Marco Seefried (born 17 February 1976 in Oettingen) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

racing driver. A long-term Porsche contracted driver, he is an overall GT World Challenge Europe race winner, an

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobile endurance racing organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The se ...

race winner, and has amassed multiple class victories at the

Nürburgring 24 Hours The Nürburgring 24 Hours is a 24-hour annual touring car racing, touring car and Grand tourer, GT Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing event that takes place on a combination of the Nordschleife ("North Loop") and the GP-Strecke ("Gr ...

, Daytona 24 Hours and

12 Hours of Sebring The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race for Sports car racing, sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in S ...

Career

Having raced sporadically until 2002, Seefried spent two years in

Porsche Supercup The Porsche Supercup (officially known as Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, known as Porsche Michelin Supercup prior to 2007 and often abbreviated as PSC) is an international One-design racing, one-make production stock car racing series supporting the ...

with Team Kadach, scoring a best result of sixth at Monaco in 2003. Part-time campaigns in

Porsche Carrera Cup Germany The Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, (currently known as Porsche SIXT Carrera Cup Deutschland; known as Porsche 944 Turbo Cup between 1986–1989) is a one-make racing series by Porsche based in Germany. Champions Circuits * Adria International ...

followed, before Seefried stepped up to GT2 competition with Farnbacher Racing, picking up two best finishes of fourth in the

2006 Le Mans Series The 2006 Le Mans Series was the third season of ACO Le Mans Series. It is a series for Le Mans prototype and Grand Touring style cars broken into 4 classes: LMP1, LMP2, GT1, and GT2. It began on 9 April and ended on 24 September after 5 rounds. S ...

. Seefried later switched his focus to

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

-based racing, culminating in two

class wins in 2010 and 2011 for Hankook Team Farnbacher, the former of which an overall podium. Also in 2011, Seefried scored Ferrari's first ever VLN Series win and expanded his horizons into other series, namely

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 ...

and International GT Open, with moderate success. He pivoted back to Porsche machinery for all his programmes in 2012, finishing second in the SP7 class of the Nürburgring 24 Hours for Timbuli Racing and making his

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

debut for

Mühlner Motorsport Mühlner Motorsport is a Belgium, Belgian auto racing team competing in the FIA GT1 World Championship.Sebring 12 Hours The 12 Hours of Sebring is an annual motorsport endurance race for sports cars held at Sebring International Raceway, on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield World War II air base in Sebring, Florida, US. In the past, this race has ...

debut and took the

Asian Le Mans Series The Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) is an Asian sports car racing endurance series created by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and based in Asia. It is the successor to the defunct Japan Le Mans Challenge which folded in 2007 after its second s ...

by storm with AAI-Rstrada. His breakthrough came in 2014, with a GTD class win at Sebring for Magnus Racing backed up by further podiums at Daytona and Petit Le Mans. He paired this with a maiden season in the

Blancpain Endurance Series The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports G ...

and a return to Asia that yielded a win at

Inje Inje County () is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, county in Gangwon-do (South Korea), Gangwon Province, South Korea. It has the lowest population density of any South Korean county. The county seat is Inje-eup, which located near the ce ...

and a vice-championship. He had mixed fortune in Europe, notably topping the warmup at the

24 Hours of Spa The 24 Hours of Spa is an endurance racing event for cars held annually since 1924 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot, Belgium. It is currently sponsored by CrowdStrike. History The Spa 24 Hours was conceived by Jules de Their and ...

in a Rinaldi Racing Ferrari, before moving to

AF Corse AF Corse is an Italian auto racing team founded by former racing driver Amato Ferrari in 1995 in Piacenza. Strongly linked to the Maserati and Ferrari brands, AF Corse currently competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship, GT World Chal ...

for his home round at the Nürburgring and qualifying third overall, first in Pro-Am. Jumping back and forth between the

Ferrari 458 The Ferrari 458 Italia (Type F142) is an Italian mid-engine sports car produced by Ferrari. The 458 is the successor of the F430, and was first officially unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. It was succeeded by the 488 GTB (Gran Turi ...

, the Porsche 911 RSR and even getting a taste of the

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of Luxury vehicle, luxury cars and Sport utility vehicle, SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Crickle ...

at the N24, Seefried enjoyed a fruitful 2015. He finished fifth in both the

Blancpain Sprint Series The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup is a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) with the approval of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). Born as the FIA GT Series in 2013, it was spo ...

, for Rinaldi, and the

's GTE Am category, for

Patrick Dempsey Patrick Galen Dempsey (born January 13, 1966) is an American actor and racing driver best known for playing neurosurgeon Derek Shepherd in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005–15; 2020–21). He is also known for his leading man romantic film roles, such ...

Proton A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , Hydron (chemistry), H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' (elementary charge). Its mass is slightly less than the mass of a neutron and approximately times the mass of an e ...

-run team. A highlight of the former was a clean sweep at Misano alongside

Norbert Siedler Norbert Siedler (born 29 December 1982 in Wildschönau) is an Austrian racing driver. Career Siedler began his career in motorsport in karts. In 1992 he began at the age of ten years in the German Kartszene and in 1997, won the junior class. In ...

, while the latter included a podium on debut at the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

and a win at Fuji. Seefried also returned to Magnus Racing for three rounds of the

United SportsCar Championship The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association ( ...

's North American Endurance Cup, underlined by a podium on his final outing at Watkins Glen. In 2016, Seefried won the 24 Hours of Daytona in GTD and scored a podium at Sebring aboard Magnus Racing's new

Audi R8 LMS The Audi R8 is a mid-engine, 2-seater sports car, which uses Audi's trademark quattro permanent all-wheel drive system. It was introduced by the German car manufacturer Audi AG in 2006. Production ended in the first quarter of 2024. The car i ...

. He tried out the Mercedes-AMG GT3 for the first time at the Nürburgring 24 Hours, and finished second overall for

HTP Motorsport HTP Winward Motorsport also known as HTP Motorsport and Winward Racing is a German-American-based auto racing team. The team mainly competes in GT3 based series such as the GT World Challenge Europe. The team was founded after HTP Investment BV ...

as the brand locked out the top four. Elsewhere, a full-time return to the

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

with Proton produced no podiums. Having been upgraded to an FIA Gold Categorisation ahead of 2017, Seefried had a reduced programme, racing primarily a Jaguar for

Emil Frey Racing Emil Frey Racing is a Switzerland, Swiss racing team. Established in 2011, the team debuted with a bespoke Jaguar XK-based Group GT3, GT3 race car in the 2012 GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, Blancpain Endurance Series. After serving as ...

in the

Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Gr ...

, a BMW for Falken at the N24, and an Audi for Magnus Racing in SprintX GT. He managed just one point in the former and a lone class podium in the latter. Emil Frey's switch to the Lexus RC F GT3 gave rise to a much-improved 2018 for Seefried, as he secured his first ever overall Endurance Cup win at

Circuit Paul Ricard The Circuit Paul Ricard () is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has ...

, together with Christian Klien and

Albert Costa Albert Costa Casals (; born 25 June 1975) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He is best remembered for winning the men's singles title at the French Open in 2002. Tennis career Costa began playing tennis at the age of five. He ...

. Despite being reclassed as FIA Silver for 2019, Seefried endured an itinerant campaign, with select appearances in IMSA, ELMS, ADAC GT Masters and Blancpain for various

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

teams. He also entered

Petit Le Mans Petit Le Mans (French language, French for ''Little Le Mans'') is a sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, United States. The race has been held for a durat ...

in a Paul Miller Racing Lamborghini, and fetched a podium from a

GT World Challenge Asia The GT World Challenge Asia (formerly Blancpain GT Series Asia and Blancpain GT World Challenge Asia) is a Grand tourer, GT series motor racing competition promoted by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation and organized by Team Asia One GT Management. ...

cameo in a HubAuto Corsa Ferrari. The

COVID Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

-marred 2020 season curtailed Seefried to only two race meetings, one of which was a dominant 24 Hours of Portimão win. He bounced back in 2021, joining Herberth Motorsport for a full

24H Series The 24H Series is a sports car racing and touring car racing series developed by Creventic and with approval from the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It features Group GT3, GT3-spec cars, Group GT4, GT4-spec cars, Sports car r ...

effort and an SP9 Pro-Am class win at the rain-affected

, and tackling the WEC again for Dempsey-Proton Racing. After a prolific

return in early 2022, Seefried scaled back his racing activities again, notably reinforcing Falken at the 2022 24 Hours of Nürburgring for an eighth-place finish and Pure Rxcing at the 2023 24 Hours of Spa for a class podium.

Racing record

Racing career summary

Complete Porsche Supercup results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) † Seefried was removed from the 2003 standings as he entered less than six races

Complete European Le Mans Series results

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

Complete IMSA SportsCar Championship results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seefried, Marco 1976 births Living people German racing drivers GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers European Le Mans Series drivers 24H Series drivers Le Mans Cup drivers Racing drivers from Bavaria Porsche Supercup drivers Porsche Carrera Cup Germany drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers Ferrari Challenge drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers Asian Le Mans Series drivers American Le Mans Series drivers International GT Open drivers Proton Competition drivers AF Corse drivers Manthey Racing drivers Abt Sportsline drivers Emil Frey Racing drivers W Racing Team drivers