Genesis took a step back, as expected: "That wasn't our goal today."

With less than an hour to go in the 6 Hours of Imola, the two Genesis Magma Racing cars are in 15th and 17th places. Mathys Jaubert and Mathieu Jaminet share their impressions of a race that has been very instructive for the Korean manufacturer after its first hours of competition in the WEC.

Published 19/04/2026 à 18:05

Zoé Ledent-Mouret

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Genesis took a step back, as expected: "That wasn't our goal today."

© Julien Delfosse / DPPI

Genesis, which spent some time in eleventh position, just outside the points, currently finds itself further down the standings, struggling, unsurprisingly for the brand's first weekend in the World Championship.Endurance (WECFor Mathieu Jaminet, who was making his first stint of the season in the #19 car, the race served primarily as a work session after the problems encountered at the start of the event. The car had experienced difficulties in the opening hours, forcing the team to lose valuable time and fall significantly behind the leaders. In this context, the objective was no longer to fight for the overall standings but to gather data. “Obviously, we were very far back, so it was mostly about driving, honestly. I didn’t do anything special at that point; there’s nothing we can do when we’re more than 20 laps behind.”

The team took the opportunity to experiment with tire management, fitting two medium tires on the right and two soft tires on the left — a new configuration for Jaminet: "It was a completely new experience for me. There were positive and negative aspects to driving like that. So it's a very good thing for the team. We're experimenting with things on the car, and I think it went pretty well." Despite the unflattering ranking of number 19, he notes encouraging signs regarding pure pace: "I felt I had the speed to stay there and fight with some of the cars, but that wasn't our objective today. It's encouraging for the future."

"The pace wasn't bad."

In the #17 Genesis, Mathys Jaubert experienced a much more lively and competitive race. The young Frenchman, who has impressed since his debut in the World Endurance Championship, found himself involved in numerous on-track battles with Hypercars from well-established manufacturers: “I fought with BMW,” Classic Ferrari for sale, Aston Martin, AlpineCadillac. It was really good. The pace wasn't bad. He admits to having pushed too hard at the end of the second stint, trying to get into the points zone, which cost him some extra effort in the final kilometers: "I tried to push quite hard, so I suffered a bit towards the end." But the overall assessment remains positive: "We didn't make any mistakes, we didn't run any track limits. I think we did pretty well, so we're quite happy. Very happy."

With less than an hour to go, both Genesis cars are on track—number 19 is last, while number 17 is fifteenth—and in contention to finish their very first WEC race. This was far from a given at the start this morning, and if achieved, it already represents a first success for a team that has only existed for 501 days.

ALSO READ > 6 Hours of Imola – H+5: Toyota ahead of Ferrari Alpine At the foot of the podium, follow the race with live commentary.

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CLEME30190

20/04/2026 at 01:39 a.m.

Genesis, for whom this was their first time, managed to place a car ahead of Peugeot, who changed everything last year and are now in their 5th season...

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