Timo Glock: A Formula One competitor who wouldn’t give up
Born on March 18th, 1982, in Lindenfels, Germany, Timo Glock made a rather delayed debut into the race driving arena when he turned 15. Like most would-be competitive drivers, the German decided to set the ball rolling with a go at kart racing. Timo’s spell with go-karts was a highly fruitful one and unsurprisingly, it took him no more than three years to make the necessary transition to single-seaters, beginning his journey with the Formula BMW-ADAC series.
The switch proved to be fortunate for Timo, and in two years he managed to lay his hands on both the junior cup and the principle championship title. Predictably, the German’s rapid climb up the competitive ladder meant he had no trouble securing a race drive for the alternate German Formula Three series in 2002.
Competing on behalf of the Opel Team KMS, Timo added three victories and six podium positions to his glittering resume in his initial year at the championship and switched to the prestigious Formula Three series for the coming 2003 competition. The German kept up his winning form and salvaged three wins before notching an aggregate fifth position in the rankings. By now, Timo had roused the notice of many watchful bosses in the Formula One paddock and ultimately ended up signing with team Jordan as a third driver for the 2004 season.
The German savoured a number of test drives for the British based squad before a conflict between Jordan’s first choice driver Giorgio Pantano and the team management carved out an opening for a raring Timo. Called in to fill the shoes of Pantano, Timo made his first race appearance for Jordan at the year’s Canadian Grand Prix paired with compatriot Nick Heidfeld. The German grasped his opportunity to impress with zeal and proved every bit of his worth after recording an astonishing seventh position on his very first competitive run. It was not unexpected at the time that Timo was called in to permanently fill in the shoes of the departing Pantano for the rest of the season.
Although unable to improve upon his impressive Canadian Grand Prix result, the German nevertheless managed to put on a number of significantly competent performances for the reaming season. Yet as the year came to a close, the dearth of reasonable opportunities within Formula One prompted Timo to depart for America to test his fortunes at the Champ Car series for the 2005 competition.
Teaming up with the Rocketsports squad, the German wrapped up a respectably profitable season after ending runner-up in Montreal on his road to an overall ninth finish in the aggregate rankings. Snubbing numerous invitations to prolong his racing spell in the U.S., Timo was determined to move back to Europe in the hope of a possible Formula One opening.
Once in Europe, the German set his sights on the GP2 series which were fast becoming a stepping stone for many aspiring Formula One hopefuls. Although the gamble paid off to the extent that Timo’s mature GP2 performances grabbed him a BMW Sauber Formula One test outing, it was inadequate in securing him a permanent race seat and the German decided to consolidate his GP2 credentials further. Glock won the 2007 championship title after sealing five wins and his strategy finally paid dividends when the year’s solid success instigated Toyota to enlist the German as a substitute for the departing Ralf Schumacher.
Timo did not disappoint and managed to produce several assertive performances in his initial complete year of competitive Formula One driving. The German managed to conclude the season with a tenth position in the overall standings and booked his first F1 podium position in a well-deserved win at the 2008 Hungarian event.
Timo continued to add to his billing throughout the 2009 season when he managed to two more podium finishes in defiance of the hindrance posed by the rather incompetent Toyota TF109 machine. Unfortunately, an accident at a qualifying session in Suzuka which left the German with a fractured skull cut short the rest of his flourishing season. Shortly afterwards the announcement of Toyota’s exit from Formula One instigated Timo to make a move to the freshly constructed Manor GP team for the 2010 title race.
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