Marko Asmer
Asmer demonstrating a BMW Sauber F1.06 at the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
NationalityEstonian
Born (1984-07-30) 30 July 1984
Tallinn, Estonia
Championship titles
2007British F3 Champion

Marko Asmer (born 30 July 1984) is an Estonian racing driver, who won the British Formula 3 Championship title in 2007. Asmer is also the first Estonian to test a Formula One car, having tested for the Williams BMW team in 2003, after just half a season of car racing in British Formula Ford.[1][2] Asmer's father is a former racing driver Toivo Asmer, who was Estonian Minister of Regional Affairs between 1999 and 2003.[3]

Racing career

Asmer was born in Tallinn. His father is motorsports promoter, musician and politician Toivo Asmer. He began karting in 1995, aged eleven, and had won the Estonian, Baltic, Finnish and Scandinavian kart championships by 2001.[4] Asmer went on to make his car racing debut in 2003 and raced in British Formula Ford for team JLR. He scored six wins that season and finished in second place in the Formula Ford festival.[1] Apart from a brief participation in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in 2003, Asmer's career was henceforth focused on Formula Three in Britain and Japan. He made his British series début in 2004 with Hitech Racing and, apart from a move to Japan in 2006, he has remained with the team in the years since. He became a championship title contender on his return to the British series in 2007, led the points standings for most of the season, and secured the title at Croft with three races remaining.[5] His participations in All-Japan F3 have been confined to one and a half seasons with Three Bond Racing in 2006 and 2007, the latter of which was limited by competing in Britain.[6] In 2008 Asmer was BMW Sauber's second test driver alongside Christian Klien[6][7] and competed in seven of ten rounds in the GP2 Series for FMS International.[8]

Retirement

Following the conclusion of the 2008 GP2 season Asmer parted ways with Fisichella Motor Sport and was unable to find a new team in GP2 for the 2009 season. Due to new rules restricting the amount of testing Formula 1 teams could carry out in-season he also lost his role as test and reserve driver for the BMW Formula 1 Team.[9] With no competitive race seat for the 2009 season Asmer became a test and reserve driver in Superleague Formula series.[10]

On 8 April 2010 Toivo Asmer, the father of Marko Asmer, announced that Marko had ended his career in motorsport he had no race seat or test/reserve driver role for the 2010 season, and lack of funding meant that his son's career was finished.[11] Despite this Asmer made a quick return to the cockpit the following week when he tested for the Atech team in a GP3 Series test session in Barcelona.[12]

Return to competitive racing

In February 2011 Asmer returned to motorsport when he tested a British Formula 3 car for the Double R Racing team at Silverstone, during which he set competitive times.[13] Staying with Double R Asmer finally returned to competitive racing when he competed in the Pau Grand Prix on 21–22 May 2011. Asmer qualified 10th[14] and after a bad start found himself in last place,[15] but showed good race pace and overtaking nous to finish 7th.[16]

Following his return to racing Asmer was interviewed by Autosport.com and revealed that he had spent his time out of professional motorsport "testing some cars, doing karting and ... doing some driver coaching".[17] He went on to say that he had no firm plans for the future, although he did want to take part in the Macau Grand Prix.[17] Asmer also said that he would welcome a return to racing "if something good comes up", although a full-time return to British F3 would not interest him.[17]

Despite these claims it was announced on 28 July 2011 that Asmer would return to British Formula 3, again racing a Dallara-Mercedes for the Double R team at the Spa-Francorchamps round.[18] Asmer qualified 18th (of 28 cars) for Race One at Spa, but then scored Double R's best qualifying result of the season, lining up second on the grid for the Feature Race. Asmer failed to finish in Race One[19] or Two,[20] but drove solidly to finish sixth in the Feature Race.[21] However, his status as an invitational driver meant that he was not eligible to score championship points for this weekend.[22] During this weekend it was also announced that Asmer had sponsorship in place to take part in the 2011 Macau Grand Prix,[23] where he would drive a Dallara-Mercedes for a three-man Double R Racing team, alongside GP3 champion Valtteri Bottas and current GP3 Series racer Mitch Evans.[24]

In an interview with Autosport carried out over the Macau Grand Prix weekend Asmer reiterated his desire to get back into racing full-time, and said his future may lie in DTM.[25]

Return to regular racing

In recent years Asmer has returned to actively racing in competitive international motorsport. He raced as part of a four-man team alongside Formula 2 race winner Kazim Vasiliauskas, driving a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in the 2014 24 Hours of Spa with the GT Russian Team. He also competed in several rounds of the ADAC GT Masters.[26] Asmer continued to race for GT Russian Team, taking part in the 2015 Blancpain GT Series (the successor to FIA GT1 World Championship), with his best result being a 7th-place finish in the main race in the final round in Zandvoort. He also raced in the top A6 category of the Dubai 24 Hour, again for the GT Russia Team.[27]

Motorsport management

Since summer 2020 Marko Asmer is the manager of Estonian racing driver Jüri Vips.[28]

Racing record

Asmer demonstrating a BMW Sauber F1.06 at the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Asmer driving for FMS International at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season.

Career summary

Season Series Team name Races Poles Wins Points Position
2003 Formula Renault V6 Eurocup SRTS 2 0 0 6 19th
British Formula Ford Panasonic Batteries Racing Team 20 1 2 252 11th
Formula Ford Festival Hitech Racing 1 0 0 N/A 2nd
2004 British Formula 3 Hitech Racing 24 0 0 87 10th
Formula 3 European Cup Hitech Racing 1 0 0 N/A 7th
Bahrain Superprix Carlin Motorsport 1 0 0 N/A 6th
Macau Grand Prix Hitech Racing 1 1 0 N/A 11th
Masters of Formula 3 Hitech Racing 1 0 0 N/A 16th
2005 British Formula 3 Hitech Racing 22 2 0 163 4th
Masters of Formula 3 Hitech Racing 1 0 0 N/A 7th
2006 Japanese Formula 3 ThreeBond 18 0 1 124 7th
Macau Grand Prix Hitech Racing 1 1 0 N/A 13th
2007 British Formula 3 Hitech Racing 22 13 11 293 1st
Japanese Formula 3 ThreeBond 8 0 0 31 10th
Macau Grand Prix Hitech Racing 1 1 0 N/A 4th
Masters of Formula 3 Hitech Racing 1 0 0 N/A 10th
2008 GP2 Series Fisichella Motor Sport International 12 0 0 0 28th
Formula One BMW Sauber Test driver
2009 Superleague Formula Test driver
2010 Austrian Formula Renault Team Scuderia Nordica 1 1 1 20 15th
2011 Pau Grand Prix Double R Racing 1 0 0 N/A 7th
2011 Macau Grand Prix Double R Racing 1 0 0 N/A 19th
2014 24 Hours of Spa GT Russian Team 1 0 0 0 0
2015 Blancpain GT Series - Pro-Am GT Russian Team 5 0 0 47 5th
Blancpain GT Sprint Series GT Russian Team 11 0 0 8 21st
2015 Dubai 24 Hour GT Russian Team 1 0 0 N/A 5th
2017-18 Asian Le Mans Series Eurasia Motorsport 1 0 0 0 7th

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
2008 Fisichella Motor Sport International CAT
FEA		 CAT
SPR		 IST
FEA		 IST
SPR		 MON
FEA		 MON
SPR		 MAG
FEA
17		 MAG
SPR
11		 SIL
FEA
20		 SIL
SPR
13		 HOC
FEA
14		 HOC
SPR
13		 HUN
FEA
18		 HUN
SPR
Ret		 VAL
FEA
DNS		 VAL
SPR
Ret		 SPA
FEA
16		 SPA
SPR
Ret		 MNZ
FEA
Ret		 MNZ
SPR
Ret		 28th 0

References

  1. 1 2 Car No.7: Marko Asmer Archived 16 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine From hitechracing.net. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
  2. ↑ Teenager lands Williams job From news.bbc.co.uk, 3 September 2003. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
  3. ↑ Ott, Urmas. Asmerid. Topeltpeeglis ISBN 978-9985-854-76-1.
  4. ↑ Marko Asmer – F1Fanatic. F1Fanatic.co.uk, 4 December 2007.
  5. ↑ Asher, Richard. "Asmer takes title" From autosport.com, 9 September 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  6. 1 2 Race driver database From speedsport.com. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  7. ↑ Noble, Jonathan. "BMW plan shoot-out for test role" From autosport.com, 17 November 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  8. ↑ Asmer joins GP2 series From gp2.gpupdate.net. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  9. ↑ Ovidiu Panzariu. Testing Ban Leaves Asmer and Di Grassi Without Jobs Autoevolution.com, 23 January 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  10. ↑ Stars of Tomorrow – Where Are They Now? Archived 24 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Update F1, 1 January 2010.
  11. ↑ Asmer Career is over says Father. GP Update, 8 April 2010.
  12. ↑ Asmer – Time is Running Out. GP Update, 15 April 2010.
  13. ↑ Asmer Tests for Double R at Silverstone. GP Update, 25 February 2011
  14. ↑ Wittmann takes Pole Position at Pau. The Checkered Flag, 21 May 2011
  15. ↑ Wittmann Dominates Pau Grand Prix. Autosport.com, 22 May 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  16. ↑ Wittmann Scores Dominant Pau Grand Prix Win. The Checkered Flag, 22 May 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  17. 1 2 3 Q & A: Asmer on his F3 Return Autosport.com, 21 May 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  18. ↑ Former Champ Asmer Returns to British F3 for Spa Archived 24 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. MotorsTV.com, 28 July 2011.
  19. ↑ Race 1 Results – British F3 Spa. GpUpdate.net, 30 July 2011
  20. ↑ Race 2 Results – British F3 Spa. GpUpdate.net, 30 July 2011.
  21. ↑ Merhi & Buller Star in Spa Curtain Closer. Formula3.co, 30 July 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  22. ↑ Ben Anderson. Roberto Merhi Takes Double Pole Position for British F3 Races at Spa. Autosport.com, 29 July 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  23. ↑ Marko Asmer to return to British Formula 3 Championship at Spa with Double R. Autosport.com, 28 July 2011
  24. ↑ Mark Foley. Entry List Reveals Merhi, Nasr, Bottas, Stanway to Contest 2011 Macau GP The Checkered Flag, 6 October 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  25. ↑ "Marko Asmer hopes to revive career in Macau GP". www.Autosport.com. 16 November 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  26. ↑ "Ex-F1 test driver Marko Asmer to race McLaren in Spa 24 Hours". www.Autosport.com. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  27. ↑ "Result of 24H – Race". 24hseries.com. 21 July 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
  28. ↑ "Vips adds Formula Regional Europe to 2020 programme". motorsport.com. 29 July 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
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