Marko Asmer (born 30 July 1984) is an

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

, who won the

British Formula 3 Championship The British Formula Three Championship was an international motor racing series that took place primarily in the United Kingdom with a small number of events in mainland Europe. It was a junior-level feeder formula that used small single seat ...

title in 2007. Asmer is also the first Estonian to test a

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

car, having tested for the Williams BMW team in 2003, after just half a season of car racing in British Formula Ford.Car No.7: Marko Asmer
From ''hitechracing.net''. Retrieved 11 October 2007. Asmer's father is a former racing driver Toivo Asmer, who was Estonian Minister of Regional Affairs between 1999 and 2003.

Racing career

Asmer was born in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

. 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. 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. Apart from a brief participation in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup in 2003, Asmer's career was henceforth focused on

Formula Three Formula Three, also called Formula 3, abbreviated as F3, is a third-tier class of open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held in Europe, Australia, South America and Asia form an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. He made his British series début in 2004 with

Hitech Racing Hitech Grand Prix (formerly known as Hitech Racing) is a British motor racing team. It was founded in 2002 by Dennis Rushen and David Hayle. The team started racing in the British Formula 3 Championship in 2003. The team also competed in the So ...

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. 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.Race driver database
From ''speedsport.com.'' Retrieved 9 September 2007. In 2008 Asmer was BMW Sauber's second test driver alongside

Christian Klien Christian Klien (born 7 February 1983) is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver. In total he has scored 14 points in Formula One. Klien currently competes full-time in the GT World Challenge Europe for JP Motorsport. Racing career Bor ...

and competed in seven of ten rounds in the

GP2 Series The GP2 Series was a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The GP2 format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Eccles ...

for

FMS International Coloni Motorsport, also known as Scuderia Coloni, was an auto racing team from Italy. Formed by Enzo Coloni in 1983, the team participated in Formula Three between 1983 and 1986, before racing in Formula One as Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems ...

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 Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

Team. With no competitive race seat for the 2009 season Asmer became a test and reserve driver in

Superleague Formula Superleague Formula was an open wheel single seater motor racing formula, which started in 2008, at Donington Park in the United Kingdom. The league introduced team sponsorship by association football clubs. It used the slogan 'The Beautiful ...

series. 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. 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.

Return to competitive racing

In February 2011 Asmer returned to motorsport when he tested a British Formula 3 car for the

Double R Racing Double R Racing is a motor racing team, which races in Formula Three and other junior levels of formula racing including the MSA Formula Championship for the 2016 season. The team was formed in November 2004 as Räikkönen Robertson Racing by th ...

team at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and ...

, during which he set competitive times. Staying with Double R Asmer finally returned to competitive racing when he competed in the

Pau Grand Prix The Pau Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Pau) is a motor race held in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of southwestern France. The French Grand Prix was held at Pau in 1930, leading to the annual Pau Grand Prix being inaugurat ...

on 21–22 May 2011. Asmer qualified 10th and after a bad start found himself in last place, but showed good race pace and overtaking nous to finish 7th. 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".Q & A: Asmer on his F3 Return
Autosport.com, 21 May 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2020. 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 The Macau Grand Prix ( pt, Grande Prémio de Macau; ) is a motorsport road race for automobiles and motorcycles held annually in Macau. It is the only street circuit racing event in which both cars and motorcycles participate, and one of onl ...

. 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. Despite these claims it was announced on 28 July 2011 that Asmer would return to British Formula 3, again racing a

Dallara Dallara is an Italian race car manufacturer, founded by its current President, Gian Paolo Dallara. After working for Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso, in 1972 in his native village of Varano de' Melegari ( Parma), Italy he create ...

- Mercedes for the Double R team at the Spa-Francorchamps round.Former Champ Asmer Returns to British F3 for Spa
. MotorsTV.com, 28 July 2011. 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 or Two, but drove solidly to finish sixth in the Feature Race. However, his status as an invitational driver meant that he was not eligible to score championship points for this weekend. During this weekend it was also announced that Asmer had sponsorship in place to take part in the 2011

, where he would drive a

- Mercedes for a three-man

team, alongside GP3 champion

Valtteri Bottas Valtteri Viktor Bottas (; born 28 August 1989) is a Finnish racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Alfa Romeo, having previously driven for Mercedes from to and Williams from to . Bottas has scored race wins and podiums. H ...

and current GP3 Series racer

Mitch Evans Mitchell William Evans (born 24 June 1994) is a New Zealand professional racing driver. He currently drives for the Jaguar TCS Racing team in Formula E. In 2012, he won the GP3 Series and he raced in the GP2 Series for four years, achievin ...

. In an interview with

Autosport ''Autosport'' is a global motorsport publishing brand headquartered based in Richmond, London. It was established in 1950 at the same time as the origins of the Formula One World Championship. Autosport began life as a weekly magazine in 1950 ...

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.

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 Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name re ...

race winner

Kazim Vasiliauskas Kazimieras "Kazim" Vasiliauskas (born 2 August 1990) is a Lithuanian former racing driver. Racing career Karting Vasiliauskas was born in Kaišiadorys. He competed in kart racing from 1999 to 2007, winning several Lithuanian and Baltic champio ...

, driving a McLaren MP4-12C GT3 in the

2014 24 Hours of Spa The 2014 Total 24 Hours of Spa was the 66th running of the 24 Hours of Spa. It was also the fourth round of the 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series season and was held on 26 and 27 July at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. The race was won ...

with the GT Russian Team. He also competed in several rounds of the

ADAC GT Masters The ADAC GT Masters is a grand tourer-based auto racing series founded by the international Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) and supported by the German ADAC automotive club. Similar to an earlier ADAC GT Cup series in the 1990s, the new GT ...

. Asmer continued to race for GT Russian Team, taking part in the

2015 Blancpain GT Series The 2015 Blancpain GT Series season was the second season of the Blancpain GT Series. The season started on 6 April at Nogaro and ended on 11 October in Zandvoort. The season featured twelve rounds, five Blancpain Endurance Series rounds and seven ...

(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 Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterdam ...

. He also raced in the top A6 category of the

Dubai 24 Hour The Dubai 24 Hour Race is both a Sports car racing, sports car and Touring car racing, touring car automobile endurance race held annually at the Dubai Autodrome. It was inaugurated in 2006. Entrants and participants As with all races in the 24 ...

, again for the GT Russia Team.

Motorsport management

Since summer 2020 Marko Asmer is the manager of Estonian racing driver

Jüri Vips Jüri Vips (born 10 August 2000) is an Estonian professional racing driver, currently competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship with Hitech Grand Prix. He is the 2017 ADAC Formula 4 champion, and formerly a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. ...

Racing record

Career summary

Complete GP2 Series results

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

References

External links

Marko Asmer official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asmer, Marko 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Tallinn Estonian racing drivers GP2 Series drivers Formula Renault V6 Eurocup drivers Japanese Formula 3 Championship drivers British Formula Three Championship drivers Formula Ford drivers Karting World Championship drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers Superleague Formula drivers Hitech Grand Prix drivers Carlin racing drivers Double R Racing drivers Eurasia Motorsport drivers Scuderia Coloni drivers