Timo Glock: The driver debates

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This week’s driver debate looks at Timo Glock, Toyota’s junior driver whose 11 Grand Prix starts is dwarfed by team mate Jarno Trulli’s 188.

Glock led home Trulli on Sunday at Montreal, a track he seems to have an affinity with. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, Trulli has been the better driver for most of the year so far.

How do you rate Timo Glock?

Glock has already done something very few drivers manage to get: a second chance in Formula 1.

He got his F1 break in 2004 when he was Jordan’s third driver. Race driver Giorgio Pantano got into a dispute with Eddie Jordan over sponsorship and Glock was drafted in for the Canadian Grand Prix. He finished 11th on the road but the disqualification of both Toyotas and both Williams cars gave him an unlikely two points. It might seem fortuitous, but Glock was ahead of team mate Nick Heidfeld.

Pantano was back in the car for most of the rest of the year but Glock got in another three races at the end of the season. However as Jordan were taken over by Midland he found himself squeezed out.

At first he switched to Champ Car and came close to winning at Montreal, but had to yield to Oriol Servia on the final lap after the stewards judged he’d defended his position illegally.

But Glock’s sights were focused on a return to F1 so he took up the chance of a drive with the least competitive team in GP2 in 2006 in the hope it might lead to something better. It did. Tristan Gommendy was forced to drop out of iSport and Glock took his place, winning twice, hauling himself up to fourth in the championship and worrying title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Nelson Piquet Jnr on the way.

He took the championship last year although it took him until the final round, largely due to some poor reliability.

He also joine BMW as test driver and at the end of 2007 the German team and Toyota fought a battle at the Contract Recognition Board over Glock’s services. Toyota won, and Glock took Ralf Schumacher’s place at the team for this year.

Trulli has largely shown him the way this year but in the chaotic race last weekend Glock out-qualifeid and out-raced his team mate, scoring an excellent fourth place. He hasn’t set the F1 world alight just yet but I think he has potential. His dogged pursuit of an F1 drive certainly proved his tenacity and determination.

Read more about Timo Glock: Timo Glock biography

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “Timo Glock: The driver debates”

  1. He has a second chance in F1 and lets hope he makes the most of it. Not many people that i have known since i have been watching f1 have had a second chance. He has to keep performances like Montreal up and maybe he will a big team will be knocking on his door.

    Anyone agree?

  2. It’s difficult to assess Glock. Much of it depends on how you rate Trulli. Canada was the only time this season he has had the beating of him. Trulli looked all at sea from the minute the cars hit the track on Friday and struggled just to keep it all pointing in the right direction all weekend. Why that is, I’m still not fully clear.

    To announce that he is something big waiting to happen, Glock really needed to blow Trulli away from the beginning. On the other hand, in my estimation Trulli is very, very good indeed and – along with Webber – has been by far the most impressive driver outside the top three teams so far this season (Montreal notwithstanding). So, in that context, just running fairly close to Trulli is pretty impressive.

    Ultimately, I think that Glock is pretty good. Certainly good enough to deserve a seat in Formula 1 on merit. But, do I think he is a world champion in the making? Honestly, no.

  3. George , I share your feelings that Glock is not championship material . A hard worker / driver , yes .If he stays around long enough I can visualise him following a similar carreer path to what Rubens Barrichello has done . Given a top car , he will win races and score many podiums , but unfortunately I can never see him leading and helping develop a team into a top championship winning team and maintaining that sort of form. Which leads me to the question as to what Toyota think they are doing ? Surely by now , they should have realised they will never do it with the likes of Glock & Trulli – who incidentally I class at the same sort of level as Glock and Rubens , Button as well. They have the budget , and unless Alonso was totally opposed to joining them or there were other complications , I can’t understand why they did not grab him for this year.

  4. Far be it from me to turn the discussion off topic and away from Glock – Trulli is a debate for another thread… but I just have to drop in that I seriously rate him as one of the top drivers on the grid!

  5. George – by all means join in the Trulli debate started here a few days ago: The driver debates: Jarno Trulli

  6. I see him as the next Heidfeld.
    He has everything a driver needs to have in modern F1.
    He knows how to deal with people and is working hard for the success.
    But just like Heidfeld I feel a does not have the final 2 tenth of a second compared to natural talents.

  7. Lets not forget that Glock made a mistake in the last couple of laps that resulted in Massa overtaking Trulli, as the italian had to back off to avoid colliding with his team-mate. Hadn’t Massa been there, Trulli coulde have easily ended up fourth ahead of Glock.

  8. Its hard to assess Timo Glock. We have become so used to in recent years seeing young drivers coming from GP2 and having an immediate impact in F1, namely Hamilton and Rosberg to name two.
    Glock, like Piquet JNR, is a rookie, and deserves a little slack. Some of his on track battles this year have shown his future promise, and being team mate to one of the best ‘hot lap’ drivers around cannot be easy.
    I like him, he appears to deserve his second shot at F1. He comes across well in interviews, professional, well spoken, time will tell.

  9. sChUmAcHeRtHeGrEaTeStEvEr
    13th June 2008, 14:30

    i think he is quite talented but as we all see its very hard to overtake in f1 these days and being team mate to trulli who always qualifies better than the car is probably capable of will make it hard for him to beat him on raceday. definitley deserves to be in f1 though.

  10. Definitely starting to find his groove and will likely be a long-term fixture in F1. I am looking forward to following and watching his progress. Likely to be a solid midfield runner

  11. Glock is a “solid” driver, but not exceptional. He is fast but there is no way I will put him as being able to extract that extra tenth or half a tenth from a car. Between Coulthard, and Glock I cant say who got the better gift from Canada because performance wise, they were both nowhere. Trulli also got a gift in Canada, which was his day off, however, we already know what Trulli is capable of.

  12. I’m a big Glock fan. He is very fast, but moreover, he is very focused and a very hard working driver, quite possibly the hardest working driver in Formula One. He’s even more focused than Heidfeld, who has been known at times to enjoy himself. These characteristics will serve him well in the sport and will keep him around for a long time. Hungary was just a snapshot of what Glock can do in Formula One, and with an improved Toyota, he may just be able to fulfill his stated goal of being a champion by 2010. I certainly see him as a future Grand Prix winner.

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