Marcus Ericsson

Not to be confused with Marcus Eriksson.

Marcus Ericsson

Ericsson at the 2018 British Grand Prix
Born	(1990-09-02) 2 September 1990 Kumla, Sweden
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Swedish
Active years	2014–2018
Teams	Caterham, Sauber
Car number	9
Entries	( starts)
Championships	0
First entry	2014 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2018 position	17th (9 pts)
Previous series
2010–13 2009–10–2011 2009 2008–09 2007	GP2 Series GP2 Asia Series Japanese Formula Three British Formula Three Formula BMW UK
Championship titles
2009 2007	Japanese Formula Three Formula BMW UK
Awards
2007, 2009	Swedish Junior Racer of the Year

Marcus Ericsson (born 2 September 1990) is a Swedish racing driver and former Formula One racing driver. Ericsson competed in Formula One between 2014 and 2018. He currently drives the #7 Honda for Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in the NTT IndyCar Series.

After a successful debut 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 Championship 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.

In 2006 Ericsson's career got backing from former Champ Car driver and 1999 Indianapolis 500 winner Kenny Bräck. "I spotted Marcus at a race in Gothenburg" Bräck said, "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.

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

Formula BMW

See also: Formula BMW

Bräck convinced Richard Dutton, who ran Bräck in the British Formula Three Championship in 1989, to race Ericsson for his Fortec Motorsport team's 2007 Formula BMW UK title challenge. Ericsson said 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". Ericsson's first win came 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 described by Autosport as "the best young talent" Bräck had ever seen. Ericsson was in the title race for the whole season, challenging Czech Josef Král and Brit Henry Arundel. In the end Ericsson, aged 16, 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 championship.

Formula Three

See also: Formula Three

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

Following his win of the Formula BMW title, Ericsson began aiming for a seat in Formula Three. Tests followed with British Formula 3 team Räikkönen Robertson Racing as part of his prize for winning the title that year. Afterwards Ericsson had a test with frontrunning Formula 3 Euro Series team ASM, later ART Grand Prix. Despite an offer to join ASM, Ericsson opted to stay in England and join Fortec's British Formula 3 team. Ericsson received 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 contract with the Japanese F3 team TOM'S to compete full-time in the championship for the upcoming season. Ericsson said that he 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, 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. 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 GP2 Series, 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.

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. He won at Spa, beginning a run of six consecutive points finishes to the end of the season, including two podium finishes. This lifted him to eighth in the championship.

In 2013, he got the chance to drive for the reigning champions DAMS, taking pole position in Spain and Great Britain. In Germany 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 teammate. 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.

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, running 11th before he fell back with oil pressure problems. In Malaysia, he qualified last, 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 finished in 11th place, just missing out on his and Caterham's first points.

After this, he suffered a crash 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 unhurt, 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 penultimate lap. In Singapore, he finished 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, in front of both Marussias and Kobayashi, but his 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 0.15 seconds from making it into Q2. During the race, he started 16th but fell back, finishing 19th overall but in front of his main rivals – the other Caterham and the sole Marussia of Chilton, who both 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 be a commentator the race for Swedish television and secured 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

2015

At the 2014 United States Grand Prix, Sauber announced that it had signed Ericsson for 2015. 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 was ultimately promoted to 9th. He spun on the fourth lap after an unsuccessful overtaking attempt on Force India's Nico Hülkenberg which resulted in retirement. In China, Ericsson again made it into Q3 in qualifying, again qualifying 10th. He finished the race in the same position, scoring one point after Max Verstappen's engine blew up with only a few laps remaining. In Bahrain he qualified outside the top 10, and held 8th position when a pit stop failure caused him to fall down the field, and he ultimately finished the race in 14th position. In the first European leg of the season he finished 14th in Spain and 13th in Monaco.

In the 2015 British Grand Prix he finished 11th – just outside the points. He 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 for Q3, where he ended up 10th, before he was given a grid penalty for blocking Hülkenberg in Q1. Ericsson eventually finished 9th – taking his fifth points position for the year and again being in front of teammate Felipe Nasr.

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

2016

In 2016, Sauber missed pre-season testing due to financial concerns hurting their car development for 2016. Ericsson was running in 15th before a power issue in Australia and he drove a good race to take twelfth in Bahrain in the next round. He ran just outside the points in China but steadily dropped to sixteenth, still four places ahead of Nasr. In Russia he recovered from first lap contact to beat Nasr once again and take fourteenth. In Spain he was fantastic again as he was twelfth, but in Monaco he crashed into his teammate clumsily which ruined his next race in Canada as he started at the back due to a grid penalty. He went on a slump in the following races, with 17th in Baku and 15th in Austria, with qualifying crashes in Silverstone and Hungary forcing him to start from the pit lane. Another bad couple of races followed in Hockenheim and Spa, but after that he got back on track. In Monza, he maximised the car finishing sixteenth whilst in Singapore he made Q2 and was close to scoring his first point until a strategic blunder from the team. He ran close to points in Malaysia and Suzuka, thrashing his teammate in qualifing and the race. In Austin, he ran eleventh for part of the race but ended up fourteenth and in Mexico he put in one of the drives of the season as he recovered from a first lap crash to eleventh, just outside the points. He crashed out of the race in Brazil but finished fifteenth in Abu Dhabi.

2017

Ericsson driving the C36 Sauber at the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix

Ericsson's 2017 campaign did not start well as he had to retire due to a hydraulic issue in Australia. He qualified 14th and finished 15th in China. He struggled to match his teammate Wehrlein in Bahrain with his race ending in another disappointing retirement due to the gearbox. He finished 15th in Russia beating his teammate for the first time in the season. Ericsson got his best result of the season in 11th in Azerbaijan where he fought wildly for points in Azerbaijan with his teammate. Sauber started to struggle in Monaco with Ericsson crashing into the barrier while overtaking the safety car to get on the lead lap. He finished 13th in Canada and would fail to score points for the rest of the season.

2018

Ericsson retained his seat at Sauber for 2018, alongside new teammate Charles Leclerc. At the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ericsson finished in ninth position, scoring his first points since the 2015 Italian Grand Prix, after a total of 49 races without scoring a point. He then scored further points at the Austrian, German, Belgian, USA and Mexican Grands Prix. At the Italian Grand Prix, Ericsson had a high speed accident in second practice at Turn 1, with a DRS issue causing the car to lose control and slam the wall where the runoff is. Ericsson hit the wall heavily, and flipped 3 times before coming to rest on all wheels but was uninjured.

2019

Just before the 2018 Russian Grand Prix it was announced that he was to be replaced at Sauber by Antonio Giovinazzi, but would remain with the team as their third driver and brand ambassador.Marcus is Alfa Romeo Racing s test driver along with Tatiana Calderon.

IndyCar

On 30 October 2018, it was announced that Ericsson would race full-time for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in the 2019 IndyCar Series.

Personal life

Ericsson's younger brother Hampus is also a racing driver. He has competed in the 2017 and 2018 F4 British Championships, and the 2018 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship, with Fortec Motorsport.

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 Championship	Fortec Motorsport	22	0	2	4	5	141	5th
	Macau Grand Prix	Carlin Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2009	All-Japan Formula 3 Championship	TOM'S	16	5	5	9	11	112	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	1	0	0	N/A	4th
	British Formula 3 Championship	Räikkönen Robertson Racing	6	2	1	0	3	65	11th
2009–10	GP2 Asia Series	ART Grand Prix	2	0	0	0	0	0	24th
		Super Nova Racing	2	0	0	0	0
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	21	0	0	0	0	0	22nd
2017	Formula One	Sauber F1 Team	20	0	0	0	0	0	20th
2018	Formula One	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	21	0	0	0	0	9	17th

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	CAT FEA 11	CAT SPR Ret	MON FEA 12	MON SPR 9	IST FEA Ret	IST SPR Ret	VAL FEA 7	VAL SPR 1	SIL FEA 12	SIL SPR 18	HOC FEA 6	HOC SPR Ret	HUN FEA 12	HUN SPR 10	SPA FEA 13	SPA SPR 7	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 11	YMC FEA 11	YMC SPR Ret					17th	11
2011	iSport International	IST FEA 9	IST SPR 8	CAT FEA 5	CAT SPR 3	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR Ret	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 11	SIL FEA 3	SIL SPR 4	NÜR FEA 5	NÜR SPR 16	HUN FEA 5	HUN SPR 16	SPA FEA Ret	SPA SPR 12	MNZ FEA 14	MNZ SPR 8							10th	25
2012	iSport International	SEP FEA 13	SEP SPR Ret	BHR1 FEA 13	BHR1 SPR 16	BHR2 FEA 7	BHR2 SPR 7	CAT FEA 13	CAT SPR 22	MON FEA 2	MON SPR 4	VAL FEA 2	VAL SPR Ret	SIL FEA 21	SIL SPR 7	HOC FEA 11	HOC SPR 15	HUN FEA 18	HUN SPR Ret	SPA FEA 1	SPA SPR 4	MNZ FEA 3	MNZ SPR 7	MRN FEA 7	MRN SPR 2	8th	124
2013	DAMS	SEP FEA Ret	SEP SPR 13	BHR FEA 13	BHR SPR Ret	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR 20	MON FEA Ret	MON SPR 18	SIL FEA 11	SIL SPR 8	NÜR FEA 1	NÜR SPR 13	HUN FEA 2	HUN SPR 4	SPA FEA 2	SPA SPR 15	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 23	MRN FEA 7	MRN SPR 2	YMC FEA 3	YMC SPR 6			6th	121

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	DC	Points
2009–10	ART Grand Prix	YMC1 FEA 11	YMC1 SPR 12							24th	0
	Super Nova Racing			YMC2 FEA 17	YMC2 SPR 12	BHR1 FEA	BHR1 SPR	BHR2 FEA	BHR2 SPR
2011	iSport International	YMC FEA 4	YMC SPR 3	IMO FEA 10	IMO SPR 16					6th	9

Complete Formula One results

(key)

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 060 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 061 1.6 V6 t	AUS Ret	BHR 12	CHN 16	RUS 14	ESP 12	MON Ret	CAN 15	EUR 17	AUT 15	GBR Ret	HUN 20	GER 18	BEL Ret	ITA 16	SIN 17	MAL 12	JPN 15	USA 14	MEX 11	BRA Ret	ABU 15	22nd	0
2017	Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C36	Ferrari 061 1.6 V6 t	AUS Ret	CHN 15	BHR Ret	RUS 15	ESP 11	MON Ret	CAN 13	AZE 11	AUT 15	GBR 14	HUN 16	BEL 16	ITA 18†	SIN Ret	MAL 18	JPN Ret	USA 15	MEX Ret	BRA 13	ABU 17		20th	0
2018	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team	Sauber C37	Ferrari 062 EVO 1.6 V6 t	AUS Ret	BHR 9	CHN 16	AZE 11	ESP 13	MON 11	CAN 15	FRA 13	AUT 10	GBR Ret	GER 9	HUN 15	BEL 10	ITA 15	SIN 11	RUS 13	JPN 12	USA 10	MEX 9	BRA Ret	ABU Ret	17th	9

^† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

American open-wheel racing results

(key)

IndyCar Series

(key)

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
2019	Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara DW12	Honda	STP 20	COA 15	ALA 7	LBH 20	IMS	INDY	DET	DET	TXS	RDA	TOR	IOW	MDO	POC	GTW	POR	LAG	16th*	61*

* Season still in progress.

External links

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