Hyundai Reveals The Future: It Will Prepare A LMDh Under The Genesis Brand

The first step towards the future. Hyundai Motorsport announced this morning what Motorsport.com had already anticipated a few weeks ago, that is, the new project that will see it engage in the world of prototypes with an LMDh.

The Korean manufacturer revealed with a post on its official Instagram page its arrival in the WEC, embracing the category under the Genesis brand. Cyril Abiteboul had already been caught at the last edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Sarthe paddock, busy talking to some chassis manufacturers.

It is no coincidence that Hyundai has chosen the class where it is not necessary to build the chassis of your own prototype to race, but it is necessary to choose from those imposed by the regulations and then build around it the car that will be eligible to race in the FIA ​​WEC and IMSA.

“The LMDh programme will add a new pillar to Hyundai Motorsport’s portfolio,” the short statement explains.

“Since its foundation in 2012, Hyundai Motorsport has competed in WRC and TCR under the Hyundai N brand.”

“Genesis, the premium brand of Hyundai Motor Group, will add endurance racing to its motorsports activities.”

Hyundai, therefore, has decided to build the engine itself, while the chassis is designed and built by the French Oreca. From the next few months, therefore, the racing department of the South Korean company will not only have to proceed with the development of the i20 N Rally1 that runs in the WRC, but also with the preparation of the prototype for the WEC that will have to follow the development plan in the factory and then on the track.

In the meantime, Hyundai will prepare not only from a technical point of view, but also from an operational one. In 2025, it will probably have a team that will run LMP2 prototypes in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) to get acquainted with endurance racing and be ready for its debut in the WEC the following year.

For this commitment, the aim would be to support one of the teams that have already been involved in the series for a long time and are among the most experienced, such as Cool Racing, IDEC Sport and TDS Racing, all of French nationality and with a strong link with Oreca.

Further down the line, it is likely that Hyundai could partner with a reference team for the LMDh, as is already the case for Porsche with Penske, Lamborghini-Iron Lynx, Alpine-Signatech, BMW-WRT and from next year Cadillac-Jota.

This latest partnership was born from the separation of the GM brand from Chip Ganassi Racing and the American team would be a strong candidate to establish relations with Hyundai, both for its experience and for the obvious operations it has in place in the United States (including the link with Bryan Herta Autosports, the team that fields the Elantra N TCR in the American touring car championship), opening the doors to an entry of the Korean LMDh into IMSA.

The ELMS operation could be led by a prominent figure from Hyundai. Among the names internal and linked to the Korean manufacturer, there is talk of Gabriele Tarquini, already WTCR champion with the manufacturer in 2018 at the wheel of an i30 N TCR managed by the BRC Racing team. If the Giulianova native were to be the chosen one, he could then become the team manager of the WEC operation. But, we repeat, it is only one of the most quoted hypotheses.

The announcement made today on Instagram talks about the future, but not in full. Hyundai, in fact, has chosen to talk only about the WEC project, but not about the fate of what has tied it to the WRC for a decade now. Over the last few weeks, the team, through team principal and president Cyril Abiteboul, had expressed the absence of difficulties in opening a new program and, at the same time, moving forward with the WRC project.

What is certain is that in 2025 Hyundai will continue to compete in the World Rally Championship, but – as we already anticipated a few weeks ago – in 2026 the presence of the official team is anything but a given. It is possible that the hybrid i20 N Rally1 will still be there, but it is possible that they will be managed by a private structure in 2026, the last year of work of the current Rally1 before they are replaced in 2027.

In short, the next step has been announced. We will see in the next few months what the next ones will be and in which direction they will go. The feeling, however, is that the WRC must prepare to lose its first manufacturer since 2019, when Citroen Racing abandoned it.