Hyundai has announced its intention to enter endurance racing with a LMDh hypercar programme under its Genesis brand.
The South Korean manufacturer, one of the world’s largest car makers, confirmed it had reached a “strategic choice” to build a hypercar for endurance racing.While having not formally entered into any series as of yet, a LMDh programme would enable Hyundai to compete in both the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA championship in North America.
The programme will race under Hyundai’s premium car brand Genesis, which it launched in 2015. The manufacturer already competes as Hyundai in the World Rally Championship and previously had a factory team in the former World Touring Car Championship.
“Genesis is actively exploring programmes to strengthen its high-performance image, and after a thorough evaluation of various options, LMDh emerged as the most strategic choice for us at this time,” the manufacturer said in a statement.
“We have carefully analysed LMDh and found it to be a natural fit for our motorsport ambitions and a valuable platform to drive the development of future mobility technologies for road cars. Endurance racing presents an unparalleled opportunity to showcase Genesis’ cutting-edge technology, design philosophy and performance-driven character in a highly competitive arena. This project is part of our broader vision for the future of mobility.”
Hyundai is the latest manufacturer to join endurance racing’s top class through the hypercar regulations, introduced in 2021. Genesis will join Porsche, BMW, Cadillac, Alpine, Acura and Lamborghini in racing with an LMDh hypercar, which race with pre-homologated chassis and hybrid systems, while Toyota, Peugeot and Ferrari race LMH hypercars with more open designs.
Aston Martin will become the latest manufacturer to compete with a LMH when it enters next year’s World Endurance Championship with its Valkyrie operated by the Heart of Racing team.
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Bob
12th September 2024, 12:26
It’s great to see how popular the WEC has become. It’s been great even in the LMP1 days, but these new regulations have brought in an amazing grid, one that’s even better then the Group C era. I think this is the first time we’ve seen prototype racing being more popular then even F1 amongst manufacturers with Genesis now being the 11th to join and McLaren likely to announce their LMDh programme at Le Mans 2025.
zomtec (@zomtec)
12th September 2024, 13:06
There are almost too many manufacturers as every participant has to run two cars and there are just 3 spots on the podium. Racing without winning is not very attractive for big manufacturers.
RandomMallard
12th September 2024, 13:32
@zomtec I somewhat agree. Starting to wonder if it’d be worth having a different class for LMH and LMDh, like they did with LNP1 and LMP1 Hybrid. Can still race in the same track, but more honours and more chances for brands to win and stay interested…
anon
12th September 2024, 16:11
It’s certainly interesting that we’re now seeing people complaining about the WEC apparently being too successful at attracting new entrants.
MichaelN
12th September 2024, 17:31
Manufacturer involvement is always a bit tricky because when they don’t win the suits at HQ get upset and want to leave.
One benefit these teams have is that very few of them are real manufacturers. They’re mostly old LMP2 teams that are running (and sometimes buying) the cars from the manufacturers who, sometimes, also sell them to other teams.
Jota and Pensky not winning doesn’t look quite as bad as “Porsche Loses” to the marketing folks.
But still, we’ve already seen with Peugeot that they’re starting to voice some doubts over their continued involvement.
Jere (@jerejj)
12th September 2024, 14:30
Hyundai could very well quit WRC after next year, though, partly as a result of their newest racing programme.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
12th September 2024, 15:00
Bippity BOPpity, here’s your participation trophy
MichaelN
12th September 2024, 17:29
How many races have Peugeot and Vanwall won?
bull mello (@bullmello)
12th September 2024, 22:49
Maybe sister company KIA will join up too!
Could be called: “Inua”
(spirit or soul)
We never know…
Luke S (@joeypropane)
13th September 2024, 0:07
Odd that they wouldn’t do this under the N branding, to marry up with their WRC and road cars.
Nobody will care who Genisis are and what they do, just like today.