Marcus Ericsson

Not to be confused with Marcus Eriksson.

Marcus Ericsson (born September 2, 1990 in Kumla) is a Swedish race car driver currently racing for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Indy Racing League. He previously drove for Caterham F1 and Sauber in Formula One from 2014 to 2018. After a successful début in car racing in 2007 which saw him take the British Formula BMW title with Fortec Motorsport, he moved up into the British team's British Formula 3 squad. After finishing as one of the top rookies in the category, Ericsson turned his attentions to the All-Japan Formula Three Championship where he won the championship in his debut year. In 2010, he moved up to the GP2 Series where he secured one victory during his maiden campaign for Super Nova Racing. Between 2011 and 2012, Ericsson drove for iSport. Ericsson completed the 2013 GP2 season with DAMS, and debuted in Formula One in 2014 with Caterham F1.

Career

Karting

Born in Kumla, Örebro County, Ericsson's first taste of motorsport came when he was nine years old racing in karts. "I got a call from Fredrik Ekblom, whom I ran in British Formula 3000 and Indy Lights. He now runs a kart circuit and he told me about a nine-year old kid who'd walked in off the street and nearly broke the lap record" recalled Richard Dutton, head of Fortec Motorsport. Ekblom managed to convince Ericsson's father, Tomas, to buy his son a kart and the young Swede stayed in karting for the next four years, "I'd never really thought about racing as a career. My family didn't have the money for me to race formula cars so we never thought about it" Ericsson recalled.

It was in 2006 that Ericsson's career got notable backing in the form of former Champ Car driver and 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Bräck. "I spotted Marcus at a race in Gothenburg" Bräck says, "He didn't win the race because his engine blew up with two laps to go but he was clearly the best out there. He didn't get caught in any battles when passing – he'd just wait for the right opportunity, then he pounced and he was away. He has such patience but when he does go for it, it measures so perfectly. He reminded me of watching Alain Prost" Bräck added.

File:Marcus Ericsson Brands Hatch 2007.jpg

Ericsson won his second Formula BMW race at Brands Hatch by six seconds.

Formula BMW

See also: Formula BMW

Bräck had managed to convince Richard Dutton, who ran the Swede in British F3 in 1989, to race Ericsson for his Fortec Motorsport team's 2007 Formula BMW UK title challenge. Ericsson was realistic of his chances during the season, "I was thinking that I should be around top eight to start with, trying for podiums and maybe wins by the end of the year". However, Ericsson's first win came earlier than expected at the first meeting of the series at Brands Hatch where he took third place in the first race and won from pole position in the second race. Following his win, Ericsson was hailed as "the best young talent" Bräck had ever seen. The Swede was in the title race for the whole season, challenging Czech Josef Král and Brit Henry Arundel. In the end, the sixteen–year–old won the title by 40 points from Kral, becoming the final Champion of the British Formula BMW series prior to the series merge with the German series to make a European FBMW championship.

Formula Three

See also: Formula Three

File:Marcus Ericsson 2008 British F3 Croft.jpg

Ericsson driving for Fortec Motorsport at the Croft round of the 2008 British Formula 3 season.

Following his win of the Formula BMW title, Ericsson began aiming for a seat in Formula Three. Tests soon followed with British Formula 3 team Räikkönen Robertson Racing as part of his prize for winning the title that year. Soon afterwards the Swede had a test with frontrunning Formula Three Euroseries team ASM Formule 3, now ART Grand Prix. Despite an offer to join the French team, Ericsson opted to stay in England and join Fortec's British Formula 3 team. The Swede showed his pace to the F3 paddock with two pole positions and a handful of podium finishes, but no victories, which gave him fifth overall in the championship.

File:Marcus Ericsson 2009 Macau F3.jpg

Ericsson driving for TOM'S at the 2009 Macau Grand Prix, where he finished fourth.

During the winter of 2008, Ericsson signed a contract with the Japanese F3 team TOM'S to compete full-time in the championship for the upcoming season. The Swede reasoned that he could was more likely to gain the experience needed to win the Macau Grand Prix in comparison to competing further in the British championship. Ericsson won the Japanese F3 championship, and also won races when making guest appearances back in British F3. He consequently participated in the Macau Grand Prix where he qualified in pole position and finished the main race in fourth position.

GP2 Series

See also: GP2 Series and GP2 Asia Series

Ericsson moved into the GP2 Asia Series for the 2009–10 GP2 Asia Series season, driving originally for the ART Grand Prix team. However, it was later confirmed that Ericsson would drive for Super Nova Racing in the 2010 GP2 Series season. He had been expected to complete the rest of the Asian series with the team, but Jake Rosenzweig was signed to replace Ericsson for the final two rounds. Ericsson returned to Super Nova for the 2010 season, partnering Josef Král and later Luca Filippi. He took his first series victory at Valencia, but only scoring points on two further occasions restricted him to seventeenth place in the drivers' championship.

File:M Ericsson Monza 2011.jpg

Ericsson driving for iSport at the Monza round of the 2011 GP2 Series season.

Ericsson switched to the iSport International team for 2011, alongside Sam Bird. He finished sixth in the Asia series championship, and tenth in the main series championship. He remained with iSport for 2012, alongside Jolyon Palmer. After a relatively disappointing start to the year, his fortunes improved with a victory at Spa, kickstarting a run of six consecutive points finishes to the end of the season, including two podium finishes. This late flourish lifted him to eighth in the championship.

In 2013, he got the chance to drive for the reigning champions DAMS. Despite showing great pace in qualifying, taking pole position in Spain and Great Britain, he was very unlucky in the races. A turning point came in Germany, where he won the sprint race, and he continued with podium positions in Hungary, Belgium, Singapore and Abu Dhabi to finish sixth in the championship.

Formula One

Ericsson drove for Brawn GP at the young driver test at Circuito de Jerez over three days, on 1–3 December 2009. He tested alongside IndyCar Series driver Mike Conway. Conway had the edge by three tenths of a second, however team principal Ross Brawn commended Ericsson for his performance, saying that he had "performed very well showing exceptional maturity in his approach and feedback".

Caterham (2014)

It was announced on 21 November 2013 that Ericsson was a candidate to drive for the Caterham F1 Team in 2014 with Kamui Kobayashi as teammates. On 21 January 2014, the team announced that Ericsson and Kobayashi would be their race driver line up for the forthcoming season, with Robin Frijns as reserve.

File:Ericsson 2014 Monaco Grand Prix.jpg

Ericsson during the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix where he wore a special helmet in tribute to famous Swedish racing driver Ronnie Peterson.

Ericsson qualified 20th in his debut race – the 2014 Australian Grand Prix and made a very good beginning to the race, running 11th before he fell back with oil pressure problems. In Malaysia, he qualified last, but improved in the race, finishing 14th in front of main rival Max Chilton. In Spain, he outqualified Kobayashi for the first time of his career, but he was behind both Marussia cars. He finished the race in 20th position, the last classified finisher. In the next race, the Monaco Grand Prix, he was involved in a collision with Williams driver Felipe Massa during qualifying, which resulted in Massa not advancing to the second part of the qualifying session. Ericsson was penalised with two penalty points and had to start from the pit lane. He drove a good race and took advantage of bad luck for other drivers to finish in 11th place, just missing out on his and Caterham's first points.

After this, Ericsson had some tough races in the slow Caterham. The only notable thing was a crash he suffered in the rain in Hungary, when he lost control of his car on the exit of turn 3 and hit the barriers very hard. He was fine, but the car was completely destroyed and it took him until the Belgian Grand Prix where he could match the Marussias again, losing 16th place to Chilton on the very last lap. In Singapore, he did a good job saving his tyres and was able to keep both Marussias behind him to finish in 15th place and in Japan, he out-qualified both Marussias and Kobayashi for 19th position. He started 17th, but spun behind the safety car in heavy rain, and had to fight back from last place. He finished 17th after some really fast laps, in front of both Marussias and Kobayashi, but his great performance was overshadowed by the crash of Bianchi. At the inaugural Russian Grand Prix, he qualified in a career-best 17th position and this time, he was only 0.15 seconds from making it into Q2. During the race, he started 16th but fell back as expected, finishing 19th overall but in front of his main rivals – the other Caterham and the sole Marussia of Chilton, who eventually retired from the race.

Due to Caterham F1 falling into administration on 21 October 2014, neither team driver was able to compete at the United States Grand Prix. Despite this, Ericsson flew to Texas to commentate the race for Swedish television and, as it transpired, to secure a new drive for 2015. Ericsson terminated his contract with Caterham on 12 November. He eventually finished the season in 19th position, highest of the Caterham drivers that took part in 2014.

Sauber (2015–)

Ericsson (centre) leading Felipe Massa and Sebastian Vettel at the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix

At the 2014 United States Grand Prix, Sauber announced that it had signed Ericsson for 2015, due in part to his substantial financial backing, but also for his strong last races of the 2014 season and the fact that he stayed cool despite 2014 being a frustrating season for him. In his first race with the team in Australia, Ericsson finished in eighth position, recording the first points-scoring finish by a Swedish driver since Stefan Johansson finished third at the 1989 Portuguese Grand Prix.

Malaysia was the first time that Ericsson made it into Q3, qualifying 10th but being promoted to 9th spot on the grid. He made a good start, but spun only on the fourth lap after an unsuccessful overtaking attempt on Force India's Nico Hülkenberg which resulted in a DNF. In China Marcus once again made it into Q3 in qualifying, once again being 10th at the grid. He finished the race in the same position, scoring one point after that Max Verstappen's engine blew up with only a few laps remaining. In Bahrain he qualified outside the top 10, but made a good start and held 8th position when a pit stop failure caused him to fall down the field, sabotaging his chances to bring some new points in the bag. He eventuelly finished the race in 14th position, one place below where he had started.

The first European leg of the season started poorly, finishing 14th in Spain and 13th in Monaco. He was running in the points for a long time in Britain, but took the wrong tyre decision during his pitstop and finished 11th - just outside the points. He only scored one more point before the summer break, with a 10th-place finish in Hungary, followed by another 10th position in Belgium. At the Italian Grand Prix Ericsson qualified into Q3, where he finished 10th – but he was penalised and taken down to 12th spot on the grid after blocking Nico Hülkenberg in Q1. Ericsson eventually showed great pace during the race and finished 9th – taking his fifth points position for the year and once again being in front of teammate Felipe Nasr.

During the summer break Sauber announced that Ericsson along with team mate Felipe Nasr had both extended their deals with the team for the 2016 season.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2007	Formula BMW UK	Fortec Motorsport	18	7	11	6	13	676	1st
2008	British Formula 3	Fortec Motorsport	20	2	1	0	3	65	5th
	Macau Grand Prix	Carlin Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2009	British Formula 3	Räikkönen Robertson Racing	6	2	1	0	3	65	11th
	Japanese Formula Three	TOM'S	16	5	5	9	11	112	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	1	0	0	N/A	4th
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	ART Grand Prix	4	0	0	0	0	0	24th
		Super Nova Racing
2010	GP2 Series	Super Nova Racing	20	1	0	0	1	11	17th
2011	GP2 Series	iSport International	18	0	0	0	2	25	10th
	GP2 Asia Series		4	0	0	0	1	9	6th
	GP2 Final		2	0	0	0	1	10	2nd
2012	GP2 Series	iSport International	24	1	0	1	5	124	8th
2013	GP2 Series	DAMS	22	1	2	3	5	121	6th
2014	Formula One	Caterham F1 Team	16	0	0	0	0	0	19th
2015	Formula One	Sauber F1 Team	19	0	0	0	0	9	18th
2016	Formula One	Sauber F1 Team	6	0	0	0	0	0*	20th*

* Season still in progress.

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	DC	Points
2010	Super Nova Racing	ESP FEA 11	ESP SPR Ret	MON FEA 12	MON SPR 9	TUR FEA Ret	TUR SPR Ret	VAL FEA 7	VAL SPR 1	GBR FEA 12	GBR SPR 18	GER FEA 6	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA 12	HUN SPR 10	BEL FEA 13	BEL SPR 7	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR 11	ABU FEA 11	ABU SPR Ret					17th	11
2011	iSport International	TUR FEA 9	TUR SPR 8	ESP FEA 5	ESP SPR 3	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR Ret	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 11	GBR FEA 3	GBR SPR 4	GER FEA 5	GER SPR 16	HUN FEA 5	HUN SPR 16	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 12	ITA FEA 14	ITA SPR 8							10th	25
2012	iSport International	MYS FEA 13	MYS SPR Ret	BHR1 FEA 13	BHR1 SPR 16	BHR2 FEA 7	BHR2 SPR 7	ESP FEA 13	ESP SPR 22	MON FEA 2	MON SPR 4	VAL FEA 2	VAL SPR Ret	GBR FEA 21	GBR SPR 7	GER FEA 11	GER SPR 15	HUN FEA 18	HUN SPR Ret	BEL FEA 1	BEL SPR 4	ITA FEA 3	ITA SPR 7	SGP FEA 7	SGP SPR 2	8th	124
2013	DAMS	MYS FEA Ret	MYS SPR 13	BHR FEA 13	BHR SPR Ret	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR 20	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 18	GBR FEA 11	GBR SPR 8	GER FEA 1	GER SPR 13	HUN FEA 2	HUN SPR 4	BEL FEA 2	BEL SPR 15	ITA FEA Ret	ITA SPR 23	SGP FEA 7	SGP SPR 2	ABU FEA 3	ABU SPR 6			6th	121

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2009–10	ART Grand Prix	ABU1 FEA 11	ABU1 SPR 12							24th	0
	Super Nova Racing			ABU2 FEA 17	ABU2 SPR 12	BHR1 FEA	BHR1 SPR	BHR2 FEA	BHR2 SPR
2011	iSport International	ABU FEA 4	ABU SPR 3	ITA FEA 10	ITA SPR 16					6th	9

Complete Formula One 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	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	WDC	Points
2014	Caterham F1 Team	Caterham CT05	Renault Energy F1‑2014 1.6 V6 t	AUS Ret	MAL 14	BHR Ret	CHN 20	ESP 20	MON 11	CAN Ret	AUT 18	GBR Ret	GER 18	HUN Ret	BEL 17	ITA 19	SIN 15	JPN 17	RUS 19	USA	BRA	ABU			19th	0
2015	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C34	Ferrari 059/4 1.6 V6 t	AUS 8	MAL Ret	CHN 10	BHR 14	ESP 14	MON 13	CAN 14	AUT 13	GBR 11	HUN 10	BEL 10	ITA 9	SIN 11	JPN 14	RUS Ret	USA Ret	MEX 12	BRA 16	ABU 14			18th	9
2016	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C35	Ferrari 059/5 1.6 V6 t	AUS Ret	BHR 12	CHN 16	RUS 14	ESP 12	MON Ret	CAN	EUR	AUT	GBR	HUN	GER	BEL	ITA	SIN	MAL	JPN	USA	MEX	BRA	ABU	20th*	0*

* Season still in progress.

External links

• Marcus Ericsson's Official Website
• Marcus Ericsson on Twitter
• Marcus Ericsson career summary at DriverDB.com

Sporting positions
Preceded by Niall Breen	Formula BMW UK Champion 2007	Succeeded by Series merged into Formula BMW Europe
Preceded by Carlo van Dam	Japanese Formula Three Champion 2009	Succeeded by Yuji Kunimoto