WEC: New Genesis hypercar comes to life - First engine start in video

It's always a special moment for a racing team: the first firing up of a new engine. This recently happened at Genesis Magma Racing, the WEC newcomer for the 2026 season. The motorsport department of Hyundai's luxury subsidiary fired up the self-developed V8 twin-turbo engine on July 9 at the team's headquarters in Le Castellet, as the manufacturer recently announced.

It was the first fire-up of the internal combustion engine in its installed state. The engine was already started on a test bench for the first time in February. Genesis Magma Racing, under the leadership of team principal Cyril Abiteboul, is aiming for the first tests on real race tracks at the end of August. The new season begins on March 28, 2026, with the 10-hour race in Qatar ( see the 2026 WEC race calendar ).

"Starting the engine means that the GMR-001 hypercar has come to life—a monumental step in the history of Genesis Magma Racing," said Abiteboul, the former Caterham and Renault Formula 1 team principal. "Reaching this point on schedule is already a major achievement and a perfect start to the next phase of the development process."

Hyundai Motorsport engineers used Hyundai's WRC car, a 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine, to develop the LMDh engine. "We took that engine and basically doubled it—two rows of four cylinders—which creates a V8," Abiteboul explained at the GMR-001 launch in April of this year. Work on the engine began in June 2024.

While Genesis Magma Racing developed the engine in-house, the hybrid drive, as in all LMDh cars, comes from Bosch. Given the chassis manufacturer's specifications, the Koreans chose Oreca. Work on the development chassis for the upcoming test drives began after the 24 Hours of Le Mans in mid-June.

"Now the moment has come for us to physically connect all the different development strands we've been pursuing with our powertrain and design teams over the past year," said Hyundai Technical Director FX Demaison. "The successful launch of the GMR-001 is a validation of our work so far—but also the beginning of the next phase of development: the testing phase."

So far, only reigning world champion and former Porsche factory driver Andre Lotterer and IMSA veteran Pipo Derani have been confirmed as drivers for the WEC debut in 2026. In preparation, Genesis is fielding an LMP2 in the European Le Mans Series this year in collaboration with IDEC Sport. The ELMS project also offers drivers the opportunity to test their mettle for a regular seat in the Genesis LMDh. Briton Jamie Chadwick, former DTM driver Daniel Juncadella, and Mathys Jaubert of France are currently alternating behind the wheel.

Want to know more about the new Genesis hypercar for the 2026 WEC? You can find pictures of the LMDh prototype and all the information in this article: