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. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in 1951, in Aresdorf, Switzerland, Marc Surer’s racing started with karts in 1972, despite his parents being opposed to him karting. However, in his first full season he became the Swiss champion and then graduated to Super Vee, finishing second in 1974’s Championship.
He then moved on to German Formula 3 with the KWS team (having outpaced Keke Rosberg in a test with them) and worked for his drive with them by preparing their three Marches while living in a Transit van outside the workshops. He told how, “after qualifying I would change into my boiler suit and rebuild the gearboxes” and went on to finish second in the series.
In 1977 he moved into Formula 2 and was also signed by Jochen Neerpasch to race in BMW’s Junior Team in German touring cars, alongside Eddie Cheever and Manfred Winkelhock. Racing a 320 he took a victory at Zolder and podium finishes at Mainz-Finthen, the Nurburgring and Hockenheim though during the season received a two month suspension after a clash with Hans Heyer. At the end of the year he and M.Winklehock contested the 1000Km Kyalami race and finished fifth.
There were third and fourth place finishes in 1978 with the 320 at Norisring and Vallelunga and he joined the BMW Team Polifac F2 squad, finishing second in the championship, behind team mate Bruno Giacomelli. The year saw his Le Mans debut, co-driving a Sauber C5 with E.Straehl and H.Blumer.
In the following year he became the team leader and won the series plus made his F1 debut driving for Ensign in the final three races, not qualifying in Italy and Canada though he started at Watkins Glen. There were also drives in the BMW M1 Procar series plus an Interserie race with a Lola T296 at Hockenheim.
There were further Procar M1 drives in 1980, with his best results being second and third at Zandvoort and Norisring plus he signed for the ATS F1 team. He qualified for the first two races (finishing seventh in Brazil) but sustained badly broken ankles in a crash during practice for the South African GP and was out until mid-season.
For 1981 he switched to Mo Nunn’s Ensign team and in the second race at Brazil took a superb fourth place and set the fastest lap. But, several races later, after he had taken a sixth place finish at Monaco he would be with Teddy Yip’s Theodore team, where his best results were eighth and ninth at Zandvoort and Montreal. There was also a return to Le Mans where he raced a BMW M1 with D.Deacon and D.Quester.
The following year saw the first of his three seasons with Arrows but in the first year he broke his ankles again in a crash at Kyalami and was out for four months. His first race came at Belgium, where he finished seventh and later strong results included fifth and sixth in Canada and Germany and seventh in the season ending Caesar’s Palace race. He also shared a Ford C100 at Le Mans with K.Ludwig and M.Winklehock then later the trio finished fifth in a 1000km Brands Hatch race.
The early part of 1983’s F1 season proved fruitful as the opposition teams’ turbos suffered unreliability and he scored points in three of the first four races and was running third at Monaco until a collision with Derek Warwick. 1984 saw the team running with Barclay Nordica sponsorship and it started promisingly in the first three races though after this he suffered retirements and only finished in the British and Austrian races. Arrows boss Jackie Oliver spoke highly of Marc, describing him as “a real team player who rarely made mistakes and always tried hard, despite the fact our cars weren’t particularly good. Both Thierry and Gerhard Berger went on to greater things than Marc, winning grands prix, but Marc was entirely comparable to them; he was just unlucky.”
Arrows had Thierry Boutsen and Gerhard Berger for 1985 so Marc signed to race with Brabham-BMW, alongside Nelson Piquet. He also raced Kremer’s Porsche 962 and he and M.Winklehock took victory in the 1000Km Monza and were second in the 1000Km Mugello race.a Sadly, Manfred was killed later in the year at Mosport and Marc stated ”We were close, spending time together away from the tracks. Seeing this happen to my friend, knowing it could have been me: it was a worse experience than any of my own accidents.” During the year he also won the Spa 24 Hours in a Schnitzer BMW 635CSi (with Gerhard Berger and Roberto Ravaglia) and in September finished second with the 962 in an Interserie race at the Nurburgring.
In F1, the Brabham turbo powered car had massive horsepower and he said how ”You could hardly control the car on bumps on a straight, it was wild. And I was used to being careful; Nelson would just turn up the boost and blow the engine. He didn’t care. I wanted to finish races.” There were sixth place finishes in Britain and Austria plus a fourth at Monza and had qualified fifth at Kyalami, but retired from the race. At the season ending race at Adelaide, he had been superb all weekend and had out-qualified Nelson Piquet for the first time. During the race he was on course for second place when he suffered an engine failure. Afterwards, in his hire car, a dejected and frustrated Marc drove out of the circuit and kept driving-to Alice Springs! He later said “I just followed signs to Alice Springs. I felt so much frustration. I thought: simply can’t stand this any more. How can I have so much bad luck?”
He did return to F1 the following year though, with Arrows, but after three ninth place finishes at Imola, Monaco and Belgium he retired from F1 halfway through the season.
During this time he had become enamoured with rallying and had had a number of drives in the two previous years, with a Renault 5 Maxi on Swiss and German events. He described how he fell in love with it, of “the feeling of sliding a car, the challenge of open roads, all of which are new to you. Maybe I had become bored with F1; the same circuits all the time.”
Unfortunately, he suffered a serious accident at the 1986 Hessen Rallye when his Ford RS200 slid wide on a corner and hit a tree. The car broke in half and was engulfed in flames, sadly killing co-driver Michel Wyder and Marc himself suffered serious burns and numerous broken bones, including his ankles, legs and pelvis. Just before he passed out, he had managed to roll clear of his burning seat but would be in a coma for three weeks and in hospital for six months.
In 1988 he joined BWM as an instructor for their driver training programme and went on to become their motorsport director in Super Touring. In 1994 and 1995 he raced alongside Johnny Cecotto and Jo Winkelhock and won the German Super Touring Car Championship and during this time started his career as a TV commentator with the DRS channel in Switzerland and in 1996 began commentating for the German TV station DF1.
