Timo Glock

[teabagyokel]

I was wondering where we rated Timo Glock in F1? He has come out with some fantastic performances in his time, but he has also been anonamous for a lot of races. Is this the nature of the beast driving for Toyota? Has he more talent? And should he be on the shortlist for the empty seats at places like Renault and Williams, or more likely to be looking at joining Sauber, Lotus or Campos?

What do we think?

 

[BlackCountryBob]

For me, he is a good racer but unable to show it in a unpredictable car. In terms of talent and what he can do with a car, I reckon he is very much from the Heidfeld and Heikki mantle, mostly quiet and uneventful but pretty good at staying out of trouble and is likely to benefit more than most from safety cars and rain just as a result of staying out of the way.

He is never going to rival Lewis or Alonso for raw pace, or even the next strata of drivers but he is certainly capable of a long career maybe as a team-mate in one of the big teams. Think Rubens a decade ago and I think that is him.

 

[GeoffP]

I have to rattle the old grey cells, but I think he used to be something of a Wurz - very quick, but lacked the ability to focus through a whole race.

Where he seems to be raising eyebrows at the moment is that he seems to be able to maintain that focus. From his post race interview I get the impression that the team are bleeding him information in order not to let his emotions get hold of his actions

 

[Speshal]

Journeyman in a rubbish car.

 

[teabagyokel]

It is difficult to say the Toyota is rubbish, it is just the most bizzarely inconsistent car ever devised. Williams, Force India and Brawn have been able to explain away fluctuations in their results over the course of a season based on such criteria as the track or the temperatures. Toyota plainly don't understand why they're good some weeks then bad the next.

I think Glock produces some good performances, more than I've ever seen from Kovalainen, but he's firmly in the category of F1 drivers marked "Heidfeld". Not that that's a bad thing, Heidfeld is more likely to hoover up the points for a WCC than is Kovalainen, for example.