What Does It Take to Debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans?
Key takeaways
- We ask the Genesis Magma Racing team how it managed to put together a full race team in only 18 months.
- In doing so, Genesis became the only South Korean automaker to compete in the prestigious race, finishing the grueling daylong crucible with one of its two cars still in the fight.
- See all results for used Genesis for sale near 402862
Why this matters: an automotive development that could shape industry direction or buying decisions.
We ask the Genesis Magma Racing team how it managed to put together a full race team in only 18 months.
Nur Photo|Getty Images Geologists can tell a lot about the history of a place by auguring into the Earth and extracting a long, layered core sample. Pick any spot to bore at the Circuit de la Sarthe—Tertre Rouge, Arnage, Indianapolis—and you'll pull out an asphalt cylinder that tells a century-old story of relentless persistence and triumph. Start at the bottom, and you'll find traces of rubber laid by Le Mans' inaugural victors, André Lagache and René Léonard, sandwiched between layers of repaved tarmac. Follow the path upward, and you'll find marks made by Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, Jochen Rindt, and Ken Miles. Porsche certainly has a few millimeters of total accumulation through its decades of racing, as do Ford and Ferrari. And now, among those giants, Genesis Magma Racing has added some rubber with the debut appearance of its GMR-001 hypercar at the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In doing so, Genesis became the only South Korean automaker to compete in the prestigious race, finishing the grueling daylong crucible with one of its two cars still in the fight. Crossing the finish line might seem like a relatively low bar to clear, but at this level of motorsport, every hour of running is the result of countless hours of research and development, trial and error.