MANILA, Philippines - When you’re dating someone whose official designation is “the most beautiful in the Universe,” that person’s radiance tends to cast quite a large shadow. But when you’re dating Pia Wurtzbach, one of the greatest and most celebrated queens in the history of the pageant, keeping one’s ego in check is the minimum requirement. (Anyone who’s watched the Netflix series The Crown can attest to Prince Philip’s own struggle in adjusting his societal expectations as a man to make way for a queen.) But boyfriend Marlon Stöckinger remarks, “It’s actually very easy for me, because once you’ve been called the most beautiful in the Universe, you don’t need much more validation, and you’re free to be yourself. And honestly, it’s 2017. No one needs to be all that traditional anymore; there aren’t any more rules about who belongs at home or who’s allowed to be successful.”
Funny enough that he should say so, as Stöckinger has comically been referred to as “Mr. Wurtzbach.” But his relaxed demeanor in stepping back to let Wurtzbach command her spotlight gives massive insight into what makes him so compelling, especially to someone of Wurtzbach’s stature. “I understand what it’s like for people when she walks into a room and they immediately take notice, because the first time she walked into a room that I was in, she stood out to me,” says Stöckinger. “I think it helps that I had created my own career before I ended up with someone whose career was so established. So in a sense, I know what she’s going through. We are both competitive people, but with each other, we want to help one another.”
Motorsports wunderkind
And while it may be a fact glossed over by many of the beauty pageant-obsessed, Stöckinger more than knows what he’s talking about with his aforementioned career being one of a Filipino motorsports wunderkind. Being the son of a karting racer and enthusiast, Stöckinger found himself behind the wheel and winning trophies as early as nine years old. He competitively raced go karts for six years before progressing forward, and in 2008 won a rare and highly prized slot in the Formula BMW Pacific Scholarship program. At the age of 17, Stöckinger was plucked from his usual comforts, moved across the world, and plunged into a world filled with fast cars, fascinating engineers of the most complex vehicles imaginable, and a sudden responsibility to market himself as a viable racing driver.
“I had to give up school to pursue this, but I think what I found in this career is that it was a good school for life,” Stöckinger says. “It was hard at first, being away from my family — I guess I have very Filipino values in that sense that I love being around my family — but once you get over missing them, you get to really see what’s in front of you. And honestly the more I saw, the more I wanted to see.” He muses on the benefits of his departure, such as an immediate boost in maturity and becoming more cultured, and says that he’d recommend the experience to anybody. “It’s a good opportunity, leaving home and seeing what else is out there. If you’re given a chance to commit yourself to a dream, to a job, to a means of bettering yourself, even if it takes you away from where you’re comfortable, you should do it.”
And so he did, bringing pride to our country as one of the first Filipino drivers to place first in Monaco, a beloved circuit among top brass Formula 1 drivers. “Any driver would say they’d love to win in Monaco, and I suppose I’m a little biased because that is part of my legacy as a Filipino racing driver, to be the only one to have driven there and won.” His best finish so far places him at 26th place in the GP2 series, the proverbial rung below Formula 1, and while it might not seem much, consider the fact that thousands of drivers around the world have competed over and over just to break through into this category.
Stöckinger himself has gone head to head with some of the highest rated drivers in the world, some of whom having prior experience at the Formula 1 level. And outside of the love of the sport, there’s a true calling to break proverbial ceilings for fellow Filipino racers. “For a country to get behind motorsports, we have to get a Filipino in the driver’s seat. We have to put a driver in F1, to grow the sport, to support those drivers, and it will easily cross-promote itself in terms of tourism and ads. It’s the dream to get there, but aside from talent, you need the support and the funding.” Stöckinger adds, “So far, I’ve been the only Filipino that’s gotten this far, but it shows you the blueprint of how far you can get when you’re given the means and the grounds to provide good racing drivers with the support they need, in the same way basketball or football players are supported. The only reason I’ve gotten to where I am is because I first competed in the Philippines, and it shows that there is talent here.”
Global competition
Not unlike Wurtzbach, who competed against candidates from the entire planet (or the universe, rather) for a single crown, Stöckinger is up against global competition, which makes for a striking middle ground between the two. “[Pia] has had a very successful reign as Miss Universe. And although her work is beauty pageants, the determination and the work ethic are the same. You don’t just wake up one day and become Miss Universe; you work for it. It’s the same with racing. Pia beat the whole world to get that one spot, and for me it’s not just racing against other people, it’s competing in the best tracks against the best racers in the best cars with the best-trained racing teams. Whatever the field is, we have what it takes to be world-beaters.”
Despite his charming confidence, however, Stöckinger says he’s like any other professional in his 20s. “I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes, panicking, thinking, ‘When am I going to be in a racing car again?’ But that’s part of the hustle, you don’t just wake up and have everything handed to you. Hard work and a good work ethic are important, and you have to keep doing it if you ever want to get anywhere.”
He says that while it’s still early in the year and the next season has yet to start, he’s in talks to tie up with a manufacturer and is hoping to gain more assistance from the country with respect to motorsports. Once the more personal aspect of things is finally sorted, he also hopes to be able to bring the sport to the youth as he believes it teaches discipline, setting and achieving goals, responsible work ethic, and extremely useful training in good driving that they can use their whole lives, competitive or otherwise.
This, of course, makes the calendar seem a little tighter for Stöckinger, whose beau is currently on a break after a very busy year of reigning over the universe. But ever so coolly, Stöckinger gives a small laugh and says most assuredly, “When we’re both busy, then we have time for the work that we love. But it also makes the time we have together that much more precious. You need the time together and you need a little time apart, to do what you need to do. We have a little bit of everything, and I think that’s what makes a good relationship for anyone, not just for me and Miss Universe.”
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Photo by PATRICK DIOKNO
Produced by DAVID MILAN
Grooming by DON DE JESUS
Polo from Raf Simons; button down and jacket from Univers