Marc Surer

Marc Surer (born 18 September 1951) is a Swiss former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from Template:F1 to Template:F1.

Born in Arisdorf, Surer began kart racing aged 20. He moved to Germany in 1974 to compete in Formula Vee, as motor racing was banned in Switzerland following the 1955 Le Mans disaster. After finishing runner-up in the 1976 German Formula Three Championship, Surer progressed to European Formula Two, winning the title in 1979 with the BMW Junior Team. Making his Formula One debut at the Template:F1GP that year with Ensign, Surer signed for ATS in Template:F1. He participated in 88 Formula One Grands Prix, scoring 17 championship points.

Racing career

Surer started his career in karting in 1972. Due to the racing ban established in Switzerland after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, he moved to Germany in 1974, where he finished second in the local Formula Vee Championship. In 1976, he switched to European Formula 3, where he was noticed by Jochen Neerpasch, who hired him as a member of the BMW Junior Team alongside Eddie Cheever and Manfred Winkelhock. In 1978, he finished second in the Formula 2 Championship, eventually winning the series the following year in a works March-BMW.

File:Arrows driven by Marc Surer - 1984 British Grand Prix (10242068723).jpg

Surer driving for Arrows at the 1984 British Grand Prix.

Surer's debut in Formula 1 took place at the end of 1979 and was somewhat troubled. He broke his legs in qualifying at the South African Grand Prix in an ATS at Kyalami in 1980 and again racing there in 1981 for Ensign. He recovered to give Ensign their best result with a 4th-place finish at the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix, also setting the fastest lap of the race. He later drove for Theodore before establishing himself at Arrows for a couple of seasons, until BMW's support earned him a seat at Brabham for 1985. Surer returned to Arrows in 1986 but eventually retired from Formula One halfway through the season due to a serious accident at the 1986 ADAC Hessen-Rallye in his Ford RS200 that severely injured him and killed his co-driver and friend Michel Wyder. BMW retained him as a driver, coach and later director of motorsport activities. In 1994 and 1995, Surer, alongside Johnny Cecotto and Jo Winkelhock, won the German Super Touring Car Championship.

In 1996, Surer began working as a television commentator at all Formula 1 events for Sky Sport (Germany) (formerly known as DF1 and Premiere) next to the lead commentator Jacques Schulz. After Schulz's withdrawal prior to the 2013 season, he remained as a commentator alongside Sascha Roos until 2017.

Formula One all-time ranking

In 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modeling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Surer was ranked the 17th best Formula One driver of all time.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Personal life

Surer has been married twice to former Playboy models, first to Playmate Jolanda Egger, and then to Christina Surer between 1997 and 2000. On 3 December 2011 he married his longtime partner Silvia Renée Arias.<ref>http://marcsurer.com/news/2011/verheiratet.htmlTemplate:CbignoreTemplate:Dead link</ref>

Racing record

Career summary

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Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
1975	Formula Vee		?	0	?	?	?	24	6th
1976	European Formula Three	KWS Autotechnik Team	7	0	0	0	1	13	5th
	German Formula Three		5	0	1	0	3	77	2nd
	Italian Formula Three		?	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	Challenge de Formule Renault Europe		?	?	?	?	?	0	?
1977	Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft	BMW Junior Team	8	1	1	1	4	82	5th
	European Formula Two	Hohmann Auto Technik	7	0	0	0	0	5	13th
		March Racing	1	0	0	0	0
1978	European Formula Two	Polifac BMW Junior Team	12	0	1	1	9	48	2nd
	Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft	BMW Schweiz	1	0	0	0	1	12	21st
	Japanese Formula Two		1	1	0	?	1	0	NC
	World Sportscar Championship	Artos Francy Sauber PP AG	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	24 Hours of Le Mans		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
1979	European Formula Two	Polifac BMW Junior Team	12	2	2	1	6	38	1st
	BMW M1 Procar Championship	BMW Schweiz	5	0	1	0	0	23	11th
	Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft		2	0	0	0	0	2	43rd
	Formula One	Team Ensign	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC
1980	Formula One	Team ATS	9	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	BMW M1 Procar Championship	Sauber Motorsport	6	0	2	1	2	37	8th
1981	Formula One	Theodore Racing Team	7	0	0	0	0	4	16th
		Ensign Racing	6	0	0	1	0
	World Sportscar Championship	Würth-Lubrifilm Team Sauber	6	0	0	0	0	26.5	89th
	European Formula Two	Marcus Hotz Racing	2	0	0	1	0	0	NC
	24 Hours of Le Mans	Würth-Lubrifilm Team Sauber	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
	IMSA GT Championship		?	?	?	?	?	12	36th
1982	Formula One	Ragno Arrows	12	0	0	0	0	3	21st
	World Sportscar Championship	Ford Germany w/ Zakspeed	3	0	1	0	0	8	55th
	24 Hours of Le Mans		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	DNF
1983	Formula One	Arrows Racing Team	15	0	0	0	0	4	15th
1984	Formula One	Barclay Nordica Arrows	15	0	0	0	0	1	20th
	World Sportscar Championship	Porsche Kremer Racing	1	0	0	0	0	8	53rd
1985	Formula One	Olivetti Racing	12	0	0	0	0	5	13th
	World Sportscar Championship	Porsche Kremer Racing	6	1	0	0	2	45	9th
1986	Formula One	Barclay Arrows BMW	5	0	0	0	0	0	NC
	European Touring Car Championship	Juma Team	1	0	0	0	0	10	?
2005	Porsche Supercup	Porsche AG	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2010	Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2012	Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup		1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†

^† As Surer was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Template:Tooltip	Pts
Template:F2	Hohmann Racing	Chevron B35	BMW	HOC	THR	VLL	SAL	PAU	HOC	ROU	MUG	PER	EST	NOG	HOC Template:Small		NC	0
Template:F2	Hohmann Auto Technik	March 762	BMW	SIL Template:Small	THR Template:Small	HOC Template:Small	NÜR	VLL Template:Small	PAU	MUG Template:Small	ROU Template:Small	NOG Template:Small	PER	MIS	EST		13th	5
	March Engineering	March 772P														DON Template:Small
Template:F2	Polifac BMW Junior Team	March 782	BMW	THR Template:Small	HOC Template:Small	NÜR Template:Small	PAU Template:Small	MUG Template:Small	VLL Template:Small	ROU Template:Small	DON Template:Small	NOG Template:Small	PER Template:Small	MIS Template:Small	HOC Template:Small		2nd	51
Template:F2	Polifac BMW Junior Team	March 792	BMW	SIL Template:Small	HOC Template:Small	THR Template:Small	NÜR Template:Small	VLL Template:Small	MUG Template:Small	PAU Template:Small	HOC Template:Small	ZAN Template:Small	PER Template:Small	MIS Template:Small	DON Template:Small		1st	38
Template:F2	Marcus Hotz Racing	March 812	BMW	SIL	HOC Template:Small	THR Template:Small	NÜR	VLL	MUG	PAU	PER	SPA	DON	MIS	MAN		NC	0

Complete Formula One World Championship results

(key) (races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1979	Team Ensign	Ensign N179	Cosworth V8	ARG	BRA	RSA	USW	ESP	BEL	MON	FRA	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	USA Template:Small		NC	0
1980	Team ATS	ATS D3	Cosworth V8	ARG Template:Small	BRA Template:Small															NC	0
		ATS D4				RSA Template:Small	USW	BEL	MON	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	USA Template:Small
1981	Ensign Racing	Ensign N180B	Cosworth V8	USW Template:Small	BRA Template:Small	ARG Template:Small	SMR Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	MON Template:Small	ESP										16th	4
	Theodore Racing Team	Theodore TY01									FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	CPL Template:Small
1982	Ragno Arrows	Arrows A4	Cosworth V8	RSA	BRA	USW	SMR	BEL Template:Small	MON Template:Small	DET Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	NED Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small		ITA Template:Small		21st	3
		Arrows A5															SUI Template:Small		CPL Template:Small
1983	Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A6	Cosworth V8	BRA Template:Small	USW Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	SMR Template:Small	MON Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	DET Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	EUR Template:Small	RSA Template:Small		15th	4
1984	Barclay Nordica Arrows	Arrows A6	Cosworth V8	BRA Template:Small	RSA Template:Small	BEL Template:Small		FRA Template:Small	MON Template:Small	CAN Template:Small	DET Template:Small									20th	1
		Arrows A7	BMW Str-4 t/c				SMR Template:Small					DAL Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	EUR Template:Small	POR Template:Small
1985	Olivetti Racing	Brabham BT54	BMW Str-4 t/c	BRA	POR	SMR	MON	CAN Template:Small	DET Template:Small	FRA Template:Small	GBR Template:Small	GER Template:Small	AUT Template:Small	NED Template:Small	ITA Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	EUR Template:Small	RSA Template:Small	AUS Template:Small	13th	5
1986	Barclay Arrows BMW	Arrows A8	BMW Str-4 t/c	BRA Template:Small	ESP Template:Small	SMR Template:Small	MON Template:Small	BEL Template:Small	CAN	DET	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	MEX	AUS	NC	0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Template:Tooltip	Template:Tooltip
1978	Template:Flagicon Artos Francy Sauber PP AG	Template:Flagicon Eugen Straehl Template:Flagicon Harry Blumer	Sauber C 5	S 2.0	257	NC	NC
1981	Template:Flagicon Würth-Lubrifilm Team Sauber	Template:Flagicon David Deacon Template:Flagicon Dieter Quester	BMW M1	Gr.5	207	DNF	DNF
1982	Template:Flagicon Ford Germany Template:Flagicon Zakspeed	Template:Flagicon Klaus Ludwig Template:Flagicon Manfred Winkelhock	Ford C100	C	67	DNF	DNF

Sources

• Profile at www.grandprix.com