Marc Surer

Marc Surer
Surer at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix
Born	(1951-09-18) 18 September 1951 (age 73) Arisdorf, Switzerland
Spouses	Jolanda Egger ​ ​ (m. 1986; div. 1993)​ Christina Surer ​ ​ (m. 1997; div. 2000)​ Silvia Renée Arias ​ (m. 2011)​
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Swiss
Active years	1979–1986
Teams	Ensign, ATS, Theodore, Arrows, Brabham
Entries	88 (82 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	17
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First entry	1979 Italian Grand Prix
Last entry	1986 Belgian Grand Prix

Marc Surer (born 18 September 1951) is a Swiss former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One from 1979 to 1986.

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 Italian Grand Prix that year with Ensign, Surer signed for ATS in 1980. 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.

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 has remained as a commentator alongside Sascha Roos.

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

Racing record

Career summary

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	Arrows Racing Team	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 BMW	15	0	0	0	0	1	20th
	World Sportscar Championship	Porsche Kremer Racing	1	0	0	0	0	8	53rd
1985	Formula One	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	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	Pos.	Pts
1976	Hohmann Racing	Chevron B35	BMW	HOC	THR	VAL	SAL	PAU	HOC	ROU	MUG	PER	EST	NOG	HOC DNQ		NC	0
1977	Hohmann Auto Technik	March 762	BMW	SIL 9	THR 7	HOC Ret	NÜR	VAL 7	PAU	MUG 5	ROU Ret	NOG 7	PER	MIS	EST		13th	5
	March Engineering	March 772P														DON 4
1978	Polifac BMW Junior Team	March 782	BMW	THR 2	HOC 2	NÜR 4	PAU 3	MUG 2	VAL 9	ROU 3	DON 3	NOG 2	PER Ret	MIS 2	HOC 2		2nd	51
1979	Polifac BMW Junior Team	March 792	BMW	SIL DNS	HOC Ret	THR 9	NÜR 1	VAL 1	MUG Ret	PAU 3	HOC 5	ZAN 3	PER Ret	MIS 3	DON 2		1st	38
1981	Marcus Hotz Racing	March 812	BMW	SIL	HOC Ret	THR 12	NÜR	VAL	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 DNQ	CAN DNQ	USA Ret		NC	0
1980	Team ATS	ATS D3	Cosworth V8	ARG Ret	BRA 7															NC	0
		ATS D4				RSA DNS	USW	BEL	MON	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 12	AUT 12	NED 10	ITA Ret	CAN DNQ	USA 8
1981	Ensign Racing	Ensign N180B	Cosworth V8	USW Ret	BRA 4	ARG Ret	SMR 9	BEL 11	MON 6	ESP										16th	4
	Theodore Racing Team	Theodore TY01									FRA 12	GBR 11	GER 14	AUT Ret	NED 8	ITA DNQ	CAN 9	CPL Ret
1982	Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A4	Cosworth V8	RSA	BRA	USW	SMR	BEL 7	MON 9	DET 8	CAN 5	NED 10	GBR Ret	FRA 13	GER 6	AUT Ret		ITA Ret		21st	3
		Arrows A5															SUI 15		CPL 7
1983	Arrows Racing Team	Arrows A6	Cosworth V8	BRA 6	USW 5	FRA 10	SMR 6	MON Ret	BEL 11	DET 11	CAN Ret	GBR 17	GER 7	AUT Ret	NED 8	ITA 10	EUR Ret	RSA 8		15th	4
1984	Barclay Nordica Arrows BMW	Arrows A6	Cosworth V8	BRA 7	RSA 9	BEL 8		FRA Ret	MON DNQ	CAN Ret	DET Ret									20th	1
		Arrows A7	BMW Str-4 t/c				SMR Ret					DAL Ret	GBR 11	GER Ret	AUT 6	NED Ret	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	POR Ret
1985	Motor Racing Developments Ltd.	Brabham BT54	BMW Str-4 t/c	BRA	POR	SMR	MON	CAN 15	DET 8	FRA 8	GBR 6	GER Ret	AUT 6	NED 10	ITA 4	BEL 8	EUR Ret	RSA Ret	AUS Ret	13th	5
1986	Barclay Arrows BMW	Arrows A8	BMW Str-4 t/c	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR 9	MON 9	BEL 9	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	Pos.	Class Pos.
1978	Artos Francy Sauber PP AG	Eugen Straehl Harry Blumer	Sauber C 5	S 2.0	257	NC	NC
1981	Würth-Lubrifilm Team Sauber	David Deacon Dieter Quester	BMW M1	Gr.5	207	DNF	DNF
1982	Ford Germany Zakspeed	Klaus Ludwig Manfred Winkelhock	Ford C100	C	67	DNF	DNF

Sources

• Profile at www.grandprix.com

References

1. Hanlon, Mike (2016-05-12). "The Top 50 F1 drivers of all time, regardless of what they were driving". New Atlas. Retrieved 2017-12-23.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
2. http://marcsurer.com/news/2011/verheiratet.html^{[dead link‍]}

Sporting positions
Preceded by Bruno Giacomelli	European Formula Two Champion 1979	Succeeded by Brian Henton