Marc Surer

Marc Surer

Born	(1951-09-18) 18 September 1951 Arisdorf, Switzerland
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
Fastest laps	1
First entry	1979 Italian Grand Prix
Last entry	1986 Belgian Grand Prix

Marc Surer (born 18 September 1951 in Arisdorf) is a former racing driver from Switzerland currently working as TV commentator and racing school instructor. He participated in 88 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 9 September 1979. He scored a total of 17 championship points.

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's debut in Formula 1 took place at the end of 1979 and was somewhat troubled. He broke his legs testing an ATS at Kyalami in 1980, and again racing there in 1981 for Ensign. He recovered to establish himself at Arrows, until BMW's support earned him a seat at Brabham for 1985.

Surer also enjoyed rallying, but a serious accident at the 1986 ADAC Hessen-Rallye in his Ford RS200 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 he 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.

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

Racing record

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		—	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 Racing Ltd	March 772P														DON 4
1978	Polifac BMW Junior Team	March 782	BMW	THR 2													2nd	51
	March Racing Ltd				HOC 2	NÜR 4	PAU 3	MUG 2	VAL 9	ROU 3	DON 3	NOG 2	PER Ret	MIS 2	HOC 2
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	Horag Hotz Racing	March 812	BMW	SIL	HOC Ret	THR 12	NÜR	VAL	MUG	PAU	PER	SPA	DON	MIS	MAN		—	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 13	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

Sources

• Profile at www.grandprix.com

References

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