1,000 Greatest Drivers: Timo Glock
Let's get it straight: Renault cost Felipe Massa the 2008 World Championship, not Glock.
I’m not going to do a long intro today because I want to go to bar trivia tonight and I’m going to have to leave in a few minutes to walk down there, but I’ve never felt Glock got his due. I was really impressed he steamrolled Ryan Over-Reayted as a Champ Car rookie that Hunter-Reay got fired by Rocketsports before the end of the season (and being replaced by Michael McDowell, no less) and was unable to find a ride for two years after that until eventually winning an Indy 500 and IndyCar title later. He’s also arguably the last ex-IndyCar driver to actually succeed in F1, his ratings in both of my models are really stellar as he’s one of only six drivers with ratings of greater than .2 in both my open wheel and touring car models, and he ranks third-highest in my touring car model of those drivers, behind only Jim Clark and (barely) behind José María López in my touring car model, who won three consecutive World Touring Car Championship titles. Yet I wonder whether most F1 fans actually realize he succeeded. Even though he matched Jarno Trulli at Toyota (who every F1 fan acknowledges is good), it seems all anyone wants to do is blame him for causing Felipe Massa to lose the world championship when it was Nelson Piquet, Jr. intentionally crashing at Singapore on team orders from Renault to help Fernando Alonso win and costing Massa a race he probably would have won otherwise that really cost him the title…
TIMO GLOCK…………………GERMANY
Born: March 18, 1982
Best year: 2018
Best drive: 2013 DTM Race #10 at Hockenheimring
Although best known for ostensibly costing Felipe Massa the 2008 Formula One championship, judging Glock primarily based on that does a great disservice to him since he is one of only six drivers with ratings of greater than .2 in both my open wheel and touring car models. After becoming a Jordan F1 test driver in 2004, he unexpectedly made four starts after Giorgio Pantano abruptly left the team. He broke out in 2005 when he switched to the Champ Car World Series as Ryan Hunter-Reay’s teammate at Rocketsports. Although Glock was a rookie while Hunter-Reay was in his third year, Glock beat him so badly that the future IndyCar champion was fired before the season ended and was rideless for two years. He then returned to Europe, winning the 2007 GP2 title, the then-premier F1 feeder series.
In 2008, he joined Jarno Trulli at Toyota and instantly matched him. Although Trulli beat Glock in points both years and was slightly faster, Glock won the head-to-head and was far better at passing with an overtake record of 43-33 to Trulli’s 17-50. He proved this at the 2009 Bahrain Grand Prix, where he took the lead from polesitter Trulli before Jenson Button beat him out of the pits. However, all that was overshadowed by the 2008 season finale at Brazil, where Lewis Hamilton passed him on the last lap to win his first championship over Felipe Massa. Brazilian fans blamed Glock for Massa losing the title and Toyota was so worried for Glock’s safety they hired a police escort.
After Glock broke his vertebra late in 2009 and Toyota withdrew, many thought his F1 career might be over, but he signed with Virgin in 2010, which became Marussia in 2012 but the cars were backmarkers. While still under contract, Glock switched to Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters in 2013. Although he won five DTM races, most notably an unexpected win in that year’s season finale at Hockenheim (also BMW Team MTEK’s first), his teammates (especially Marco Wittmann) typically outperformed him. The most notable exception came in 2018 when Glock beat all three of his teammates, Philipp Eng, Joel Eriksson, and former champion Bruno Spengler.
Even though Glock won in DTM, did not win in F1, and had a higher rating in my touring car model than my open wheel model, I actually rate his open wheel career higher. My models compare drivers to the average major leaguer, but the average open wheel major leaguer is much better than the average touring car major leaguer, Glock had at least a .500 record against all his open wheel teammates except Nick Heidfeld in 2004 while his DTM head-to-heads are shakier, and my touring car model typically overrates DTM drivers relative to drivers in other series. Hence, I find his F1 career significantly underrated, and other modelists agree (F1metrics ranks him 51st). He deserves much better than to be blamed for Massa losing a championship, particularly when Renault’s Singapore shenanigans are the real reason he lost.
Open wheel model: #62 of 931 (.226)
Teammate head-to-heads: 54-31 (3-2 vs. Adam Carroll, 7-4 vs. Jerome d’Ambrosio, 6-1 vs. Maro Engel, 4-2 vs. Lucas di Grassi, 1-2 vs. Nick Heidfeld, 4-1 vs. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2-0 vs. Michael McDowell, 7-5 vs. Charles Pic, 12-11 vs. Jarno Trulli, 6-1 vs. E.J. Viso, 2-2 vs. Hiroki Yoshimoto)
Touring car model: #88 of 1676 (.273)
Teammate head-to-heads: 95-102 (4-5 vs. Ben Dorr, 16-16 vs. Philipp Eng, 21-8 vs. Joel Eriksson, 10-5 vs. Augusto Farfus, 3-3 vs. Antonio Felix da Costa, 15-16 vs. Bruno Spengler, 9-11 vs. Sheldon van der Linde, 16-37 vs. Marco Wittmann, 1-1 vs. Alex Zanardi)
Year-by-year: 2005: C+, 2006: C-, 2007: C-, 2008: C, 2009: C+, 2010: C, 2011: C-, 2012: C-, 2013: C-, 2014: C-, 2017: C+, 2018: C+, 2020: C+