Marcus Ericsson

Marcus Ericsson became Formula One’s first Swedish driver for 23 years when he lined up on the grid in Australia; the first Swede to do so since Stefan Johansson at the
1991 British Grand Prix.

Ericsson’s karting career started when he almost broke the lap record at a kart track in Sweden during an arrive-and-drive session as a nine-year-old. The track’s owner convinced Ericsson’s father to buy his son a kart, and he started racing in the Swedish Cadetti kart series, taking six podiums in his seven races. 

After another two years in karts, Ericsson moved up to the Karting Mini series and won the middle Sweden championship at the second attempt; a class which had over 100 entrants. At one stage, Ericsson went on a run of 10 consecutive pole positions to highlight his raw speed.

Moving in to more international karting, Ericsson started to race in Italian Open masters alongside his Swedish commitments. In 2005 he won both the Swedish and Nordic championships, taking the former with two races still to go after winning the first four rounds.

In 2006 Ericsson started racing full-time abroad, but returned to Sweden to compete in the prestigious Wiking Trophy race in Gothenburg. It was here he met IndyCar champion and Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack, who helped convince his own former team boss Richard Dutton to run Ericsson in the 2007 Formula BMW championship for Fortec.

Initially marked out as a learning year, Ericsson was quickly exceeding expectations and turned fourth on the grid for his debut race at Brands Hatch in to a podium. He converted pole position in to victory in race two, and went on to impress throughout the year as he won the championship at the first attempt by 40 points from Josef Kral.

Formula 3 had become the next target mid-way through his title-winning Formula BMW season, and Ericcson was even testing an F3 car the day after his prize-winning ceremony for taking the championship. Driving in British F3 again with Fortec in 2008, Ericsson started well and led the championship early on. However, consistent results were hard to come by and he ended the season without a win and fifth in the championship.

Rather than stay in British F3 for another year, Ericsson moved to the Japanese F3 series. After taking time to settle in to his new surroundings, Ericsson finally won a race at round 6 and took the title at the final round as he ended the year with five victories. The odd appearance in British F3 also yielded two wins, while at Macau he finished second in the qualification race and fourth in the main race.

However, tests at the end of the year were Ericsson’s highlight. He tested the title-winning Brawn F1 car during the Young Driver Test at Jerez, while some GP2 testing also led to a seat for ART in Abu Dhabi before he signed to race for Supernova in GP2 in 2010.

Ericsson’s debut GP2 year was a struggle, with just one victory all season coming in the sprint race in Valencia. However, he’d attracted the attentions of other teams and moved to iSport for 2011 in a move which should have been the springboard for more victories, but two podiums all year saw him finish tenth in the standings.

Remaining with iSport for 2012, Ericsson was still highly-rated but struggling to deliver on his potential. After another poor start to the season, he turned things around at Monaco with a podium in the feature race and went on a strong run late in the season; the win in the feature race at Spa being the highlight as Ericsson scored the most points of any driver across the last seven races and ended the
year eighth in the championship.

With DAMS having won the drivers’ title in both 2011 with Romain Grosjean and 2012 with Davide Valsecchi, Ericsson was marked out as a title favourite when he joined the team for 2013. However, amid the burden of expectation DAMS was struggling to be competitive and Ericsson didn’t even score until the tenth round at Silverstone.

There was an immediate improvement after that result, with Ericsson winning the feature race in Germany from pole position and finishing second in Hungary after also starting from pole. Another second place in the feature race at Spa continued his strong scoring run and he ended the year sixth in the standings after podiums in two of the final three races.

Although it wasn’t the standout result that had been expected of Ericsson, he had still caught the eye of Caterham and he managed to secure the second race seat alongside Kamui Kobayashi for 2014 ahead of Robin Frijns.

Ericsson impressed in 2014 despite a difficult year for his Caterham team who missed the final few races due to financial difficulties. Despite not scoring a single point, Ericsson’s financial backing and impressive results in an underperforming car secured him a deal to drive for Sauber in 2015.

Ericsson enjoyed his best-ever F1 campaign with five points finishes in his maiden year with Sauber with the highlight of eighth place in Australia as Ericsson finished the year 18^th in the drivers’ championship. Despite retaining his place at Sauber for 2016 and 2017, the Swede failed to score a single points finish with the team struggling at the back of the grid battling financial issues.

As Sauber liniked up with Alfa Romeo for 2018, the team enjoyed a boost on-track, allowing Ericsson to also hit a new fine run of form. He matched his points tally from 2015 and featured more regularly in the points, often proving a match for Ferrari-bound teammate Charles Leclerc.

However, it was not enough for Ericsson to retain his seat with Sauber for 2019 as it opted to sign Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. Ericsson landed on his feet, though, signing with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports in IndyCar for 2019, embarking on a new adventure in the United States.