04-04-2025
Cyril Abiteboul Is Still Building Genesis Magma Racing, Just Without Logan Sargeant
Genesis Magma Racing is now six months into its 14-month schedule to develop and race a top-class car in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The GMR-001 is still on track to get racing in that tight timeline, but the program has already undergone an unexpected change: Logan Sargeant, the most recent American Formula 1 driver, opted earlier this year to drop out of his plans to join GMR's European Le Mans Series "Trajectory Program" in partnership with LMP2 team IDEC Sport.
This leaves Genesis without one of the drivers expected to be in the mix for its first-ever factory driver roster, which has at least four open spots for the 2026 24 Hours of Le Mans and other three-driver endurance events. Hyundai Motor Group racing boss and GMR team principal Cyril Abiteboul does not know exactly why Sargeant stepped away from the program — but as he tells Road & Track, he has an idea.
"When we met at... the end of last year, and he was keen on doing something after Formula 1, we gave him the opportunity to test with with a team that was, at the time, already going to be our strategic partner for this year," Abiteboul says. "He was immediately quick, focused, and very committed.
But come wintertime, things took a turn. "From Christmas," he says, "I guess he realized that he needed probably more time off after Formula 1."
Abiteboul, who led a Formula 1 team from most of the 2010s, knows that feeling well. He left Renault's F1 program in 2020, leaving for a Hyundai racing program that at the time competed only in WRC and touring cars. Even as he turns his attention to sports car racing, he still remembers what it was like to leave F1 behind.
"You pay a toll after Formula One," Abiteboul says. "I can say it also for myself. So you probably need that time to reflect on things on this side, what he wants to do, to do next."
Without Sargeant, Abiteboul has an unexpected opening to fill at Genesis Magma Racing before the team even finishes a test car. After being burned by a former F1 driver, the GMR boss is keeping the lesson in mind.
"I think we can take the time to select carefully and see who's out there and properly motivated and committed," he says. "I think it takes a bit of time for sort of drivers, any drivers, to move away from their F1 dreams that they would have been chasing since their childhood.'
The open seat in the GMR Trajectory Program was eventually filled by Daniel Juncadella, a former DTM driver who has spent the past few years driving GT cars for Mercedes. As Sargeant had been, Juncadella is still officially just part of the trajectory program and not necessarily signed on as a factory driver for the GMR-001 program in 2026 just yet.
"For us," Abiteboul says, "it was always finding the person that was properly committed and motivated by the projects. We got in contact with [Juncadella], and it was very clear that his motivation was very clear. He [has] lots of experience, he's been used to working with a car maker with Mercedes for years in GT racing."
Abiteboul says that the team is "talking to lots of people," but his current focus is to find experienced endurance racers. The team has already signed former Porsche driver Andre Lotterer and former Cadillac driver Pipo Derani. That trend should continue.
"You've seen some success stories [like Le Mans winner and F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg], you can get very quick at adapting in this type of racing," he says. But, he adds, "It's more the exception. So I think what we need as we build our experience, as we build infrastructure, is mainly to find others with experience in endurance racing, lots of things that they can help and assist us with. Building the team, building the cars. Managing traffic, managing strategies."
"That's why I don't think that, you know, focusing on today's F1 drivers is a first priority, but that's actually something that we would be interested in in the future."
While Genesis is set to run its own team in the Europe-focused FIA World Endurance Championship in 2026, the company plans to run the GMR-001 with a partner team in the North American IMSA championship starting in 2027. One thing Genesis has not done yet: name that partner team.
"We are going through the process," Abiteboul says. "We also want to do things in the right way, in a properly transparent way. So it's an important decision, because we can see that this decision is one that can affect the program in the long term... [We have] a very, very robust process of request for quotation with a number of possible partnerships. We need to conclude that process, before summer.'
The GMR-001 and the Genesis Magma Racing team are currently scheduled to debut with an expected two cars at the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season opener. That race is roughly just 10 months away.
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