Glock to miss race with intestinal infection

2012 European Grand Prix

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Timo Glock will not participate in today’s European Grand Prix, his team have confirmed.

Marussia issued the following statement:

“Further to the medical problem which prevented Timo Glock from participating in yesterday’s qualifying session for the European Grand Prix in Valencia, the Marussia F1 Team can confirm that Timo is unable to compete in today’s race.

“Timo received medical guidance yesterday afternoon and his symptoms suggest that he is suffering from an intestinal infection.

“He has been advised that it would be unwise for him to race given the severity of the complaint and that he should focus instead on recuperating.

“Timo spent the evening resting at his hotel in Valencia and is in good spirits. He will return home later today.”

2012 European Grand Prix

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Image © Marussia

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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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31 comments on “Glock to miss race with intestinal infection”

  1. It’s a shame but his health is more important.

  2. Does anybody else think HRT is smelling the blood in the water? Glock has been Marussia’s stronger driver all year, and with him out of the running, they have a chance to steal eleventh place in the World Constructors’ Championship away from Marussia.

    Then again, they do need a thirteenth place to pass Marussia, and that doesn’t bode well for HRT because Valencia is tough on brakes – and last time out in Canada, both de la Rosa and Karthikeyan retired early (and within two laps of one another) with brake failure.

    1. come on man….don’t expect tht many retirements in Valencia

      1. Why? Because there were no retirements last year?

        Correlation does not imply causation.

        1. I hope the HRTs, Marrusias and Petrov retire in the 1st lap so we don’t have problems with the backmarkers :)

          1. Petrov has actually been pretty comparable to Kovalainen in terms of pace over longer runs. He’s just had a couple of mechanical DNFs that have left him 23rd overall.

          2. I would rather some other cars drop out then @peje, and see the HRTs, Pic and both Caterhams get close to the top ten. A real battle for who gets the best finish in this year.

      2. If the two GP2 races are anything to go by this weekend, then we could be seeing a fair few retirements and safety cars. I’d like to think anything could happen today.

    2. This is a race that has seen 8 non-classified retirements in 4 seasons. And as you said, they need a 13th place to do it, which requires at least as many retirements in this race as the last 4 Valencia parades/races combined. My money’s on no.

      1. So you think HRT should just give up on the chance to reel in Marussia because it’s too hard?

  3. If you remove the PR Spin here is what that press release really says “We have not been able to find a way to create a chute for his Diarrhea to exit our car and impact the other cars so we will not be using him in the race afterall”.

    haha, wait I got another one….

    Sounds like he needs some DRS “Diarrhea Reduction Syrup” l0l

    1. Laughed so hard i damn near ****** myself :)

  4. No chance of a fill-in?

    1. No driver can race unless he’s taken part in at least one practice session. When Glock was injured in qualifying for the Japanese GP in 2009, Toyota asked the stewards if Kamui Kobayashi could stand in for him, but were turned down for this reason.

      1. @red-andy That’s not true – Kobayashi actually drove in friday practices, as Glock was ill. So that’s not the reason.

        1. Driver that takes part in Qualifying is the driver that must start the Race is the way I remember it from when Glock was injured in Japan.

          No idea what the rules are though on a driver starting the race & coming in at the end of the first lap with a relief driver getting in and finishing the race.

          1. That makes sense. I guess the teams have to tell the FIA who’ll race, and they have to do it before qualy.

          2. No idea what the rules are though on a driver starting the race & coming in at the end of the first lap with a relief driver getting in and finishing the race.

            It’s not permitted. At all.

        2. Yes, looking back it seems that Kobayashi did participate on Friday. Drivers don’t have to take part in qualifying in order to start the race (think Alonso in Monaco 2010 for instance), but they must have at least driven in FP3 on Saturday morning in order for the stewards to grant them dispensation to race, which was the issue with Kobayashi.

    2. @funkyf1

      No chance of a fill-in?

      Even if that were possible (you have to qualify the car to race), there is no-one who could do it. Marussia’s designated reserve driver, Maria de Villota, does not have a superlicence.

      1. so, in effect, they have no reserve driver

        1. @f1yankee – That’s their choice. Sure, they probably could have looked up and down pit lane and found someone to substitute for Glock – d’Ambrosio, maybe, or Bottas; Williams want to get him into a car as soon as possible – but that’s moot point. Glock decided to sit qualifying out in the hopes that he would recover in time for the race. And although he was withdrawn by the team, nobody else can enter that car into the race because nobody qualified it, and you have to qualify a car before you can race it.

          1. when alonso crashed out of monaco practice 3, the spare car couldn’t be ready in time for qualifying. he was allowed to enter the race (starting from pit lane) based on prior performance.

            in f1 i believe it’s the driver/car combination which qualifies for the race, unlike other series which qualifies either/or and then substitutions can be made.

            to address an earlier comment, nascar in particular was/is pretty loosey-goosey with drivers. towards the end of his career, richard petty would start a race, complete a couple laps, change drivers and all points accumulated were scored for the starting driver.

            in f1, if a driver gets out of the car or removes his helmet that’s instant retirement – zero tolerance.

  5. One less backmarker to hold up the leaders. Get well soon, Timo.

    1. yeah! right?

  6. It’s a real shame that it wasn’t possible to identify that Glock wouldn’t be able to make the race prior to qualifying/FP3, it could have been good to give a new driver some time in a car.

    For some obscure reason, I like seeing mid-season debuts and driver line-ups changing. Perhaps I’m just nostalgic….!

    Who knows, we might have another Markus Winkelhock! :-D

  7. It’s a joke they have a reserve driver without a super licence. Shows that hiring a woman was just a publicity stunt. I’m surprised FOTA/FIA allow a team to have reserve drivers without the licence to drive in a race.

    1. Maria de Villota isn’t Marussia’s reserve driver. Officially, they don’t have a reserve driver. Instead, de Villota is their test driver, so she can participate in straight-line aero runs and demonstration events.

  8. That’s a shame and I hope he gets well soon.

  9. 2012 Sporting Regs, Article 19: Changes of Driver

    19.1 a) During a season each team will be permitted to use four drivers. Changes may be made at any time before the start of the qualifying practice session provided any change proposed after 16.00 on the day of scrutineering receives the consent of the stewards.
    Additional changes for reasons of force majeure will be considered separately.
    Any new driver may score points in the Championship.

    b) In addition to the above each team will be permitted to run additional drivers during P1 and P2 provided :
    – i) The stewards are informed which cars and drivers each team intends to use in each session before the end of initial scrutineering, changes after this time may only be made with the consent of the stewards.
    – ii) No more than two drivers are used in any one session.
    – iii) They carry the race number of the nominated driver they replace.
    – iv) They use the engine and tyres which are allocated to the nominated driver.
    – v) they are in possession of a Super Licence

    c) If one of the team’s nominated drivers is unable to drive at some stage after the end of initial scrutineering, and the stewards consent to a change of driver, the replacement driver must use the engine, gearbox and tyres which were allocated to the original driver (see Articles 25.4, 28.4 and 28.6).

    ——————————————————
    So it’s not that changing a driver during the race is expressly & openly banned, however you are only allowed to use 2 drivers in any session so if you start 2 drivers in the race then you can not use a replacement driver as that would constitute a 3rd driver during the same session.

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