Cyril Abiteboul discusses Genesis’ entry into FIA WEC

The FIA WEC media team sat down with Hyundai Motorsport President Cyril Abiteboul for an exclusive and in-depth interview ahead of the announcement. The Frenchman brings with him a wealth of experience from different disciplines in the sport, having served as Managing Director of Renault Sport F1 from 2014 to 2020. More recently, he steered Hyundai’s FIA World Rally Championship outfit to multiple event wins and the 2024 Drivers’ crown with Thierry Neuville.

Back home in Paris for a short time between two trips, Abiteboul took advantage of a rare gap in his diary to candidly lift the lid on the motivation, objective and ambition behind the exciting new project. Find out what he had to say below – and head over to our YouTube channel to watch the 20-minute interview in full...

So Cyril, we’re here to talk about a new challenge for Hyundai, and the manufacturer’s entry into FIA WEC with Genesis in 2026. A few months ago, there was a short announcement about Genesis coming into endurance racing, but not many details beyond that – it was somewhat enigmatic. What more can you tell us now?

When we made our first communication, it’s fair to say it was just days after the decision [had been taken], and we wanted really to get the story out there. Obviously we are very excited about this new development for Hyundai Motor Group, and there are clearly lots of things to be done. We wanted to stay as minimalist as possible with the initial announcement, but since then, a lot of ground has been covered. So much more ground needs to be covered before the first race, but we are working in the background and things are now aligned so that we can make a few more announcements in relation to the project. First, indeed, the brand and the brand strategy, then the key partners, the championship and the timing that we are targeting, the entry strategy into FIA WEC and also some of the first drivers that will get to drive our car as well as the name of the car presented in Dubai. We are all super-excited about these first few pieces of news in relation to the programme, but again, there is so much more to be done so we need to stay extremely humble and now this information is out there, it’s going to enable the team to be very focused on everything else that has to be done before race one.

So one question would be, why Genesis and not Hyundai? Is this Genesis’ first foray into motorsport?

Yes it is, very much so. The Genesis brand will be ten-years-old next year, which we feel is almost the age of maturity to be considering such a plan. The brand has been moving on and developing and expanding. There is also a plan for the brand to enter the high-performance segment – not just luxury, which is where Genesis is coming from. To develop this narrative and the technology, the styling, the identity and obviously brand awareness through a different type of platform, there is nothing better than motorsport. We looked at a number of opportunities, and clearly, with the current dynamic of FIA WEC and endurance racing, we see this as the perfect fit for not only Genesis but also for the next stage of Hyundai Motor Group in motorsport and in particular, in circuit racing. It’s been 12 years that we’ve been competing in rallying and we have achieved success with wins and titles, but this transition into circuit racing should not be taken lightly. That’s why we see this entry into endurance through the current set of regulations as the right next step for us in motorsport.

You talk about the importance of going into circuit racing. What is it about FIA WEC in particular that appeals? Is it the transfer of technologies to the road cars? Is it the global platform? Is it the challenge of taking on the other Hypercar manufacturers? Is it all of the above?

I think right now, the momentum that FIA WEC is enjoying is absolutely fantastic. It’s clearly a perfect balance of brands and cost control, of differentiation and also some form of standardisation of technology. What we really want to be focused on is developing the brand and developing people. We feel that the combination that FIA WEC has achieved in the current cycle enables us to really bring our story about aesthetic design out there. We’ve got the ability to do that. So that’s one thing – gaining the brand exposure that we need. Then, on the other side, people. For sure, technology matters in the automotive industry, but technology is enabled by people. That’s why one of the decisions that we’ve made is to operate the cars ourselves in FIA WEC. The reason we want to do that is precisely because we want to maximise the authority that we will have over the racing cars with engineers, with mechanics, with technicians. We want to bring the knowhow of circuit racing and endurance racing into Hyundai Motorsport and indirectly into Hyundai Motor Group so that we are also ready for the next stage, because this is nothing less than the start of a long-term plan.

Genesis couldn’t be joining FIA WEC at a more competitive time. We saw, this season just gone, five different teams won in eight races in the Hypercar category. How closely did you follow it?

Well, I did, but I have to say, I was also extremely focused on WRC. I have seen the many different winners, I’ve seen how tight it is and again, it’s all about execution and operation from the drivers to the strategy and the race team. That’s why we want to do it ourselves and accept that it’s going to be a steep ramp-up into mastering and controlling everything that makes a team successful. We have to be very humble about it, but also work with the right partners in order to fast-track this learning curve. But as you say, it’s super-exciting and we are really looking forward to being part of a championship with very historic brands like BMW and Ferrari and Porsche and so on. It’s obviously something that makes us extremely proud.

You mention that this is a long-term commitment for Genesis, but what’s the plan in the short-term, over the next 12 months, to prepare for the brand’s FIA WEC debut?

The next 12 months are going to be very intense, with a number of things to be done, from having an engine firing up in the first weeks of 2025 to a car being designed and progressively built in the premises of ORECA, our partner for that. We will also be ramping up the team, as I said, which will be a combination of staff coming from Hyundai Motorsport and staff coming from outside because we need to grow. This is a fantastic opportunity to build up an operation almost from scratch and establish our race base, very close to Paul Ricard and ORECA and to develop drivers and our access to drivers. That’s also something we want to do. Finally, hopefully all of that will come together and around summertime, there will be a racing car firing up somewhere, doing its first laps and having an intensive test plan so that we are ready to race in time for the start of the 2026 FIA WEC season. That seems far from where we are today, but when I see the number of things that need to be done during the interim period of time, it’s actually pretty short.

We understand there may also be a little bit of racing in the European Le Mans Series in the meantime. What can you tell us about that?

Yes, absolutely. One of the things that is very clear is that motorsport is all about people, and I believe that endurance racing is even more so. As we will be working with ORECA to develop the car, we have decided to work with a partner to develop the team side and people side as well. We will have a strategic partnership over the course of 2025 with IDEC SPORT, leveraging their LMP2 platform to put some of our staff and some of our potential development drivers in ELMS. So we will be out there somewhere. You will see some drivers in Genesis colours as well as some technicians, engineers and mechanics because they will be learning what endurance is about and what the challenges are in the sport, so that they can bring that expertise into our future WEC team in 2026.

You talk about having some existing team members from Hyundai, and also bringing in new team members. You’ve personally been involved in WRC recently and in Formula 1 before that. What transferable skills can be brought across from those championships? Obviously WRC is a different type of endurance racing in some ways...

Absolutely. We need to take a balanced opinion, but at the same time, also show a bit of ambition. First, I think it’s great to offer career development opportunities to our staff. It’s not like we are saying, ‘ok, WRC is one side and then there is this new thing and it’s for a different group of people’. I don’t think that would be fair or right. If we’re talking about transferable expertise, I think there are many skills that you can transfer from one [discipline] to the other. Again, it needs to be in a balanced way, between people with a different background and people coming with endurance experience. That’s why we plan this mix, which we will be trying to build in the best possible way next year. For anything that is engineering or performance-related, I think we’ve got a good group of engineers who are capable of taking into account a huge amount of data and quickly drawing conclusions from it. I think actually, there are more comparisons between rallying and endurance racing than there are, for instance, between endurance racing and Formula 1, which is a sprint race. The second element that I would like to stress is on the mechanics side. I’ve seen mechanics in F1 and I’ve seen mechanics in rallying, and what probably makes the world of rallying a bit closer to endurance is the fact that when your car is coming back to the service park in rallying, you have absolutely no idea what you’ll have to fix, injecting a bit of ‘dealing with the unknown and managing the unexpected’ – but what you do know is that you’ll have a very short period of time to fix it. You’re never going to think about changing a turbocharger in Formula 1, but that’s definitely the sort of thing you have to do in a very limited amount of time in a very controlled manner [in rallying and endurance racing], ensuring reliability and perfection of execution.

Speaking of different backgrounds and skillsets, we’ve seen five drivers announced in Dubai, from different backgrounds in the sport. What do they each bring to the project, and how excited are you to work with them?

We’re super-excited that in the last few weeks we’ve been able to secure the first element of our driver plan, with two very distinct groups of drivers. The first group, which will have the important mission of helping us to develop the car and team, is made up of André Lotterer and Pipo Derani. I think what they are bringing is pretty clear. They have great knowledge of endurance and long-distance racing, they have both been champions – André in FIA WEC, Pipo in IMSA – and both come from great organisations and teams. Then they have worked with different chassis types, André obviously with Porsche and Multimatic, which clearly demonstrated a fantastic edge on its competitors over the course of the championship. And we see that it was not so easy for Porsche, so it’s very important to understand how it’s still possible to develop a race car during the homologation cycle. Pipo, on the other side, has raced in IMSA, where we similarly have plans, and therefore, his experience in understanding how to make the car equally good for both series will be important. He has also worked with Dallara as a partner of Cadillac. They are frankly bringing a depth of knowledge of the sport, but also the understanding of what makes a car fast, as well as their networks. They have worked with a lot of people, and I really believe that interconnection between people is absolutely key. So we have those two on one side, and on the other side, we have a very different and hopefully fresh angle with the ELMS entries. We will have Logan Sargeant, we will have Jamie Chadwick and we’ll have Mathys Jaubert racing with IDEC SPORT. So, very clearly, they are IDEC SPORT drivers, but the strategic collaboration that we have agreed means there will be a very strong connection, such that maybe there will be a future directly between those three drivers and ourselves for 2026 or onwards.

In terms of 2026, what will the team be called in FIA WEC?

Our team will be called Genesis Magma Racing.

And what’s the significance behind that name?

Genesis is obviously a premium luxury brand, and Magma is the name of the performance line of our group launched less than a year ago. There have since been a number of presentations in relation to show cars and product ambitions – for instance, Magma exhibited a number of concept cars and future models at Goodwood last July – and now we’re going into motorsport, which is the next step and the next building-block of Genesis’ performance line. There will be a number of other marketing events in the coming months to showcase not just the brand’s ambition, but also the brand reality from a product perspective.

So what are the ambitions for Genesis Magma Racing in both the short and longer-term in FIA WEC?

I think we need to be extremely humble and realistic about those ambitions. First, we want to have a car ready to be homologated towards the end of 2025, so that we can hopefully, if all goes to plan, race at the start of 2026. From there onwards, it can’t be anything but a learning curve. I hope it will be as steep as possible, working with people who have been there before, like ORECA, André [Lotterer] and a number of senior management staff that we will be announcing. We are not right now able to announce them, because there are still lots of discussions going on, but you’ll see that we will be bringing lots of experience and expertise into the team, so hopefully the ramping-up and the learning curve will be steep so that we can quickly become a very credible competitor in the sport, progressively targeting podiums and ultimately wins. We are here for nothing else than fighting for wins and titles, but we need to be extremely realistic about the fact that it’s a very competitive environment with brands that have been racing forever, more-or-less. We need to take it step-by-step. I don’t want to attach a particular schedule or planning to it. We feel it’s going to take a couple of years, but that’s fine because we are here for the long-term.

We’ve talked today about Hypercar. Are there any plans in the future to maybe also enter LMGT3, like for example Mercedes has done recently?

This announcement is about the start of something, and that start is with the current set of regulations for prototype racing. But, you know, if you look at what Genesis Magma has shown – including in terms of concept cars – you can see that we’ve got dreams, we’ve got projects. This announcement is about that, but again, it’s just a starting point.

What will be your specific role in the team?

I will be Team Principal of Genesis Magma Racing. Building up teams is really something that I love doing – growing and shaping organisations – so that’s what I will do, at least for the first period, the interim period of the race team. It’s going to be very challenging with everything that’s going on, but I will devote enough of my time to it. Endurance racing and Le Mans are absolutely dreams of mine, like they probably are for anybody who is into motorsport. I’m very blessed for having worked in F1 and at great circuits like Silverstone and Monaco. In WRC, winning in Monte-Carlo and Sweden was something really special. I love Le Mans, and I’ve been many, many times. Obviously it’s absolutely part of the global motorsport culture and it happens to be in France and I happen to be French, so I’m super-proud of having the opportunity to finally race there.

So is there an element here of this being a kind of personal passion project for you as well – a personal challenge?

You know, you cannot be successful in motorsport if you are not passionate about what you do. Passion is the number one fuel for racing. At a personal level, I’m super-happy and privileged to be building up not just a racing team, but also a brand – and in particular, a luxury brand. That’s something pretty unique. It’s not every day that you have the ability to be part of such a 360-degree project, from the racing side to the corporate side and the product side. I feel super-excited about that, and absolutely, I will give it my 1,000 per cent to make it work.