Timo Gock was born on March 19th, 1982 and debuted in Formula One in 2004 at just 22 years of age. Born in Lindenfels, Germany, he started competing in motor sport at a comparatively late age of fifteen.
Early Career
Although starting late in motor sport, Timo progressed very quickly through the lower formulae and by 2000 was competing in the BMW ADAC Junior Cup and the BMW ADAC championship the following year. Glock competed in German Formula Three in 2002 and took the rookie of the year title as well third in the title fight. In 2003 Glock competed in the Formula Three Euroseries and claimed three victories and three podiums, ending the season in fifth.
2004
Although relatively inexperienced, Timo impressed Eddie Jordan sufficiently enough to see him signed to the squad as a test driver. Although he wasn’t expected to race, sponsorship problems dogged race driver Giorgio Pantano and he was forced to miss the Canadian Grand Prix. Glock stepped in and debuted at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He ultimately finished eleventh on merit, but following the subsequent disqualification of Williams and Toyota, Glock was promoted to seventh thus picked up two points.
Pantano returned to the cockpit for the following United States Grand Prix, but in the fourteen races he competed that year in a Jordan, Giorgio only finished six of them, his highest position being thirteenth. Eddie Jordan had enough and by the Chinese event had put Timo back in the race seat. Unfortunately, the development pace of the Jordan had slowed towards the end of the year and Glock could only manage three fifteenth places in the final three races.
2005-2007
Without managing to get a drive for the 2005 Formula One championship, Glock headed stateside to the Champ Car World Series and competed with the Rocketsports team. He ended the season in eighth with 202 points, including a fine second place finish at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve where he almost won. However, American racing didn’t appeal to Glock like European racing does and by the end of the year he had decided to return to the UK to try again at getting into Formula One.
In 2006 Timo managed to get a drive with Formula One’s feeder series, GP2, with the midfield BCN Competicion team. The squad only achieved average result and spent most of their time in the midfield. However, Glock drove well and picked up points at both the San Marino sprint and main events. By the ninth round at Silverstone Glock had attracted the attention of winning team iSport. He moved squads mid-season and won the twelfth round at Magny Cours. By the end of the year Timo was in fourth place and had another win under his belt.
Glock remained with the iSport team for the 2007 season and found himself at the top of the tables by the season finale in Valencia. He won three sprint races and one main event as well as tested for the BMW Formula One team. Partway through the F1 season BMW driver Robert Kubica suffered a large accident in Canada and Glock had hoped he would be asked to step in and take over the racing duties in the second car. However, the squad chose Sebastian Vettel and Glock started to seriously look for a Formula One drive for the following year, having been crowned as the GP2 champion.
2008
Timo signed for Toyota team in late 2007, accepting a partnership with Jarno Trulli in the Japanese team. Initially, his position at Toyota seemed to be in doubt as the German driver was still under contract with the BMW team as a test and reserve driver. However, the two contracts went to the Contract Recognition Board and they found Toyota to be in favour. Glock was released from his BMW duties and a three year deal with the Cologne-based team was officially announced.
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