Marc Gené Guerrero (born March 29, 1974 in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain) is a Spanish motor racing driver, best known as a tester for Williams and Ferrari in Formula One and a factory driver for Peugeot's Le Mans team. His brother Jordi is also a racing driver, competing in the WTCC for SEAT.

    He had 36 starts in Formula One, mostly through two seasons with the Minardi team, with which he scored a sixth place finish at the attrition-filled 1999 European Grand Prix.

    The Spaniard had taken the Italian Superformula championship in 1994, but his step up to British Formula 3 the following year proved somewhat disappointing when he struggled in the wake of his team-mate Helio Castro-Neves. In mitigation, Marc was at this stage still studying at university, which naturally curtailed the amount of time he could devote to his racing career.

    Gené finished runner-up in the 1987 Catalan Kart Championship (National Class) at the age of 13; he would win both this and the National Class Spanish Kart Championship in 1988. In 1989 he competed in both the European and World championships. Gene won the Senior Class of the 1990 Spanish Kart Championship, making him the youngest driver to do so. He competed again in the World Championship in 1991, placing 13th.

    For 1992 Gené moved into Formula Ford, placing fifth in the Spanish championship with a win and two pole positions. He was runner-up in the 1993 European Championship, with one win and three podiums; also, Gené took second place at the Formula Ford Festival. In 1994, Gené was named Rookie of the Year in the British Formula Three Championship; he placed 10th in 1995. In 1996 Gené won the FISA Superformula championship, and in 1997 he competed in five rounds of the FIA Formula 3000 series, though he failed to score a point. In 1998 he won the Open Fortuna by Nissan Championship.

    Budget problems kept him out of action for much of 1996, but he managed to gain a place in the Pacific F3000 team at the start of 1997. Unfortunately an accident in the second round at Pau left Gene with a cracked vertebra, which sidelined him for a month, and when he was fit to return his place in the team had gone. Although he was able to find another berth with Nordic for a couple of races his season lay in tatters.

    So it was back to his day job as an accountant in Spain and competition in the less pressurised atmosphere of the Open Fortuna by Nissan single-seater series. Driving for Adrian Campos, Marc swept to a convincing championship win, chalking up six victories from twelve races. In truth there wasn't a huge amount of competition for him to beat, but it was to give his career a massive boost.

    With the Spanish communications giant Telefonica backing Minardi in 1999, Marc was suddenly a shock candidate for a place with the Faenza team and immediately impressed the Minardi hierarchy with his hard work and willingness to learn. Certainly he was not outclassed by his more experienced team-mate Badoer, and he had the great satisfaction of bringing his car into sixth place at the European Grand Prix. This single point pushed the little Italian team above the mega-rich British American Racing to ensure that, for one season at least, they were not bottom of the pile occupying a race seat with the Minardi team. It was a difficult year; however, after several ninth places and an eighth, he managed to score his first point, and Minardi's first since 1995, with a sixth place at the European Grand Prix. He continued with Minardi in 2000, but failed to score a single point.

    Unable to obtain a quality drive for 2001, Gené opted to sign with Williams as test driver. He has, however, driven some Grands Prix for Williams. The first of these was the 2003 Italian Grand Prix, where Ralf Schumacher was unable to race because of a concussion. Gené replaced his teammate well, collecting four points for a fifth place finish, but Schumacher was back in the car for the next race in the USA. Following a back injury to Schumacher at the 2004 USGP, Gené drove in the 2004 French and British Grands Prix, but subsequently lost the race seat to Antônio Pizzonia and hasn't raced since.

    In November 2004, Gené signed a deal to become a test driver for Scuderia Ferrari alongside former teammate Luca Badoer. His contract was renewed for 2007. A limit on testing in Formula One in 2007 and 2008 has limited his involvement. He has also been hired by Peugeot as a factory driver for their 908 Le Mans Series effort, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Continuing for 2008, Gené crashed his 908 heavily in practice for the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans, but escaped with a broken toe.

   Gené has also been hired by Peugeot as a factory driver for their 908 Le Mans Series effort, as well as the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Continuing for 2008, Gené crashed his 908 heavily in practice for the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans, but escaped with a broken toe. A year later, however, there were no such problems for Marc, and the Peugeot he shared with David Brabham and Alex Wurz completed 382 laps on its way to victory in the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans. He completed the last stint for the team and brought the 908 home to a standing ovation from the avid French crowd, who saw one of their cars stop the recent domination of Audi in the prestigious event. In both 2008 and 2009 he also took part in the 1000km Spa endurance race, winning in 2008 and finishing 12th in 2009.

(c) 'Who is Who' by Steve Small, 2000
(c) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2008