Marc
Surer

Marc Surer was born on 18 September 1951 in Arisdorf, Switzerland, and began karting in 1972. As motor racing had been banned in Switzerland after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, he moved to Germany in 1974 and finished second in the Formula Vee championship there. He stepped up to Formula Three in 1976 and was signed by Jochen Neerpasch for the BMW Junior Team, whose drivers also included Eddie Cheever and Manfred Winkelhock. In 1978 he was runner-up in the European Formula Two Championship, and in 1979 he won the title in a March-BMW.

Surer made his Formula One debut with Ensign in 1979. That year he was entered for three races and started one. He drove for ATS in 1980, then for Ensign and Theodore in 1981. At the 1981 Brazilian Grand Prix he finished fourth for Ensign and set the fastest lap of the race. He was with Arrows from 1982 to 1984 and with Brabham in 1985, finishing 13th in the world championship that year. He returned to Arrows in 1986. In total he made 82 starts from 88 entries without ever reaching the podium.

In 1986 Surer had a serious accident on the ADAC Hessen-Rallye in a Ford RS200. His co-driver and friend Michel Wyder was killed. Surer ended his Formula One career later that year. BMW continued to use him as a driver and coach, and he later became director of its motorsport activities. In 1994 and 1995 he won the German Super Touring Car Championship alongside Johnny Cecotto and Joachim Winkelhock.

From 1996 Surer worked as a television commentator at all Formula One events for Sky Sport in Germany, formerly known as DF1 and Premiere. After Jacques Schulz stepped down before the 2013 season, he stayed on alongside Sascha Roos until 2017.

Source: Wikipedia, “Marc Surer”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.