Timo Glock: “I’m happy I’m back in proper racing again”
Timo Glock has, on the face of things, had an impressive rookie DTM season.
Glock, who made 95 Grand Prix starts with Jordan, Toyota and Virgin/Marussia, eventually left the struggling Anglo-Russian outfit at the end of the 2012 season to begin a new chapter in his motorsport career in the DTM with the new-for-2013 MTEK BMW outfit.
The move was viewed by some of the Formula 1 faithful as a step down, but don’t forget that Glock and BMW go back a long way.
In 2000, the 31-year-old German won the BMW ADAC Formula Junior Cup and the following year, he took the Formula BMW ADAC championship. Fast-forward to 2007, and Glock was appointed the BMW Sauber F1 team’s official test driver.
BMW know he’s good, as does BMW’s motorsport director, and former Toyota Motorsport director Jens Marquardt. No doubt his opinion of Glock – with whom he shares a strong relationship from the early years – was key in getting him behind the wheel of one of the M3 DTM cars in 2013…
…And that gamble was vindicated.
Whilst Glock had the inevitable struggles a driver has from moving from open-wheelers to tin-tops in his first DTM year, when he did well, he did very well. Just three races into his DTM career he was on the podium, and come the Hockenheim season ender, he’d managed to do what David Coulthard and Ralf Schumacher – both fully deserving Grand Prix winners back in the day – had failed to do whilst competing in the DTM; win a race.
During the recent DTM media event in Budapest, TouringCarTimes caught up with Glock to find out his thoughts on his maiden DTM season, making the switch from F1, and what it’s like to live with one of DTM’s most promising young talents; Marco Wittmann.
TouringCarTimes: How would you assess your maiden DTM season after achieving what a number of other former F1 drivers have not managed – to win a race after moving to the DTM?
Timo Glock: I think it was a great result at the end to win a race, but we struggled a little bit in the middle of the season. We made a strong start at Hockenheim and at Brands Hatch and we were strong for points in both races, but I think we were unlucky. In the first instance I lost a tyre after the pitstop and we were out of the race, in the second one I got spun around and then in the third one we had already got on the podium. But yeah, as I said, we struggled a little bit in the mid-season. At the end, we caught up again and had the possibility to win the last race, which was great for me. It’s good to head into the winter break with a win.
TcT: What do you think contributed to you having a strong first season in the series?
TG: I mean, it was good that I had the chance in the last couple of races to work a bit on the set-up. That was every time a little bit difficult in the middle of the season when we had problems and got only 90 minutes free practice. You struggle to try things then, but at the end of the season, we played around with it a bit because we had nothing to lose and that helped quite a lot. I just then gained confidence race by race.
TcT: Why do you think drivers who move from F1 to the DTM struggle in the latter, despite being former Grand Prix front-runners?
TG: Well, every time you go from a really quick car to a slower car, it’s always difficult and that makes it more of a struggle for some reason. You just progress from a slower to a quicker car, and then on top of that, they’re just two totally different things. One is a Touring Car and the other is a Formula car which is very light and has a lot of downforce. A DTM car is as heavy as a normal road car, I would say. It has like, let’s say, slightly over 1,000 kilos and a Formula 1 car has something around 600. There is also less horsepower, the tyres also have less grip so you have to change your driving style totally. If you’re one or two tenths out in DTM which isn’t much really, it’s a lot because you have 22 cars covered by seven-tenths. It’s just very difficult and you have to do adapt yourself to different drivers and different race-tracks, so as I said, to have not so much of running in the car makes it very difficult. I’m just happy to have the chance to be back in a competitive car. That made it a bit easier for me to work hard and try to work myself into the DTM.
TcT: Your MTEK BMW team-mate, Marco Wittmann, also had a very strong rookie season. What made you two such a competitve pairing?
TG: Yeah, definitely. We have a good team around us and a new team, as well. We struggled at the beginning of the year a little bit. That was the whole team in terms of pit-stop performance, and strategy wise we were not as clever as the others, but you know, this is a learning process and it’s always like that. Marco and myself work very well and gave the team roughly the same feedback, which means it’s easier for them to work on the car and yeah, he did a very good job in his first year, too. I mean, he had a bit of an advantage because he was BMW’s test-driver last year so had a bit more mileage in the car, but that’s how it is. He was impressive in qualifying and put it a few times on the front-row, so that was the reason why he was the best rookie this year. I was happy I was able to catch up in the last races and finish around him by a couple of points.
TcT: Looking to 2014, will you still be driving ‘The Yellow Beast’ in 2014?
TG: Yes.
TcT: How do you feel about the DTM heading to the Hungaroring next season? You’ve raced there before, so do you think DTM can give a better race than it does in F1?
TG: I don’t know, so I think we just have to wait and see. I’ve had a lot of good races and moments there, I scored my first Formula 1 podium there in 2008 and have a lot of Hungarian fans for some reason. That’s always nice. I think DTM can put on a good show on every race track, and I think the straight is long enough to have some good overtaking, and the same goes for Turns 1 and 2. There’s also the chance to use DRS where we want, so it opens up some good possibilities. I’m looking forward to going back.
TcT: What do you make of your former employer, Marussia F1, finishing 10th in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship? Do you feel the level of criticism levelled at them has been unjust?
TG: First of all it’s great that they kept this 10th place. We had it in our hands last year, some 15 or 20 laps from the end of the race in Brazil but then we were unlucky and dropped back to 11th. But yeah, 10th place is very important to get some money, and they chose have their drivers for it last year. I totally accepted that because they were struggling financially quite a lot but you know, I was fine with it. I’m happy I’m back in proper racing again.
TcT: So, final question. We saw at the DTM media event in Budapest you have grown a beard. How long will you be keeping it for? Was it grown for charity, or did you just want to do it?
TG: [Laughs] We will see, but it’s something I do every winter! I’ve never been to an official PR event with it, but my girlfriend likes it. It’s very cold this winter so I’ll keep it growing. It was quite a bit bigger two days ago but let’s see. Maybe I’m not going to shave until the first race in May.
