Timo Glock calls for consequences after the DTM opener due to the driving style of some of his rivals: Why he had to restrain himself on TV and which incidents bothered him
Former Formula 1 driver Timo Glock is not only struggling with his McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, which is currently being investigated in Woking for a fundamental vehicle problem, but also with the fairness of some of his rivals after his DTM comeback in Oschersleben. In Sunday’s race, “it felt like everyone out there thought they had to drive like complete kamikazes,” Glock complained after retiring from the race on ProSieben.
He now has to “think carefully about what you can say on TV” to avoid incurring a large fine. “I don’t know who it was, but at one point I had eight hits in the car.”
“We actually wanted to keep going until the second pit stop to give the guys a bit of routine and then stop the car, but it didn’t make sense anymore,” Glock explained why he retired the Dörr McLaren early. According to technical director Robin Dörr, the front splitter was ‘so badly damaged’ that they wanted to prevent ‘anything worse from happening.’
“Schuring drove halfway through my car in the last corner.”
When asked what events had upset Glock so much on Sunday, the 43-year-old pointed to the early stages of the race in particular. “I don’t know what everyone was thinking,” he said. “But the level of driving was such that I have a few question marks.”
Glock’s retirement was also caused by a collision with Landgraf Mercedes rookie Tom Kalender, who had to drive through the penalty lap zone three times (equivalent to a 15-second time penalty) as the person responsible. Did the incident with the youngest DTM driver of all time really get Glock so worked up?
“I don’t know,” replied Glock. “All I know is that Schuring drove halfway through my car in the last corner and Scherer somewhere back there in the Hotel corner,” he said, referring to the two rookies Morris Schuring in the Manthey Porsche and Fabio Scherer in the HRT Ford. “And then at the end there was the… if it was the Mercedes, it was the Mercedes!“ In the heat of the moment, he wasn’t sure if it was Kalender.
”It’s a dogfight out there right now.”
In his case, it was mainly younger drivers who caused trouble. “All over the place!” said Glock. He also noticed that the second Ford Mustang driver, Arjun Maini, ‘zigzagged back and forth between the rear left and right in the starting phase – and kept pushing into the corner, where I thought: ’Okay, you’re going to wreck the car in the end, that’s all you’re going to get out of it!’”
Glock had already noticed this change in duel behavior in 2021, when the DTM switched from Class 1 prototypes to the more robust GT3 cars, and said it had “gone extremely in this direction” since then.
With the Class 1 cars, which generated more downforce through aerodynamics, “it wasn’t so extreme,” he says. “Everyone knew: it doesn’t do me any good because I’ll wear out the aerodynamic parts and then nothing will work anymore. But what’s happening right now is really cutthroat. In my opinion, it’s just a bit too far.”
Glock sees race control taking action
Glock is now calling for consequences. “In the end, race control and Sven have to intervene accordingly, which I think he did during the race. Sure, it looks spectacular, but in the end, we’re all destroying our cars,” he says, putting race director Sven Stoppe on the spot.
He hasn’t spoken to him about it yet, but will do so and is “excited” about the next drivers’ meeting at the Lausitzring.
