– Why does Timo Glock again see no chance against his teammate Ben Dörr at the Dörr team this year? The ex-Formula 1 driver, who showed a fighting Sunday race at the Nürburgring but, unlike the team owner’s son, has nothing to do with the front, defends himself against the prejudice that he is no longer the old Timo Glock. “Well, he is not gone,” the 44-year-old says emotionally at ran.de.
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He notices, “that people always think: ‘He can’t drive anymore!’ I’m not too stupid to drive!”, he clarifies. The reasons? “I can only say it like this: We are limited. My engineer knows it, my data engineer knows it, my number-1 mechanic knows it – End of Story. We can’t do more. There is an A and a B car – and that’s it.”
Glock thus accuses his team in clear words that the car of teammate Ben Dörr – son of team owner Rainer Dörr – is favored. “It is the same in the race as in qualifying – maybe a bit less in the race,” Glock elaborates.
“Problems are so extreme in qualifying …”
“The problems we have on one side of the garage are so extreme in qualifying that our hands are tied – and I can’t do anything,” describes Glock, who started 18th and 19th at the Nürburgring, while his teammate was fifth and second, his current situation.
Where are the problems? “Simply traction out of the corner,” Glock answers. “For some reason, I had 60 percent more traction control in qualifying today – lost five tenths in the first sector. Just many small things where we don’t know where they come from and why they keep occurring.”
That is “a shame and hurts when you see in the race that it is then somewhat okay.”
What role did newly delivered McLaren software play?
The cause of the overly intervening traction control in qualifying was probably newly delivered McLaren software, which according to the Dörr press release was “switched back to the old state” on Sunday after qualifying because Glock “had complained about lack of traction”.
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The Nürburgring weekend clearly shows: The problems with Glock are back after the veteran recently said in Oschersleben that for the first time this season he was not held back by technical hurdles during a weekend.
After the Dörr-McLaren driver had prematurely stopped his car on Saturday at the Nürburgring, he fought his way forward on Sunday from 19th by eleven places to eighth with the help of an unused set of tires – and was involved in spectacular duels.
Single-wheelspin still a problem
Despite fresh tires, he was not able to get “out of the corners” compared to Nicki Thiim, “because we partly have single-wheelspin. That activates the traction control – and that is an ongoing process that keeps slowing us down.”
“Single-wheelspin” is one-sided wheel slip, which Glock already suffered from last year. If the differential does not lock as it should, the car loses balance at the corner entry, causing oversteer. When accelerating out, the inner wheel spins – and the traction control intervenes. This causes unstable handling as well as increased tire wear.
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Nevertheless, Glock had fun in the car because of the duels. “That’s what I’m here for – to show awesome racing,” he clarifies. “I always asked my engineers: ‘Did you see that move?’ So they have something to laugh about, so my mechanics have something to laugh about again, because they are currently going through hell with the issues we have.”
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