Marko Asmer cut his teeth by winning the Estonian, Baltic, Finnish and Scandinavian karting championships and dominating the World Kart Championship in 2001.

Formula Ford proved to be the most affordable way of gaining entry into single seater racing. In 2003, Asmer won five such events and was the runner-up in the prestigious and hotly contended Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. In the same year he was invited to get behind the wheel of a Formula One car for the first time with the BMW Williams team.

From 2004 on Asmer competed in Formula 3. 2007 saw him commuting between the All Japan F3 Series and the British Championship, the latter he won with a commanding 11 wins and two further podium places.

Asmer joined BMW Sauber as test driver in 2008 while also competing in the GP2 series with FMS International. With F1 testing becoming increasingly restricted, Asmer was however only able to complete limited mileage.