Biography

Marc Gené is an ex-Formula 1 driver and winner of Le Mans 24Hours. Currently, is a Ferrari ambassador and SkyTV F1 presenter. Marc is appreciated for its charm, willingness and charisma. He started racing in karts at age of 13 and won the Catalan Championship in the initiation category. He won his first National Championship in 1988 and in 1990 he won the Spanish Senior Championship in the senior category, being the youngest driver to do so.

In 1992, he started competing with a racing car, it was in the Formula Ford championship, and he finished fifth. The following year he tried his luck in the European championship and was second in the Formula Ford and the European. Marc slowly approached the F1 and tried the Formula 3 and Formula 3000. In 1996, he won the II Superformula FISA Cup and in 1998, he won the Open Fortuna by Nissan, achieving six victories and three fastest laps. That win meant the direct passport to Formula 1.

Gené made his debut with Minardi in 1999 and was the best newcomer of the season scoring the only point that the Italian team has achieved so far. He repeated next year with Minardi, but Gené was feeling a bit trapped in a team with no technical or economical resources. Therefore, when Sir Frank Williams called him to join the British team as a test driver, he accepted the challenge.

In 2003, he debuted with a creditable fifth position in the Monza GP replacing Ralf Schumacher. After two seasons at Williams, in 2005, Marc joined Ferrari, where as a test driver, he works closely with engineers and official drivers. Additionally, in 2007 he joined Peugeot to take part in Le Mans 24 Hours. Marc won the legendary race in 2009 and was the first Spaniard to achieve this. In 2012 Marc signed by Audi and in 2014 he finished second in Le Mans 24H. Currently he is a Ferrari ambassador and SkyTV commentator. He is also ambassador for Abarth and FerrariLand.

In addition to the cars, reading is Gene’s great passion. He is a simple man who was born with an enormous necessity to learn and know more. Bachelor’s in economics, he was an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and has now completed a PDG (Director Programme) at IESE Business School

Marc enjoys being up to date with newspapers and magazines as well as reading books; ‘The inheritance of the earth’ and ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ are two of his favourite titles. Besides reading and watching movies, he loves languages and speaks Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Italian and German. Sport, bread with tomato and ham and his dad´s paella, are his passions. However, going home and enjoy being a father of his two sons Siena and Patrick is his main goal when he leaves any track.