Timo Glock

Timo Glock is a German racing driver who recorded 74 starts in the Formula 1 World Championship between 2004 and 2012, scoring four wins. He made an F1 debut in 2004 with Jordan and then returned in 2008, spending the next five seasons in the championship with Toyota, Virgin Racing and Marussia.

Between two stints in Formula 1, Glock won the GP2 Series title in 2007. His last season in F1 was 2012. Since 2013, Glock competes in the DTM with BMW, scoring five wins in seven seasons.

Timo Glock

Two-time champion early in a career

Born in March 1982 in Lindenfels near Darmstadt, Glock started his racing career relatively late, at the age of 15. After young Timo won a couple of karting races on the regional level, it was obvious that the kid had potential for bigger achievements. It was confirmed in 2000 when Timo Glock won the ADAC Formula Junior Cup in an impressive way. He has won 11 of 19 races that year, adding four podium finishes to his account.

In 2001, Timo Glock won another title, this time in Formula BMW ADAC. He was the fastest in eight of 20 races and opened doors for further progress. As a driver of Opel Team KMS, in 2002 Glock competed in the German Formula 3 championship. He finished the season third overall and was honoured as the Rookie of the year.

Glock’s rise continued in 2003, continuing to drive for Opel Team KMS, but now he competed in Formula 3 Euroseries. Again, Timo had impressive results, finishing fifth overall after being the winner of three races and scoring three podium finishes in 20 starts. His driving was convincing enough for Jordan Formula 1 team who signed him as a test driver for 2004.

Timo Glock as Jordan's drivcer in 2004

Formula 1 debut and an episode in the US

The same year, Timo Glock debuted in Formula 1 at the Canadian Grand Prix, replacing Giorgio Pantano. After the disqualification of Toyota and Williams cars in that race, Glock was promoted to 7th place in his initial Grand Prix, scoring two points. He got another chance that year in the final three races but failed to impress, finishing 15th in China, Japan and Brazil.

Surprisingly, Timo Glock left Formula 1 in 2005 to drive in the United States in the Champ Car World Series, as a driver of Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports Racing team. He scored only one podium finish from 13 races and finished 8th in the Drivers’ championship, taking the Rookie of the Year award.

Timo Glock (left) on the Champ Car podium in Montreal

Return to Europe and GP2 Series success

In 2006, the German returned to Europe. The next stop was GP2 Series and Glock had the ambition to draw the attention of Formula 1 teams. But, driving for BCN Competicion team, his results were below expectations, so in mid-season, he switched to more ambitious iSport Team and scored two wins which helped him to move up to fourth at the end of the season. He was also awarded as the Most improved driver in the series.

For the 2007 campaign, Glock stayed with iSport Team which was the cat’s whisker. He won five of 20 races, had five podium finishes and won the championship title scoring 88 points. His plan to secure the place in Formula 1 through GP2 Series was successful as many teams showed interest in his driving.

Glock was the GP2 Series champion in 2007

Two good years with the Toyota F1 team

Timo Glock decided to sign a contract with the Toyota F1 team despite being contracted to BMW as a test driver which led to a dispute. Luckily for him, Contract Recognition Board ruled in Glock’s favor, so he was free to drive for Toyota in the 2008 Formula 1 season, replacing his compatriot Ralf Schumacher.

Canada again was lucky for him: after finishing fifth, he scored his first points as a member of Toyota. Glock repeated the same result in Singapore Grand Prix while his best result was second place at Hungaroring, just behind McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen. He finished the season 10th in the Drivers’ championship which was rated as a good result, considering that it was his first full season in Formula 1.

In 2009, Glock again finished 10th overall despite missing the last two rounds. The start of the season was really good as he scored points in the four opening races, with third place in Malaysia as the best result. Later, he scored points in Turkey and Hungary, and was second in Singapore where he ran behind Lewis Hamilton.

Glock driving for Toyota in the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix

Timo Glock crashed hard in Japan

An accident during qualifying for the race in Japan definitely marked that year for Timo Glock. He crashed heavily at the last corner and immediately was airlifted to the hospital with injuries on his leg and vertebra. Glock was forced to miss the rest of the season and he was left without engagement as Toyota decided to pull out of Formula 1 in the meantime.

Video : Glock's accident in Japan

Miserable results with Manor/Virgin/Marussia

Later that year, the Manor team, which was soon to become Virgin Racing, offered him a contract saying that Glock would be their leading driver in 2010. Due to an unreliable car, the team wasn’t competitive enough and Timo’s results were poor. He retired in eight races and his best result was 14th place in Japan.

He signed a contract extension with an outsider team which changed its name twice, but there wasn’t any significant improvements. The car became more reliable, but still not fast enough. The next two years were hard as Marussia/Virgin team wasn’t even near the top 10. In January 2013, he left the team by mutual consent.

Timo Glock, Virgin Racing

Move to DTM championship

Glock’s next chance was the DTM championship. BMW signed him for the 2013 campaign and Timo scored his first points in the third race of the season at Red Bull Ring where he was third. In the next six rounds, he was out of top 10, but in the closing race of the season at Hockenheim, Glock was the winner, which pushed him up to ninth place in the final standings.

In 2014, he was 16th with a third place at Red Bull Ring as the season highlight, while in 2015, he was 15th overall, even after winning the race at Oschersleben. In 2016, he was a race winner once, at Red Bull Ring, finishing tenth in the points.

An improvement followed in 2017 when he won one race (Zandvoort) and added three podiums to finish seventh in the points. The best season so far was in 2018 when Glock finished fifth in the points after he scored five podiums, including one victory. In 2019, scoring no wins or podiums, he finished 12th in the points.

Timo Glock celebrates his DTM victory at Oschersleben

Photos: motorsport.com flickr.com, tomsheck.com, speedsport-magazine.com, f1fanatic.co.uk, f1sintraccion.com, press.bmwgroup-sport.com.