Marc Gené i Guerrero (born 29 March 1974) is a Spanish professional racing driver.
He is best known as a tester for Williams and Ferrari in Formula One, Minardi Formula One driver and factory driver for Peugeot’s Le Mans team, with which he won the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans. His brother Jordi is also a racing driver, competing in the WTCC for SEAT.He had 36 starts in Formula One, mostly through two seasons with the Minardi team, with which he scored a sixth-place finish at the attrition-filled 1999 European Grand Prix.Starting from the 2010 season, Gené commented on Formula One races for Spanish television on Antena 3. In 2013 he became an expert analyst for Sky Sport F1 HD in Italy. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain in 1974, after starting racing he finished runner-up at the age of 13 in 1987’s Catalan Kart Championship (National Class). He went on to win the Championship and the National Class Spanish Kart Championship the following year and in 1989 competed in both the European and World championships. After winning the Senior Class of 1990’s Spanish Kart Championship, and becoming the youngest driver to do so, the following year saw him competing again in the World Championship.
The came a move into Formula Ford for 1992 and he finished fifth in the Spanish series, taking a win and two pole positions through the year. He followed it with a win and three podiums to finish second in 1993’s European Championship plus took second place at the Formula Ford World Cup and Festival, which established his reputation abroad.
In 1994 he was Rookie of the Year in British Formula 3, with his best results being seventh place finishes at Oulton Park and Silverstone and eighth at Snetterton, while the following’s F3 results included third at Donington, fourth at Pembrey fifth at Oulton Park and a sixth place at Silverstone.
In 1996 he won the FISA Superformula Championship and in 1997 moved into Formula 3000 with Pacific Racing though it was a disappointing period. Despite taking fastest race lap on his debut at Silverstone, he suffered a back injury in an accident at Pau (which left him with a fractured vertebra) but when he recovered there was no drive available. He eventually had several races for the Nordic team though during the year his only results were thirteenth at Silverstone and eighth at Hockenheim.
However, he returned to form the following year, and alongside working as an accountant, he won the Spanish Formula Nissan series in style with Campos Racing. He took six victories, winning both rounds at Barcelona, Jerez and Donington, had pole positions at Barcelona and twice at Albacete plus took fastest lap at Barcelona and Jerez.
Then came Marc’s debut into Formula 1 when he signed with Minardi. Although that year’s car represented a major step forward for a team of Minardi’s small budget, designer Gustav Brunner identified the car’s greatest shortcoming as its aerodynamics, as the team could not afford long periods of time using wind tunnels. It was a difficult year but, after several ninth places and an eighth, Marc took his first point (and Minardi’s first since 1995), with a sixth place at the European GP at the Nurburgring. Unfortunately team mate Luca Badoer broke down in tears after his car’s gearbox failed and denied him his first points finish in F1, as he had been running in fourth place with 13 laps to go. Marc continued with the team in 2000 (alongside Gastón Mazzacane) though his best finishes were eighth places in Australia and Austria.
At the end of 2000 Telefonica withdrew from F1, and with no F1 drives available Marc then signed with Williams as their test driver and drove three Grands Prix for them when replacing an injured Ralf Schumacher. The first was at 2003’s Italian Grand Prix and he took four points with a fifth-place finish and stepped in for the 2004 French and British Grands Prix, finishing tenth and twelfth.
During 2004, he signed to become Scuderia Ferrari’s test driver (alongside former teammate Luca Badoer) and combined it in 2005 with racing for Peugeot’s sports car team.
A limit on testing in F1 in 2007 and 2008 restricted his involvement but with Peugeot he finished fourth in 2007’s Le Mans Series. The following year, luckily recovering from a heavy crash in testing at Le Mans,(in which he broke his toe) he went on to finish second at Le Mans and in the championship and the diesel-powered Peugeot finally won Le Mans in 2009 with Marc, David Brabham and Alex Wurz in the driving seat. Marc completed the last stint and brought the 908 home to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Further sports car success came in 2010 at Sebring, as he established himself as an impressive endurance racer, and he won at Spa and was fourth at Le Mans co-driving the Peugeot 908 with A.Wurz and Anthony Davidson during 2011. When Peugeot withdrew at the end of the season, he later replaced Timo Bernhard at Audi for several races in the World Endurance Championship. He, Romain Dumas and Loïc Duvalinner won at Spa and also finished fifth at Le Mans and in two WEC appearances in 2013, he was third at Spa and Le Mans and returned to France a year later to finish second (with Tom Kristensen and Lucas di Grassi) for Audi Sport Team Joest.
In 2014 Nissan announced a GT-R LM programme and initially tested their car in America, (Arizona, the Circuit of the Americas, Palm Beach Raceway, South Carolina and Sebring International Raceway) with plans to enter two cars in 2015’s FIA WEC while a third car would be entered for Le Mans. They named nine drivers and Marc was the first announced for the program, after switching from Audi, but he later announced he would not race for the team but would continue in an advisory capacity.
Besides testing for Ferrari, as shown in the accompanying photographs he also appeared at numerous demonstration events and historic meetings, including Goodwood, Laguna Seca and Quatar. In 2012, during a Ferrari Racing Days event at Laguna Seca, Marc broke the track record in a a 2003 Ferrar1 F2003-GA. He covered the 3.6km (2.24-mile) circuit in 1:05.78 which beat the previous fastest time of 1:05.88 set by Sebastien Bourdais in a Panoz DP01 Champ Car in 2007.
Video showing Marc at Laguna Seca in the Ferrari
Gallery F1
