Marcus Ericsson

Marcus Ericsson
Ericsson in 2008
Nationality	Swedish
Born	September 2, 1990 (1990-09-02) (age 21) Kumla (Sweden)
2011 GP2 Series
Debut season	2010
Current team	iSport International
Car no.	10
Former teams	Super Nova Racing
Starts	38
Wins	1
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	10th in 2011
Previous series
2007 2008–09 2009 2009–10-2011	Formula BMW UK British Formula Three Japanese Formula Three GP2 Asia Series
Championship titles
2007 2009	Formula BMW UK Japanese F3
Awards
2007	Swedish Junior Racer/Year

Marcus Ericsson (born September 2, 1990 in Kumla, Örebro County) is a Swedish race car driver. 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 Three 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. For 2011, Ericsson drives alongside Sam Bird for iSport.

Career

Karting

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.^[1] 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.^[1]

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.^[1]

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".^[1] However, Ericsson's first win came earlier then 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.^[2] 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

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

Following his win of the Formula BMW title, Ericsson began aiming for a seat in Formula Three. Tests soon followed with British Formula Three 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 Three 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.

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

During the winter of 2008, Ericsson signed a contact 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.^[3] 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.^[4] However, it was later confirmed that Ericsson will drive for Super Nova Racing in the 2010 GP2 Series season.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.

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.

Formula One

Ericsson drove for Mercedes GP at the young driver test at Circuito de Jerez over three days, on December 1–3. He tested alongside IndyCar Series driver Mike Conway.^[7] 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".^{[citation needed]}

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Position
2007	Formula BMW UK	Fortec Motorsport	18	11	7	676	1st
2008	British Formula Three	Fortec Motorsport	20	2	0	141	5th
	Macau Grand Prix	Carlin Motorsport	1	0	0	–	DNF
2009	British Formula Three	Räikkönen Robertson Racing	6	1	2	65	11th
	Japanese Formula Three	TOM'S	16	5	5	112	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		1	1	0	–	4th
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	ART Grand Prix	4	0	0	0	24th
		Super Nova Racing
2010	GP2 Series	Super Nova Racing	20	0	1	11	17th
2011	GP2 Asia Series	iSport International	4	0	0	9	6th
	GP2 Series	iSport International	18	0	0	25	10th

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	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

* Season in progress.

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

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Interview with Marcus Ericsson. Autosport Magazine, Vol. 188, No. 4, pp. 59, Haymarket Publications. April 26, 2007.
2. ^ National News > Rookie Hailed 'Best Ever'. Autosport Magazine, Vol. 188, No. 1, pp. 90, Haymarket Publications. April 5, 2007.
3. ^ English, Steven (4 December 2008). "Ericsson switches to Japanese F3". Autosport.com. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72315. Retrieved 8 January 2009. 
4. ^ Freeman, Glenn (ed.) (2009-10-15). "Pit & Paddock: In Brief". Autosport 198 (3): 27. 
5. ^ English, Steven (2010-01-14). "Super Nova signs Ericsson, Kral". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80884. Retrieved 2010-01-18. 
6. ^ "Jake Rosenzweig signs for Super Nova". Super Nova Racing (Ridom Ltd.). 2010-02-23. http://www.supernova-racing.com/SuperNovaRacingLimited/gp2AsiaNews.jsp?newsId=116. Retrieved 2010-02-24. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ Noble, Jonathan (2009-11-26). "Conway, Ericsson to test for Mercedes". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80337. Retrieved 2009-11-26. 

External links

Sweden portal

• Official Website

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

Persondata
Name	Ericsson, Marcus
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 2, 1990
Place of birth	Kumla (Sweden)
Date of death
Place of death