Genesis Admits to Reliability “Anxiety” on Le Mans Debut

Genesis Magma Racing team principal Cyril Abiteboul has confessed the Korean manufacturer is heading into its first 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend with “anxiety” regarding the reliability of its GMR-001 challenger.

The Hyundai-owned brand will be contesting only its third race in the FIA World Endurance Championship with its new ORECA-based LMDh prototype, and is coming off the back of scoring its first championship points in last month’s second round at Spa.

A best lap of 3:27.174 set by Paul-Loup Chatin in the No. 19 car ensured Genesis ended Sunday’s official test day within a second of the pace in Hypercar.

However, more than outright speed, Abiteboul says that simply being able to avoid major reliability dramas is likely to prove the brand’s biggest challenge on its Le Mans debut.

“We’re closer to the bottom than from the top,” Abiteboul told reporters following the test day. “That is very clear.

“What matters is basically the pace [difference] to the guys that will be fastest in the race and how long we can stay on the lead lap. That will always be the target for the start of the race. We think we can do that for a good part.

“I think the main [focus] will be reliability. If we can avoid spending time in the pits, having to repair something, to fix something, to change something, I think we can be there or there about, be racing with most of the field.

“What matters is that we can be in the mix, not for the lead, not for the victory, but we can be with [others], which matters. Reliability, for us, [is] what will be the difference.”

Genesis arrives at Le Mans having completed an endurance test at Paul Ricard in May with two cars, albeit only one of the two GMR-001s was focused on long-distance running with the other instead focused on evaluating different software.

Abiteboul admitted the test was not without its hiccups.

“We did a good amount of running,” he said. “We had issues, let’s be honest, so it’s not like it was a 24 or 36-hour test without any issues.

“We’re coming here with concerns and that’s also why, to a certain degree, the [Le Mans test day] was actually a way to keep on going and accumulating mileage to certain parts that could not complete a full cycle when we were in Paul Ricard.

“There will be concerns, there will be anxiety for the race. It is what it is.

“The positive indication is that we’re talking about a very limited number of areas of concern. We know what they are; we’ve got spares; we know what to do. But we prefer not to have to do it.”

Queried about the GMR-001’s reliability, technical director FX Demaison echoed the suggestion that Genesis was unlikely to make it through the race problem-free.

“If you start to be confident, that’s the beginning of disaster, so you’re never confident,” said Demaison. “We did everything we could to fix [the issues] but it’s a long race and this is a young team, so this will happen again for sure.

“I will not tell you everything is fixed, and we will do the 24 hours without any issue, I would be lying to tell you that.”

Abiteboul added that the postponement of the Qatar 1812km that was originally supposed to mark the GMR-001’s race debut robbed the team of an important chance to gauge its reliability at an earlier point of the season.

“I would have liked reliability to be a bit better,” he said. “Probably the fact that we didn’t have Qatar was unhelpful on that, having a good ten-hour race would have helped to know some of these issues before, and being able to react. But it is what it is.

“Probably on pure performance, we are a little bit better in the sense that we really have great feedback from the drivers about the potential of the car.

“I think the potential of the car is very high. But are not in capacity to extract that.”

John Dagys & Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report