Genesis’ FIA WEC debut in 2026 may still feel like a long way away, but with 2025 right around the corner, the South Korean brand’s new GMR-001 LMDh prototype will be track testing, then racing, before we know it.
To this point, the young manufacturer’s approach to building its first-ever sportscar racing program has been entirely sensible.
Rather than go down the route of developing an entirely bespoke LMH-spec chassis, it has opted to partner with ORECA for the more streamlined LMDh option. It will also spend the 2025 season with IDEC Sport in the ELMS alongside developing and track testing the 001 ahead of homologation, to help its staff get up to speed with ACO-rules prototype racing before jumping into the WEC.
Its driver lineup is coming together nicely too. Signing up reigning FIA WEC Hypercar Drivers’ World Champion Andre Lotterer and two-time IMSA champion Pipo Derani to become the brand’s factory drivers was a bold, headline-grabbing move.
Genesis, rightly, feels bringing highly successful established prototype drivers on board at this embryonic stage for the program is more than just a flashy statement.
Both drivers have joined this project at different points in their career timeline, yet appear equally ready for a fresh start after parting ways with major race and title-winning factories. The pitch from team principal Cyril Abiteboul was clearly a convincing one as they found themselves open to taking a big risk with an unknown quantity.
For 43-year-old Lotterer, who is fresh from a title-winning campaign with Porsche in Hypercar, this appears to be the final major move in his driving career. With his original plans to stay with the German marque until retirement scuppered, the opportunity to help establish a new brand in the sport had a clear appeal.
“I was having a great run with Kevin (Estre) and Laurens (Vanthoor) for the WEC championship (in 2024), and when you are in a situation like this you look to build for the future,” he explains to RACER. “But in the summer I heard that the team might change from three to two drivers for most races and reduce the driver pool.
“Normally I would think to end my days at Porsche, that was the vision I had, but not yet. I still have a lot more in me, I want to race, but it wasn’t an option with Porsche so I took the initiative, didn’t waste much time and looked at what I could do.”
Thus, Lotterer found himself in talks with Abiteboul and prepared to sign on the dotted line.
“I got in touch with Cyril and he explained to me what the project looked like. I felt it would be a great story for me personally to be there at the beginning of a journey, bring all my input and have an important role.
“If I look back, after everything I’ve done in my career, this is inspiring and fulfilling and it’s fun to do a project like this. Even though I won’t be racing next year, it was a no-brainer for me.”
With Abiteboul making it clear at the Genesis program launch earlier this month in Dubai that the young brand is committed through to at least the end of the current regulation cycle, Lotterer’s extensive LMP1 and Hypercar experience looks set to be put to use for years to come.
“I hope to stay with Genesis,” he says when asked about his level of commitment. “I am at the stage of my career where I am not going to change brands again. It would be satisfying for me to make a big contribution to building this team and making it the best there is, with the support of everyone. “
He is under no illusions that building this team into a title contender in such a deep Hypercar field will be extremely tough. But, as he points out, there is good reason to believe that Genesis can become competitive in the short to medium term, as current regulations are more friendly and enticing for aspirant manufacturers.
The ultra-expensive, cutting-edge LMP1 Hybrid days now seem like a distant memory. With the current era of convergence, while not as cost-effective as originally intended, it is possible to develop a brand-new car, and race it, without needing to pump hundreds of millions of Euros, Pounds or Dollars into a program each year to be competitive.
“The opportunity is there, there will be bumps in the road but if you compare it to entering an LMP1 program back in the day, it wouldn’t be possible to do what we are doing in such a short period of time,” he continues.
“When Porsche decided to do LMP1 it took them years to put together resources and in the first year they were nowhere. Here, you have a partner like ORECA which gives you a good base and a proven base. This makes it easier for a team to enter and succeed with LMDh. It’s going to be down to us to put together the right software and powertrain and extract reliability from the car.
“But there are definitely opportunities to do something early. It will be intense in the build-up and the more the team grows the more I will be involved. I live in Monaco and it’s based in Paul Ricard, so I can just go there any day.”
His pursuit of a fourth overall Le Mans win and third WEC title with a third manufacturer is underway and it looks set to be an intriguing storyline to track as we navigate the second half of the current decade.
Derani, on the other hand, took a big risk. At 31 years old and in the midst of his ‘prime’, the Brazilian decided to bet on himself by announcing his departure from Cadillac and Action Express mid-season in 2024 to chase a WEC drive.
This is something that General Motors was unable to offer him when he was looking to secure his 2025 plans. Crucially, he says, the final call on Hertz Team JOTA’s new two-car WEC program with the V-Series.R came too late, at that point he had already made up his mind.
“I had to make a difficult decision,” Derani reflects in conversation with RACER.
“I was in touch with other manufacturers; it was looking good and I had a contract offer to stay too. But I had the desire to come and do WEC at some point in my career. I was fighting for that because I knew if I signed for the years they offered to stay, it would have been difficult to make this move, so I decided to leave.
“This move made sense for many reasons. First, I wanted to do WEC at some point in my career. The second is that I needed a new challenge after so many years in America.”
With wins at Sebring and Daytona under his belt, plus two IMSA Drivers’ titles, Derani felt he needed a change of scenery.
“After you’ve achieved so much you ask yourself: ‘what’s next’?” he says. “Yes I can stay and win and fight for a third championship or more wins at Sebring but at this point in my career, there is a greater value in building a program from the ground up.
“You start getting complacent. Things started to become easy and I got to a point where I wasn’t pushing myself to go over the limit. When you start entering that comfort zone it can be dangerous.
“Searching for that change was the motivation behind leaving Action Express when I did. I had to make bold decisions when I was not signed with anybody, but it was important to make the decision myself, and stick to what I believed because if I tried it in three or four years time it would have been difficult. It had to be done.”
The only real downside is that he will not be seen in the top class of IMSA or the WEC in 2025, while he focuses on helping Genesis develop the GMR-001. But next year will not be a quiet one for Derani – or Lotterer for that matter – in the build-up to the program’s race debut, with countless hours of simulator work and an intense track testing schedule to come.
“I finished one contract one day and started this one the next,” Derani concludes. “The work has already started.”
