Genesis to Choose Two, Three-Driver Lineups After Qatar

Photo: Genesis Magma Racing

Genesis Magma Racing sporting director Gabriele Tarquini says the team will decide after the Qatar FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener whether to adopt two- or three-driver lineups for the subsequent shorter races.

Genesis is entering the WEC’s Hypercar class next year with a pair of GMR-001 Hypercars but, with the Qatar curtain-raiser being a longer ten-hour maximum event, it will field three drivers in each car.

However, Tarquini says the decision over the lineups for the following six-hour Imola and Spa rounds will only be taken once Genesis can assess its performance in Qatar.

The Italian says there are “positives and negatives” to slimming to two drivers per car for those events, but does not want to rush into a final decision.

“Personally, I want to wait [to see] the real performance of the car and how far we are at the moment from the pace,” said Tarquini at a Genesis media event during a test at Barcelona earlier this month.

“On the positive side to use two drivers per car, is to use experienced drivers to spend much more time developing during the race weekend.

“Testing is very limited so, if we need to develop the car, probably we use two drivers per car on the short races.”

Despite the drivers and team management being encouraged by the testing performance of the GMR-001, it has not run alongside any other cars yet so there is no direct comparison of where it stands.

“We are always alone on track – it was not our choice because the tests are open, other teams can join us, but it was not the case,” added Tarquini.

“You have a lap time reference but you know the situation is different, the temperatures are different, you never know where you are until the first race.

“Probably even the Prologue will not be enough to judge your performance – we must wait to the first race and see.”

Tarquini confirmed that Genesis had already made the decision of which drivers would step aside should it opt to go down the two per car route, although this has not been publicly confirmed.

However, it is understood that 20-year-old Mathys Jaubert would not continue in the No. 17 car alongside Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani if only two drivers are favored.

Jaubert secured his place in the lineup off the back of a very impressive European Le Mans Series campaign for IDEC Sport as part of Genesis’ ‘Trajectory Program.’

The crew fought for the LMP2 title despite Jaubert’s lack of experience, and he was selected as Sportscar365’s rookie of the year for his starring performances.

Among the No.19 car’s roster, Dani Juncadella has far less prototype racing under his belt compared with Mathieu Jaminet and Paul-Loup Chatin.

While it is unclear how many races they will all tackle together, Tarquini said a lot of thought went into selecting which trio of drivers to assign to each car, describing it as “not an easy choice.”

“We spent a lot of time to analyze the characteristics of the drivers,” he said.

“Not in terms of speed, because we know all the six drivers can have performance, but you have a sort of experience and youth that meets, and you can have a very good mix together. But also the personality.”

Source: Sports Car 365