– Building a new motorsport program is something like the ultimate discipline in motorsport for a driver – and often a thankless task. Frequently, it is only the successors who reap the real fruits of the hard developmental work. Nevertheless, it is a mission that only a few drivers are character-wise and professionally capable of handling.
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Andre Lotterer was selected to drive exactly this process for Genesis’ LMDh project. For the three-time Le Mans winner, the move to the Hyundai Group’s Hypercar project under the Genesis banner meant a step into completely unknown territory.
In his career to date, both in Europe and Japan, Lotterer was mostly integrated into already perfectly oiled machinery. The Genesis project, which literally began with a blank sheet of paper, therefore presented the 44-year-old with a challenge unlike any he has experienced in over two decades of professional sport.
“Up until now, I’ve actually always joined existing projects,” Lotterer reflects in a conversation with Motorsport-Total.com. Even with the Formula E program with Porsche or the return to Le Mans with the 963 in 2023, the foundation was different.
“In Weissach, they relied on an extremely well-coordinated team. These were people from the GT program or from Manthey who had known exactly how the gears mesh for years. It was new, but nowhere near as radically new as here.”
Because Genesis really started from scratch in 2024, with the exception of the structures of the Idec Sport team, which were still designed for LMP2 projects. Lotterer was announced in December 2024 alongside Pipo Derani as a development pilot for the GMR-001. It was a cold start for everyone involved.
Creativity instead of routine
Lotterer describes this process of building a team almost from the drawing board as one of the most creative phases of his career. To give the project the necessary depth, he made a conscious decision: he gave up a fixed race seat for the 2025 season to devote himself undisturbed as a test and development driver to building the team and developing the car.
He only insisted on a guest appearance in the LMP2 class at Le Mans, although even here he only stepped in as a replacement driver. Logan Sargeant was actually planned for Idec Sport until he suddenly dropped out of the entire project in February 2025, clearing the way for Lotterer.
“It’s a completely different kind of challenge,” Lotterer explains. “It makes me proud to be so deeply involved and to play my part in turning an idea into a racing team. You identify much more strongly with the result when you see the fruits of your own work growing from the very first screw.”
In the process, one virtue was required of the veteran that is normally secondary in the cockpit: patience. “In an established factory team, everything is there. Here, you sometimes had to wait for parts because supply chains and processes first had to be defined. Not everything happens overnight. You have to learn to deal with this rhythm and at the same time strengthen human cooperation.”
Short lines of communication in the “Magma” cosmos
Although the giant Hyundai Group, one of the so-called “chaebols” in South Korea, may seem like an immovable tanker from the outside, Lotterer describes the structure within the racing team as surprisingly agile. With team principal Cyril Abiteboul and sporting director Gabriele Tarquini, he has contacts who maintain an open-door policy.
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“There are no games here, no internal power struggles,” Lotterer emphasizes. “The team is still small, dynamic, and honest. That is a huge advantage in the development phase.”
Particularly exciting is the direct line to the top of the group via Luc Donckerwolke, the group’s Chief Creative Officer. Donckerwolke, who was the design guru behind brands like Bentley or Lamborghini, is the driving force behind Genesis’ “Magma” performance line.
“Luc is extremely present and has a direct line to the very top,” Lotterer emphasizes. “We feel like an important part of a new chapter. They make us feel that we have been chosen to give the entire group a new dose of adrenaline.”
From LMP1 fragility to Hypercar robustness
One point that is particularly fascinating is the technological maturity of the current generation of vehicles. The comparison to the highly complex final phase of the LMP1 hybrid systems is stark: “I remember my last year at Audi [2016]. The car was technologically so radical and complex, that reliability was never really there.”
Back then, they struggled with system failures at almost every race and every test. Ultimately, the LMP1 class perished due to the enormous costs of this approach at the absolute limit.
Today, reality looks different. “The Hypercars are surprisingly reliable from the first roll-out. The technology is still high-end, but in comparison, it’s designed to be somewhat simpler and more robust.”
This allows the team to complete a workload during testing that would have been unthinkable in the LMP1 era. While LMP1 cars often needed two years of lead time, most LMDh vehicles debuted with only one year of preparation. The GMR-001 also had only seven and a half months from rollout to the planned first race appearance. Due to the Qatar cancellation, it is now eight and a half.
Tarquini as a calm influence on the pit wall
Gabriele Tarquini will also provide the human component in the future. The Italian touring car legend and Lotterer are similar in character and had parallel careers, but never raced against each other. Nevertheless, the mutual respect is great.
“We never raced against each other, but it’s great to have him in the team,” says Lotterer. Tarquini’s role will primarily come into play on race weekends. “He has this incredible experience and understands a driver’s psyche perfectly. He is the link that will give us the necessary calm when things get serious in the first race in Qatar. And he has some really cool stories in store.”
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With this mixture of technical meticulousness and a healthy dose of pioneering spirit, Lotterer enters the new season with Genesis – ready to reap the first fruits of work that began long before the first green flag.
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