Hyundai Motorsport boss Cyril Abiteboul explained why Genesis is taking part in the European Le Mans series this year ahead of the 2025 World Endurance Championship factory program.
Hyundai’s luxury car brand will be represented by Elms this year, and partner team IDEC Sports will enter ORECA 07 with the LMP2 class of Jamie Chadwick, Mattis Jaubert and Daniel Jancadilla, with Magma Racing banners.
This entry will serve as a precursor to the efforts of the Genesis factory, featuring an all-new LMDH prototype at WEC in 2026 and an IMSA sports car championship in 2027.
Abtebourg, who also leads Hyundai’s World Rally Championship team, stressed that winning the WEC is a major challenge for the mark, who has no history in endurance races.
Therefore, it was important for Korean brands to gain experience in this field through their joint efforts with Elm at IDEC Sport.
Chadwick and Jaubert are part of the Genesis ‘Traujectory’ program, competing for the first time in a full season of the prototype, but a few engineers, mechanics and strategists will also learn more about endurance racing at IDEC.
“The idea of starting Genesis Magma Race at the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship quickly became very scary without being exposed to endurance racing,” says Abiteboul.
“The Elms is where drivers claim to prove their talent and be part of the 2026 GMR-001 hypercar driver lineup.
“It is also an opportunity for everyone involved in Hyundai Motorsport to learn about endurance racing, its codes, its requirements, and its community and understand what they need to succeed when they enter WEC in 2026.
“Of course we hope to have strong results for Jamie, Mathys and Dani, but more than immediate results, it is a general direction in the course of the season that we are interested in. For anyone, this is a year of learning as we chose the trajectory program driver to aim for a potential promotion to hypercar.”
Genesis Hypercar
©Hyundai
Abiteboul explained that it is also important for Genesis to build vision in the sports car racing circle ahead of the next year’s step up to WEC.
The IDEC Sport-Run Genesis team will not only be taking part in the ELMS this year, but factory driver Andre Lotterer will be working with Chadwick and Jaubert in the LMP2 class.
“When we arrive at the hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship next year, we already want to support people,” Abiteboul says.
“To do that, they need to know who we are. They need to know Genesis Magma and Genesis Magma Race.
“In 2025, we need to introduce ourselves to endurance racing fans on every occasion. That’s what we do through our partnership with IDEC sports during every race of the ELMS Championship, including the incredible 24 hours of Le Mans.”
Earlier this month, Abiteboul confirmed that “lack of time” was Genesis’s biggest challenge, and that the project was not officially approved by the board until September last year. This led Genesis engineers to escape the project in just 18 months and made their WEC debut in early 2026.
The team’s LMDH competitors are based on the ORECA chassis and derive power from the updated version of the twin-turbo V8 that drives the WRC Hyundai i20 N.
Le Mans veteran Lotterer and Daytona 24 Hours winner Pipo Derani are the first two drivers signed by Genesis for the factory program at WEC next year.