GENESIS MAGMA RACING DRIVERS LOOK AHEAD TO TEAM'S FIRST FIA WEC SEASON

Le Castellet, France, 30 March 2026: For its debut season in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), Genesis Magma Racing has assembled a driver line-up that combines championship winning experience, development expertise and the ambition of youth. However, all involved recognise the scale of the challenge ahead of the team.

Driver Lineups Balance Experience and Ambition

While the team is satisfied with the outcomes of the on-track testing and development, it recognises the proof of the progress made will only come with the first competitive sessions of the 2026 season. The efforts of Genesis as a manufacturer and the work the team has completed have secured a place on the grid of the 6 Hours of Imola. However on track, Genesis Magma Racing must earn the right to truly compete with the more experienced teams and the manufacturers it wishes to count among its rivals.

“We have focused on the things we can control,” said Genesis Magma Racing Sporting Director Gabriele Tarquini. “In engineering, that’s the reliability and performance of the car, in team management, it’s the processes and for me, it’s the driver lineups.”

He explained: “Each of our drivers brings something different, and that’s exactly what makes a strong endurance lineup. We have drivers whose extensive Hypercar experience has been extremely valuable in developing the car, and others who, with the enthusiasm of rookies, will help us overcome the difficulties we will certainly face during our first season. But beyond individual strengths, what really matters is how they work together. Endurance racing is about trust, communication and shared responsibility for the result.”

The relationship between the drivers has been critical in assembling the three-driver line-ups for each of the team’s GMR-001 Hypercars. Most notably, when André Lotterer and Pipo Derani were announced as the teams first drivers in December 2024, they were expected to drive different cars. However, as the team saw how well they worked together during the earliest stages of testing, it became clear that the strongest option for the team was to pair the two in the #17 GMR-001 Hypercars, where their combined experience is complimented by Hypercar debutant and Genesis Magma Racing Trajectory Program graduate Mathys Jaubert.

The #19 sister car will be shared by Daniel Juncadella, who drove alongside Jaubert in the European Le Mans Series last year, Mathieu Jaminet and Paul-Loup Chatin. All three start new challenges in their careers with Genesis Magma Racing, aiming to add to successes including IMSA titles for Jaminet, GT racing successes for Juncadella, and a FIA WEC race win in a car built around the same ORECA frame as the GMR-001 Hypercar for Chatin at the 2025 6 Hours of Fuji.

Driver Quotes and Profiles - #17 GMR-001 Hypercar

Luis Felipe ‘Pipo’ Derani

Place of Birth: São Paulo, Brazil

Date of Birth: October 12, 1993

FIA Driver Grading: Platinum

Career Highlights:

Pipo Derani said: “Our first goal for the season has to be for us to become a proper team. There are so many great people in the team. What we’ve already done is a massive achievement, like climbing Mount Everest, only higher, and now we get to live what one-and-a-half-years ago was a dream. Now we have to polish everything – have the pitstops done right, people knowing exactly what they need to do. The reality is we need to create small targets for ourselves. For the first race we can hopefully make as few mistakes as possible and finish the race, the second race finish a little better results-wise and slowly push the targets further and further towards the front. The mentality I’m taking into the season is to tick those boxes bit by bit. I think if we do that, we will eventually be surprised with where we can get.”

Mathys Jaubert

Place of Birth: Salon-de-Provence, France

Date of Birth: March 3, 2005

FIA Driver Grading: Silver

Career Highlights:

Mathys Jaubert said: “For me, honestly, my first target is to make a good year, as I did in 2025 in the European Le Mans Series. If I can go without mistakes, with good performance in all my stints, then I will be proud of what I have done at the end of the year. This is my main target, and the most important thing for the team. I think a good aim for us to finishing in the top five at one race this – for the first year of the team, that would be very strong. For me, personally, my ambition would be the best rookie in the WEC. That’s always the first aim to be best of the group like you. But, for that you need to have good teammates, and good car and a good team around you.”

André Lotterer

Place of Birth: Duisburg, Germany

Date of Birth: November 19, 1981

FIA Driver Grading: Platinum

Career Highlights:

Daniel Juncadella said: “There's many different things playing into a result that we, or at least me as a driver, cannot control. We need to focus on what we control and that's why we’ve worked during testing on being better every day on the aspects that can just gain you performance, whether it is reliability, drivability or lap time. It could be, at the end of the season, we look back and even if we haven't scored a good result. We could probably say, ‘OK, here we had a chance and something happened.’ But if you give yourself opportunities to score big results, that's already something you can be proud of. If we're in a position to fight for a strong result already in your first year, I think that's something we can be satisfied with.”

About Genesis Motor Europe

Founded in Seoul, Genesis is a leader in premium electrified cars with a vibrant, distinctly Korean spirit and a commitment to unique hospitality and customer experience excellence.

The brand’s award-winning models GV60, Electrified G80 and Electrified GV70 are defined by advanced technologies, dynamic performance and Genesis’ distinctive ‘Athletic Elegance’ design philosophy. 

Genesis is embarking on the next chapter of its journey, as a design-driven performance brand. Its first luxury high performance model, GV60 Magma, will arrive in Europe this year and Genesis Magma Racing will be competing in the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship.

Genesis launched in Europe in 2021 and is headquartered in Frankfurt. Genesis Motor Europe operates in Germany, Switzerland, and the UK and is expanding into four new markets this year - Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

For more information about Genesis, please visit www.genesis.com.