Marc Surer

Marc Surer

Nation:	Switzerland
Automobile / Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1979 U.S. Grand Prix
Last start:	1986 Belgian Grand Prix
Constructors
1979  Ensign  1980  ATS  1981  Ensign , Theodore  1982–1984  Arrows  1985  Brabham  1986  Arrows
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-13. ( 1985 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 82 - - 1
World Cup points :	17th
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Marc Surer (born September 18, 1951 in Arisdorf ) is a former Swiss automobile racing driver and Formula 1 commentator on Swiss television.

Life

The trained locksmith achieved his first successes in motorsport in the early 1970s in kart racing . In 1972 he became the Swiss go-kart champion. In the following years he successfully competed in various European formula and touring car racing series. In 1976 Surer finished second in the German Formula 3 Championship , and in 1979 he won the Formula 2 European Championship .

In the USA , at the last race of the Formula 1 season in 1979 , Surer started his first Formula 1 Grand Prix at the age of 28. In 1980 he played a full season with the German ATS team alongside the Dutchman Jan Lammers . In Formula 1 he drove for smaller and technically inferior teams such as Arrows , Brabham and Ensign until 1986 . The best results in his total of 82 races were two fourth places. An engine failure at the European Grand Prix in 1985 shortly before the end of the race, while in second place, ruined the only chance of a podium place in his career. During his time as a premiere commentator, he looked back on this race with Jacques Schulz in the series “The Best Grand Prix” .

Marc Surer also competed successfully in numerous long-distance races and rallies . In 1984 he finished second in a Renault 5 Turbo at the Cologne-Ahrweiler Rally . 1985 he won along with Gerhard Berger and Roberto Ravaglia the Spa 24 Hours on a BMW 635 . At the 1985 Monza 1000 km race , he was also victorious alongside Manfred Winkelhock in a Porsche 962 .

After a serious accident at the Hessen Rally of the German Rally Championship in 1986 , in which his friend and co-driver Michel Wyder was killed when he hit a tree, Surer resigned from active motorsport. His Ford RS200 from Group B , which was very controversial at the time , came oversteering off the track in the Schotten special stage on a section of the former Schottenring in a fast right-hand bend in front of the Rudingshain thoroughfare and hit the driver's side almost unchecked (just behind Surer's seat position), which literally split the car into pieces and immediately went up in flames because the safety fuel tank had burst too.

In the early 1990s he worked as a driver trainer and race director for BMW in the German Touring Car Championship and in the STW series.

From the German Grand Prix in 1996 , he commented on all races of the Formula 1 World Championship for Sky Deutschland (formerly DF1 / Premiere), alongside Jacques Schulz until the end of 2012, and with Sascha Roos from 2013 until the end of 2017 when Sky left . For a few years now, he has also been working as a chief instructor in driver safety training and until the program was discontinued at the end of 2012 he was the presenter of the motor show for the Swiss television broadcaster SRF Zwei . As an expert for the SRF , he had already commented on some Grand Prix at the end of the 1980s.

Marc Surer is divorced twice. He was married to Jolanda Egger from 1986 to 1993 and to Christina Bönzli from 1996 to 2000. In December 2010 he got engaged to his longtime partner Silvia Renée Arias. In December 2011, the marriage took place in Argentina.

In April 2015, Surer suffered a lung injury as well as a broken leg and two broken ribs in a riding accident with his horse.

Due to the serious riding accident, he missed a race of the Formula 1 World Championship for the first time since the beginning of 1996 at Sky Deutschland (formerly DF1 / Premiere) as a co-commentator.

For the 2018 season, Sky did not extend the contract to broadcast Formula 1. Surer's activity as a commentator in Germany therefore ended after almost 21 continuous years. However, he was hired as an expert by the motorsport Internet portal Motorsport-Total.com, as he was with Sky, but now with the focus on the written "grading" of the performance of each individual driver after the race.

In 2019, he returned to the SRF expert microphone for five selected races, including the opening race in Melbourne and the Monaco Grand Prix.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16
1979
													DNQ	DNQ	DNF
1980
	DNF	7th	DNS				DNF	DNF	12	12	10	DNF	DNQ	8th
1981
	DNF	4th	DNF	9	11	6th		12	11 *	14 *	DNF	8th	DNQ	9	DNF
1982
					7th	9	8th	5	10	DNF	13	6th	DNF	15th	DNF	7th
1983
	6th	5	10	6th	DNF	11	11	DNF	17th	7th	DNF	8th	10	DNF	8th
1984
	7th	9	8th	DNF	DNF	DNQ	DNF	DNF	DNF	11	DNF	6th	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF
1985
					15th	8th	8th	6th	DNF	6th	10 *	4th	8th	13	DNF	DNF
1986
	DNF	DNF	9 *	9	9

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1978	Artos Francy Sauber PP AG	Clean C5	Eugen Strähl	Harry Blumer	not classified
1981	Würth Lubrifilm Team Clean	BMW M1	Dieter Quester	David Deacon	failure	Engine failure
1982	Zakspeed	Ford C100	Klaus Ludwig	Manfred Winkelhock	failure	Electrics

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1981	BMW Challenge Team	BMW M1	Alf Gebhardt	failure	Engine failure

Web links

Commons : Marc Surer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Marc Surer's website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sport.de - website: Marc Surer 2019 no longer an expert in German TV. From: www.sport.de , February 23, 2019, accessed on March 25, 2019 . 
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCfEVANJieo
3. ↑ http://www.marcsurer.com/about-marc/the-commentator/
4. ↑ Ex-Playmate says yes for the third time! on blick.ch from October 27, 2009
5. ↑ Christina Surer wants to get married again on blick.ch from September 15, 2008
6. ↑ “Engaged and soon to be married!” Schweizer-illustrierte.ch on December 28, 2010
7. ↑ “Dream wedding with obstacles” at schweizer-illustrierte.ch on December 5, 2011
8. ^ Ruben Zimmermann: Riding accident: TV expert Marc Surer in the hospital , Motorsport Total, April 27, 2015
9. ↑ https://www.motorsport-total.com/formel-1/news/jetzt- gehts-los-formel-1-saison-2018-mit-experte-marc-surer- 18032229
10. ↑ "Back to the roots" - Marc Surer becomes SRF expert in Formula 1. February 12, 2019, accessed on September 15, 2019 .