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Glock: Full DTM Return With Ceccato “An Option”

Five-time race winner Timo Glock hints Italian squad is testing the waters in DTM…

Photo: DTM

Timo Glock says a DTM comeback as part of a full-season effort with Ceccato Racing ‘could be an option’, revealing the Italian squad opted for a guest start at Imola after previous efforts to launch a full campaign for this year failed to materialize.

Glock makes a one-off return to the championship at this weekend, piloting a BMW M4 GT3 for the Roberto Ravaglia-run squad with which he also competes in the Italian GT Championship.

The experienced German driver traded in DTM for the Italian series when he left the championship after nine seasons.

Glock remains one of the more DTM experienced drivers still currently active, although he struggled in his final year in the series, when he raced a BMW M6 GT3 for ROWE Racing.

He now makes a one-off return to the championship where he competed in 146 previous races, explaining that the idea to do the event came about after a chat with 1989 series champion Ravaglia, who runs the team.

“I was testing for the Italian GT Championship with Roberto in Italy and we were talking about DTM at some point,” said Glock.

“He was already planning to do DTM this year, which didn’t work out and we were talking and at some point I said ‘it would be fun to do a guest start, maybe there’s a chance to do it’.

“The talks started, we were talking to BMW and to BMW Italy and they were quite open about it and then things came together. Gerhard was very supportive, the whole DTM crew was supportive to us and helped us a lot.”

Glock hinted that a full-season comeback with Ceccato Racing could be on the table, with the one-off entry at Imola potentially something of a fact-finding mission for the squad.

“This could be an option for sure,” the German noted.

“As I said, they already tried to go into DTM this year, which didn’t work out. For sure, we have got to try to do our best and show how good the team is.

“They are doing a great job in Italy, but the level in Italy is maybe not as high as in DTM in terms of competitiveness.

“There are two or three cars which are really good and quick, but in DTM you have 29 drivers who have the chance to fight for the win.

“It’s going to be a different scenario, it’s going to be a different weekend for us in terms of the whole process.

“But we try to do our best and if we show some pace, if we show some performance over the weekend, of course it could be a chance for next year.

“But next year is quite far away, so we’re going to do our best and see what comes out.”

Top Ten Finish Would Be “Great Achievement”

Glock remains purposefully cautions about his and the team’s prospects at Imola, pointing at the championship’s extremely high level of competition.

Instead, he indicated the team would to well to finish anywhere any from the bottom of the pack and that a top ten finish would be a significant accomplishment.

“For sure we won’t come to Imola and finish on the podium,”  said the German.

“That would be far too high, DTM is far too competitive that you show up and beat everyone.

“But it would be great to be in the top 15 and finishing in the top ten would be a great achievement.

“We need to see, for sure the track might not suit the BMW as good as the Lamborghini or the Audi with the shorter wheelbase, but we need to see. In GT World Challenge, the car looked not too bad a few weeks ago.

“I’ll come back and enjoy the weekend, I think it’s going to be a hot one, but hopefully it’s going to be a trouble free weekend and then we’ll see where we end up.”

Glock also explained that the team carried out a brief test at Misano on Wednesday in an attempt to adapt to running the Michelin Pilot Sport S8M, as the Italian GT series uses Pirelli tires.

“It’s a big challenge for the whole team. We never did proper pitstops in terms of time, because in Italian GT you don’t need to do tire changes.

“The team worked hard and they’re doing a good job. It is going to be difficult on the weekend for them as well, but so far they have tried to prepare themselves as good as possible.

“We just had one set of Michelin S8M tyres and one set of S9M tires, which is a harder compound [to test].

“Just to get a reference of the car and of the tire. It’s a bit different to what we normally run on the Pirellis.”

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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