It is still unclear what the future holds for prominent BMW drivers Glock and Bruno Spengler: One man’s luck could be another man’s sorrow
Mysteries surrounding the future of Timo Glock: The BMW works contract of the five-time DTM winner, who celebrates his 40th birthday in a few days, has been extended for the 2022 season, but the Munich-based company has still not announced where Glock will drive this year. The only fact is that all BMW seats in the DTM have been allocated and his departure is thus certain after nine years.
According to a paddock rumour that reached ‘Motorsport-Total.com’, Glock is now set to make a surprise switch to the Italian GT Championship.
There he is to compete for the Ceccato team of touring car legend Roberto Ravaglia in the new BMW M4 GT3, for which BMW colleague Bruno Spengler and DTM newcomer Marius Zug competed last year. Glock knows Ravaglia’s squad because he already competed for the predecessor team ROAL in 2015 at the 24-hour classic in Spa with Spengler and Alex Zanardi.
Spengler should have been driving for Boutsen-Ginion team
Glock’s fate now seems to be linked to Spengler’s once again. And with the Belgian Boutsen-Ginion team, which caused a surprise at last week’s GT World Challenge (GTWCE) tests in Le Castellet when they suddenly turned up with an Audi R8 LMS after seven years with BMW.
While Glock had originally been a candidate for the GTWCE season with the team of Olivia Boutsen – sister of ex-Formula 1 driver Thierry Boutsen – and her husband Olivier Laine, BMW had made a different decision: The 38-year-old Spengler was to get the BMW M4 GT3 cockpit with the Belgian team.
But the BMW plan came to nothing: according to information from ‘Motorsport-Total.com’, the team received the news in the first week of March that it would not be fielding the new GT3 hopeful from Munich this year as expected. The reasons are unknown.
Spengler’s GT World Challenge plan bust
Hard news for Spengler, who had counted on the cockpit in the GTWCE endurance series and now faces an uncertain future. For the Canadian, who had originally hoped for a comeback in the traditional series this year after a two-year break from the DTM and an interlude in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, there is now little chance of a cockpit, while Glock appears to have been lucky as his replacement in Italy.
But what will become of Spengler now? The BMW contract of the 2012 DTM champion had also been extended at the beginning of the year. But that doesn’t mean much, because if the veteran driver, who is extremely popular with the fans, doesn’t get any contracts, the deal won’t be worth much.
And after the Schubert team also presented its drivers for the ADAC GT Masters last week, almost all BMW cockpits for 2022 have been allocated. In the IMSA Endurance Series, after Sebring next weekend, only one RLL car will be entered with John Edwards and Connor de Philippi.
The only thing that remains unclear is how BMW will present itself in the Intercontinental GT Challenge. In addition, there might be an opportunity for Spengler to play a role in the testing programme of BMW’s LMDh car, which is run by his ex-DTM team RMG.
