OPINION: Genesis' assault on WEC in 2026 is crucial to the brand, but can it succeed?

Neither has put Genesis off entering WEC. The decision to give the go-ahead took the Korean head honchos just three days. And that was over a weekend.

And that's not to say it was a casual decision. Just going by the launch party, Genesis (and by implication Hyundai) has thrown its heart and soul – and vast piles of capital – at the project. It was like a checklist on how to do a blow-your-mind launch.

Held at the base of the world's tallest building, in the Armani Hotel, which has the kind of brand pull that Genesis hopes it can one day match, the metaphorical references were there to see in a city essentially built from nothing in the middle of the desert. It's exactly the meteoric rise that Genesis wants. 

And that's where the race team comes in – Genesis Magma Racing, to be precise – brand strength isn't easily won, not even if you've just surpassed 1.4 million sales with a premium brand that's been around for less than a decade.

No, for brand image, you need glamour, and the motoring calendar doesn’t come much more glamorous than the Le Mans 24hr and Daytona 24, where Genesis Magma Racing will compete. 

This explains why a battalion of steady cammers had set their sights on the Burj Khalifa to see Jacky Ickx, his daughter Vanina, and company high rollers like Luc Donckerwolke and Mike Song perform some corny links in the build-up to the main event – the reveal of a 1:2 scale model of the GMR-001 Hypercar (something of an anti-climax given the scale of the event surrounding it).

But only after Cyril Abiteboul was called to drive home exactly how tough it is to launch a new race team in 16 months (and how happy he is it won't be on Netflix), while also building a feeder team to foster young and emerging talent, including a former F1 driver, Logan Sargeant, and rising stars like Jamie Chadwick and Mathys Jaubert. Clearly, Genesis does not see this as a short-term project. 

All of which is cast into iron by the main driver lineup made up of current Hypercar World Endurance champion André Lotterer and multiple 24 Hours of Daytona-winner  Luis 'Pipo' Derani. It's a mixture of energy and experience that other WEC teams would chop their right arms off for or at least swap for a few months of testing.

And the car looks good.  Unbelievably good. Its hybridised V8 will be based on the four-cylinder found in Hyundai's WRC car, and – like those rally cars – it's likely to spawn a road-going halo. 

Such a car would be another (self-explanatory) step in the ladder to brand nirvana and was heavily hinted at by the presence of some of the firm's lift-your-jaw from the floor concepts amassed as day turned to night. A halo model to the tune of the Honda NSX or the Lexus LFA would be quite something – we're still talking about these cars today, and their kudos has flowed downstream to the humbler ends of their respective lineups.

But for now, the talk is about Genesis Magma Racing. Will it succeed or fail? 

What we know for sure is that if Genesis can organise a race team half as well as a party, it's in with a very sporting chance. We certainly wouldn't bet against the magic we saw in the darkness of the desert.