However, Minassian indicated that the team “were going to do it anyway” when it comes to a two-car effort, even if the Genesis tie-up had not occurred.

“I think the priority was to have a Genesis car on the grid because that’s the way we decided and we filled up a second entry,” he said.

“We were going to do [it] whatever happened. I think it was the plan for a long time. It’s just difficult to get an entry now.

“We used to have two cars in the past. As we were not going to run LMP3, we decided to do two LMP2s.”

Minassian stated that it is IDEC’s target to “guide” Genesis towards its debut 2026 WEC season, with the team having been brought on in a people development role through its LMP2 program next year.

“It’s going to be the team, but for sure we’re here to guide them,” he said.

“We’re here to help them putting it together. You don’t do it in clicking a finger. So obviously we’ll be there. The team is the team.”

To that end, Minassian revealed that Genesis staff will be integrated equally across both of IDEC’s car crews, pairing them with experienced staff in what is essentially a 50-50 split in order to maximize the learning process.

“We’re mixing people all the way around the two cars,” said Minassian.

“There is both cars, I mean there is one car with more people, but there is some of the people will be on the other car too.

“But in each area of the car, there is an experienced person that’s from IDEC and some experienced people from their side.

“So we have people if even though some of them haven’t done any ELMS or whatever or Le Mans, they will be with somebody that has done it.

“So at least engineering-wise, pit stop-wise or [on the] organization side of things, there is always somebody that has done it to give the experience to the guy that hasn’t done it.”