Marcel Fässler - the quiet end to a great driving career
03/19/2021
Dear Marcel, you have won the 24 Hours of Le Mans not just once, but three times (2011, 2012 and 2014). You became FIA World Endurance Champion and also runner-up three times. In addition to Le Mans, you've also stood at the top of the podium at Spa, Daytona and Sebring in an Audi. Then there are your three race wins in the Mercedes in the DTM. Without all the team politics, there would have been a few more. By the way, I would also like to mention that your name was also entered twice in the list of winners (2004 and 2018) in the Inferno race, one of the toughest ski races in the world.
As the son of a talented amateur racer, you got to know the racing world as a schoolboy. Thanks to a determined search for sponsors and good results, you worked your way up the karting ranks until, at the age of 17, you were able to assert yourself against international competition and win a sponsorship program in France. For several years, you drove various monoposti in the home country of your former idol Alain Prost, largely unnoticed by the local racing world. However, this quickly changed when you entered the German Formula 3 and immediately left a lot of highly acclaimed European talent far behind you. Your runner-up title prompted the then Mercedes race director Norbert Haug to bring you into the DTM works team. For four years, you were among the world's best in touring car racing, became Rookie of the Year, scored several race wins, numerous podium finishes, pole positions and fastest race laps. The reward was Formula 1 test drives in a McLaren and stints as a safety car driver in Formula 1.
In the seventies, at the time of Siffert and Regazzoni, you would certainly have become the nation's third great idol with these achievements. Unfortunately, times have changed and motorsport has lost much of its popularity, especially in Switzerland. As a result, you have always been denied a Swiss sports award. As a world champion and three-time Le Mans winner, your name has never been on the list for Sportsman of the Year in all these years, not even as a possible candidate. Many who have achieved far less have been and continue to be honored.
Now you have hung up your helmet as a professional racing driver. But despite your departure from the racetracks of the world, you will remain involved in motorsport. As the father of four daughters, you use your immense experience to manage the motorsport department at Sportec. At the age of 44, you have also managed to gain a foothold in F1 and are now a regular development driver in the new Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Formula 1 simulator in Hinwil. "A great job that honors me and is a lot of fun."
You are also a regular on the historic scene. You can be seen, mostly in an Audi quattro, at various historic events in Switzerland, but also in England. In 2019, you drove one of the small Austin A40s at Goodwood as courageously as if you had never driven anything else in your entire career. In the end, you and your teammate finished third on the podium in the extremely closely contested St Mary's Trophy race. As we know it from you, you showed your enthusiasm with the words: "It was awesome with the little Austin. A real funmobile. For me, this event was the most impressive thing I've ever seen anyway."
Thank you Marcel!
