Timo glock, Virgin Racing, Virgin-Cosworth

There’s pride at stake between F1’s new team community in 2010, particularly between Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson and Air Asia-owing Lotus Racing boss Tony Fernandes. Timo Glock, the experienced man in the Virgin line-up, headed for his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim hoping to turn the tables on Lotus Racing and managed it, finishing first of the new team drivers . In Hungary he set out to do likewise, pipping Lotus Racing’s Heikki Kovalainen to the new teams ‘pole’ by just seven hundredths in the dying seconds.

Timo, is regularly winning the new team battle now a realistic target?
I think Silverstone showed that our aero update worked quite well and although it didn’t show too clearly in the results, we were much closer to Lotus. We could race them at Silverstone and for Germany we had another step in the aero package. I expected it would be tight but I was positive. I was fastest among the new teams on Friday but unfortunately on Saturday it was chaos, we had a massive problem with the gearbox, broke third gear and that meant changing the box and going back five places on the grid, to last.
We didn’t get any running in final practice therefore and went blind into qualifying. I had a very good first lap, was in front of both Lotuses, then came in, changed the tyres and the mechanics saw that the rear right brake calliper was leaking fluid. It was too risky to go out again and Lotus went quicker when the track improved. But it all came right in the race and I also managed to qualify as fastest new team car in Hungary, even though we were still struggling a little on the bumps.

Is it downforce that the new teams lack most in comparison to established rivals?
I think the point is that we are a new team with maybe not enough people with F1 experience, which makes it difficult, but in general I think that’s normal for a new team. We just have to get on top of it and sort out the problems. The gearbox problem we have is difficult and we have to find a solution for next year.

Are you quite happy staying with Virgin Racing in 2011?
We’ll see. I was happy in the last two races with the updates and we have to make sure that we get more like that, and if the team improves I am happy to stay, sure. I have a long term contract and what I’ve said from the beginning of the year is that if I see any way we are not improving then I have to think about what I am doing in the future. At the moment though, I’m happy here and let’s see how it goes.

Last year there was lots of talk about you and Renault. How close did you come to signing and what was the decision process?
I was quite close to them and we had a lot of talking going on, but in the end I had options which were running out and the rumour came up that Renault was pulling out of F1, so it was quite a difficult decision to make. At that stage I decided to go to Virgin because I was not sure that Renault was going to happen.

Toyota’s test team was bigger than your current race team, so how different a working environment is it at Virgin?
It is different but I just concentrate on my job. It’s working quite well and I’m happy with it. There are some positive elements such as a smaller team being able to make quicker decisions compared to a big team like Toyota, which is sometimes like a big ship – you can’t steer it.

Was that frustrating?
What was frustrating was that in the end Toyota pulled out when we were on a good path up to the top five with a good baseline for 2010. I think that car would have been strong.

You worked with a close-knit British team, iSport in GP2, so is Virgin similar or is it harder to co-ordinate John’s Booth’s staff and Nick Wirth’s?
That’s okay actually, it’s working quite well. I like to work with English teams. iSport was a really good experience and fun and here is the same. The people are good, we just have to co-ordinate the team, structure it more and get the experience into the team, learn from the first year and make more out of the second year.

Would limited testing be a help?
That would help definitely, especially the smaller teams, but you just have to accept the regulations as they are.

How have you found the Cosworth engine?
It’s really good, no problems. We have made some improvements and I’m quite happy with it.