Former BMW star Timo Glock has shared how he made his return to the DTM this year after being absent from the series for the last three seasons.
The German driver has been signed by Dorr Motorsport to lead its second season in the DTM, where the team will field a pair of McLaren 720S GT3 Evos.
Glock had made several attempts to return to DTM after leaving Formula 1 in 2012, but he had only managed one guest appearance at Imola in 2022 with Ceccato Motors. However, it was an unexpected trip to last year’s Hockenheim finale in October that set the wheels in motion, ultimately giving him the chance to replace the departing Clemens Schmid in Dorr’s lineup for 2025.
“Chance played a role once again,” Glock explained to Motorsport.com’s sister site, Motorsport-Total.com. “I was visiting my parents with my daughter for the weekend and only realized three days before that the DTM finale was at Hockenheim. So, I drove past my friend [and Hockenheim managing director] Jochen Nerpel, was there for two hours, and ran into my former GP2 race engineer, Richard Selwin, on the grid.”
Glock continued, “Selwin and I always stayed in touch, and we kept saying that we needed to do something together.”
Timo Glock had previously worked with Richard Selwin during his title-winning GP2 season in 2007, a connection that would prove crucial in his return to DTM.
In recent years, Selwin had worked as an engineer for the Project 1 BMW team in both DTM and the World Endurance Championship, gaining valuable experience with GT machinery. Project 1 was initially set to run Dorr Motorsport’s DTM program in 2024, but the team went bankrupt, forcing Dorr to set up its own operation. This turn of events created an opportunity for Selwin to join Dorr’s team directly.
“I say, ‘Hey, what are you doing here?’” Glock recalled, recounting his chance encounter with Selwin at Hockenheim.
“He replied, ‘I’m here for Rainer Dorr, and I’m looking at how the team is set up because we might want to do something for this [new] season.’”
Selwin then asked Glock, “Would you like to get behind the wheel again?” To which Glock enthusiastically responded, “Would I like to? Of course! I already spoke to them last year.”
Although Glock couldn’t find Rainer Dorr on the Hockenheim grid, he managed to reach him in the days following the event. Glock was already familiar with Dorr, having previously discussed the possibility of joining his team for the 2024 season.
“I sent him a message two days later, saying if he wanted to talk again about working together, we could chat on the phone,” Glock explained. “We did that, and things moved pretty quickly. We both had clear ideas about what we wanted.”
After their conversation, Dorr quickly arranged a test day at Hockenheim for Glock to try out the McLaren 720S GT3.
“We made good use of the test day, and at the end, he said, ‘We need someone who has experience.’ And for me, it was crucial that Richard Selwin was on board,” Glock noted.
The deal was quickly finalized, with the official announcement made before Christmas in December.
This marks Glock’s first full season since racing in the Italian GT series in 2022. After being dropped from BMW’s factory roster at the end of that season, he only participated in a few races, including a standout performance at the Nurburgring 24 Hours alongside two-time DTM champion Timo Scheider, Le Mans 24 Hours class winner Jeroen Bleekemolen, and Briton Peter Cate.