Marcel Fässler hangs up

If there is a driver who is unanimously appreciated in the paddock, it is him. As kind as he is discreet and efficient on the track, the 44-year-old Swiss announced this morning that he was ending his racing career.

Marcel is a “monster” ofEndurance, and undoubtedly one of the greatest drivers in the history of Swiss motorsport. Third in the Formula Renault Campus France in 1995 and the French Formula Renault championship the following year, he finished the 1999 season with the honorary title of vice-champion of Germany F3.

Enough to convince HWA Team to entrust him with a Mercedes en DTM. A championship in which he will shine until 2005, with the star firm then Opel. In six campaigns, the native of Einsiedeln finished in the top quarter four times, including a 3rd place in 2003.

But it is in Endurance, a discipline he joined in 2006, that he writes the most beautiful lines on his list of achievements. His first real feat was a victory at the 24 Spa 2007 Hours in a Corvette C6.R fielded jointly by Phoenix Racing and Carsport Holland.

After three participations in 24 Hours of Le Mans at Swiss Spirit then Oreca, he caught the eye of Audi, which requisitioned him in ALMS at the end of 2008. Although things went well, the economic crisis prematurely interrupted his collaboration with the Ingolstadt firm. But it will only be a postponement...

Benoît, André and Marcel after the first of their three victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, in 2011. © Audi

After defending the interests of Corvette Racing in 2009, Marcel was recalled by Audi, who asked him to support André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer in one of the three LM P1s bearing the four rings. The beginnings of one of the greatest success stories in the history of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The Swiss and his German and French friends become inseparable. Together, they first won the 24 2011 Hours of Le Mans at the end of an edition considered by some specialists in the field as the most competitive – not to say the most beautiful – in history. At the finish, the No. 18 R2 TDI – the last survivor of the three Audis – was only 13”8 ahead of the Peugeot 908 n°9 with which she competed for two clock revolutions.

The trio won two other victories in the Sarthe, in 2012 and 2014, as well as a world Endurance champion title, in 2012, the first in the history of the WEC, a championship which has seen them reach the highest step of the podium 10 times.

With Benoît Tréluyer, Marcel will also win the 2012 edition of the 12 Hours of Sebring. A collateral victim of the end of Audi's LM P1 program at the end of 2016, he ended his career in GT, with his German employer in GT3, but also with Corvette Racing in GTLM / GTE, the team with which he achieved the double 24 Hours of Daytona-12 Hours of Sebring in 2016.

Today, every Endurance driver dreams of forming a symbiosis with his teammates similar to that which allowed the Fässler-Lotterer-Tréluyer crew to become the undisputed reference in the 2010s. The osmosis that Marcel, André and Benoît have managed to create within their trio is unique in its kind, Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, former director of Audi Sport, once told us. This has never happened before and it will never happen again. Three people with totally different characters, but united by a very special bond, an incredible friendship. When, over a weekend, one of the three was not in the best form, the other two did everything to ensure that it was not noticed. This is extremely rare and it was one of their strengths. »

For all these reasons, Marcel Fässler will remain in the history of the Le Mans classic. Ten years after his first victory in Sarthe, the Swiss can hang up his helmet with the feeling of duty accomplished. Champion hat…