Why is Timo Glock still remembered for the 2008 F1 season?
The 2008 F1 season came to a spectacular closure which saw Lewis Hamilton win his first ever F1 world title on the final day of the season. However, his win was and still is surrounded by the conspiracies of Timo Glock, who apparently facilitated Hamilton’s victory. Let’s find out more about the same.
Glock is said to have played a vital role in deciding the outcome of the 2008 F1 season. During the last round of the F1 season at the Brazilian GP, Felipe Massa of Ferrari was up against McLaren’s Hamilton in a battle to clinch the title. Massa went on to win the race temporarily being crowned as the 2008 F1 world champion.
While Hamilton was dropped down to sixth position and he needed to finish at least on the fifth position to clinch his first ever world title. However, Hamilton was met with an unexpected help from rain and also Glock which massively deterred the outcome of the world championships.
Towards the end of the race as the rain started to intensify, drivers switched to ‘intermediate’ tyres. However, Toyota’s Glock was not able to do so. His team’s move of sticking to the dry tyres as the rain intensified played a key factor in Hamilton winning the 2008 F1 title.
Glock was well on his way to finish fourth but his lap time drastically dropped by 16 seconds which gave Hamilton the opportunity to overtake him and finish fifth in the final laps of the race. If Glock had chosen to get new tyres, Hamilton would surely have one less F1 world title today.
Was Timo Glock’s move intentional to help Lewis Hamilton?
Soon after the race ended, Glock was bombarded with allegations and conspiracies of him trying to help his F2 buddy Hamilton. For many many years, Glock had been accused of costing Massa the 2008 title victory. However, when the situation is really analyzed one can understand that it was everything but intentional.
If Glock were to intentionally help Hamilton, he could’ve went in to the pit lanes giving the Brit driver the opportunity to get ahead of him without any fuss. The Toyota team decided to keep both of their drivers out with dry tyres because the pit lane was full. It was the team’s strategy to help them gain positions, which failed.
Though, Glock did play a vital role in deciding the outcome of the 2008 F1 season it was not intentional. Toyota left F1 following that season. Glock remained a part of F1 till 2012. As he was not able to find a seat for the 2013 season and onwards.
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