Q & A with Timo Glock, Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson - iSport team boss: It means a lot to all of us, whether its me personally or any individual in the team. Everyone puts maximum effort into it and we feel that a lot and we're very passionate about it, so everybody is ready to celebrate. Its been a long time coming, we've had a lot of tough opposition, but finally this year we've made it. It feels good.

Q. It's the culmination of a lot of work for a lot of the guys. I think some people don't quite realise how hard the guys work. Give me, from your point of view, how hard the team has worked over the last three years to get to where you are today.

PJ: OK. Well I mean if you start at the very beginning, we were probably nine months to a year in preparation of starting the team, so we were trying to get the right people together, trying to get some backing and all of those things that you need to get it off the ground.

And then once we got started there's always a steep learning curve when you have a new car and a new group of people to bring together and turn them into a unit. Lots of lots of hours of planning go into that. Then on the physical work side, the mechanics just work... whatever you ask them to do, they do it.

There's been recent examples where at Monza the guys worked through a straight 38 hours, not only to rebuild a damaged car but to put Timo's car on the grid in a position to win the race as well. I can't speak highly enough of all the guys in the team.

Without them it's not possible. Likewise the engineers who spend so many hours back in the office studying the data, working out simulations, making plans, and all of that's now paid off and its a tribute to all of them.

Q. Last year you had a hunch about this little German kid next to you [Timo]. It's paid off now. Tell me your thoughts on Timo from back then and now that he's won the title.

PJ: It was a strange beginning with us and Timo because at the very beginning of last year he came to us just a couple of days after we'd concluded a deal with another driver and...

Timo Glock: I've told them already Paul [laughs]

PJ: And so there was a missed opportunity there, and obviously at that time we didn't know quite how good he was and he didn't know how the team was and so the impact of that wasn't really obvious at the time. And then Timo had a difficult start to the year and we were doing OK.

We won a couple of races, so when the problems arose and the opportunity came for Timo to join us, we thought OK, this is going to be something we need to develop and work at. But from the very first moment he sat in the car he was instantly on the pace, he felt at home, he clicked with all the guys in the team.

It was a very strange situation where you feel like he's an old friend after a couple of days and I think a lot of people miss those personal relationships and they're very important and it makes the bond very strong and helps the work ethic and everybody pulls 100%. It worked out extremely well, better than we could ever have hoped.

And at the end of that year, having scored more points up until Monza than Lewis [Hamilton] did in those same races, from both sides we wanted to stick together this year and try and win the championship. It's been pretty tough, but we're there now and we can celebrate.

Q. Thanks Paul. Timo, I'll move onto you personally in a minute, but tell us your thoughts on Paul and the guys at iSport.

TG: It's like what I said in the press conference. It was just something special when I came for the first time in Silverstone. We went into Northampton in a Chinese restaurant, had dinner and talked for the first time, and after that it felt like we'd been working together for years. It was a special moment. Then the first time I drove out of the pits in Silverstone and turned the first corner I knew it was the car I could win in.

I could show everybody what I can do, and from that point on I had some special moments like the test at Paul Ricard where we just worked our ass off to get the car right for a race distance and try to fine tune it for my driving style.

When I came back from the test I said straight away we're going to win the race in Magny Cours, and that was clear for me because I had such a perfect feeling for it, and it worked out. Through the whole year it was just perfect moments like Hockenheim. The whole second half of the year.

This year we started to work over the winter and I could just feel that everybody wanted the championship and they worked so hard. The engineers and me had phone calls over the winter to find how we could fine tune the car. It was something special and I learned so much for myself in terms of working with a team and bringing everybody behind you and this year was just a really special year.

We knew we had the chance to win the championship, we were 18 points in the lead and the media and everyone said it would be easy and we would win the championship and I said every time 'No, wait until the last race is over' and then it came like i said it would.

But in these bad moments, the team went up another step. Every time we had a negative moment we took something positive out of it and came back even harder and the mechanics, as Paul said, worked so hard in Istanbul, in Monza, to bring the cars back again.

And can I just say that one thing that makes a team strong is when you have a strong teammate like Andi. He is on the pace, he's really quick, he had bad luck in the beginning of the year and I think he was a bit de-motivated in the last races because he couldn't get it back.

He was a reference point for me because he was so quick in testing and for me testing and racing are something different. I try to do my work on the test and in qualifying it counts, but we pushed each other every time, step by step and he did a perfect job. We worked together as a team and when we raced it worked out... not every time like in Magny-Cours [laughs] but it usually worked out.

Q. You've had one of the most unusual careers of pretty much any racing driver I can think of. Strong in F3, bizarrely into F1 for various reasons, over to ChampCar, you took a BIG gamble to come to GP2. What does it mean to you, 18 months down the line to have won this championship?

TG: That situation was so difficult. I've worked together with my manager now for seven years and some people don't know him because he's in the background and that's something else that put the team together, that my manager was not working against the team and wants the lowest budget or whatever. We said what it is and we found a way and that's the team: my manager, me and everybody.

A couple of years ago it was just tough. I thought maybe I would have to start a career in America and forget F1, but at the end we found a backer and said OK, we have to find a way to go to GP2 or find the right team and just gamble a little bit, put everything on one card. In the beginning it seemed like the wrong decision, but when we joined iSport it was the right decision.

We never said we make the wrong the decisions and we never say we make the right decisions but we take every time from the decision something out of it, we learn something and we will do it in a different way or better next time and in the end it's just the perfect combination, I think.

Q. And of course it's landed you with a test driver role at BMW Sauber and possibly even more than that. How important in getting to F1 is it to be in GP2?

TG: I think the last few years showed what GP2 is, and what a strong championship it is. With Nico and Lewis both making their way up to F1, Heikki Kovalainen, Scott Speed, I think it's just the perfect situation for me to be GP2 Champion. Sure I'm already in F1 as a test driver but I want the next step and that's a race cockpit and I hope this helps a little bit.

Q. Are we going to see it next year?

TG: Let's wait another three or four weeks and we'll hopefully have a decision.

Q. I have some questions and I start with Paul. Now that your team is champion, your team is champion, can you tell us what you really think at the start of Magny-Cours Race 1?

[Laughter]

PJ: Well, I think most people have commented on the TV footage of my reaction and some people were lip reading. For sure the instant reaction is not very good, and in the immediate moments after that I spoke with both Timo and Andi and of course there's a slightly different version from both drivers...

Q. One turned left and one turned right!

PJ: [Laughs] Yes that's the simplified version. I said that now was not the time to discuss it. None of us can take it in at first view so I said we wouldn't discuss it until afterwards, we'll sit together, watch the replay and then decide what should be done, which we did and my view of it then was that both of them contributed. It doesn't matter whether you want to say 50-50, 60-40, whatever.

Both of them contributed so they've got themselves to blame and they did their reputations quite a bit of harm at that time. Really there wasn't any point in me taking any action. The most positive action was to move forward as a team, and after I'd seen it I said that as far as I was concerned it was history. We drew a line under it and moved forward.

There's no point in arguing about it, we move forward, we put it behind us, there'll be no repercussions and nobody will hold any grudges. We carried on and had to be strong as a team. To be fair both the guys have done that. There was really no bad feeling in any way. It was the best way to handle it in that respect.

Q. Paul your team has traditionally a very fast car in qualifying going back to 2005, but this year for Timo race two was very important because he only one race one. Can you explain why this situation happened.

PJ: I think most of that can be put down to reliability issues where we had problems. If it wasn't for that and the Magny Cours incident it would have been two or three more Saturday wins.

Q. Timo, you are GP2 champion and its natural you think about Formula One next year. Do you have any alternative plans outside F1 at the moment?

TG: I think that's my goal and I'm not looking left and right. You have to be prepared and the safe option would be to drive another year with iSport in GP2. It's a question if Paul wants me again in GP2. You have to have something in your back pocket but there's still the possibility to be with BMW Sauber as a test driver but I will try to find a race cockpit and in a couple of weeks we will know the result.

Q. Timo, what do you think of the way Lucas di Grassi fought this championship because it seems like you had all the pace but he was concentrating more on scoring the points.

TG: You know, he was just in the team which won the championship for the last two years and we knew he would be quick over the whole year. They were really strong as a team and at the end we knew he would be one of the hardest contenders, the hardest guy to beat and he did a good job over the year.

Every race when he had the chance to grab points he was there and took it and never made a mistake which is one key for the championship. At the end we had a bit more pace but not the luck on our side and we turned it around. I thought every time ART will improve over the year, but every time we could make another step too and fight back even harder and that was the key at the end.

Q. A simple question for both of you, Paul from the last three years and Timo from the last two years. What's been your single greatest memory?

PJ: [Laughs] You've caught me out there. I'm not sure! I think one of the best memories actually was Timo's victory in the second race in Hockenheim last year when he took the lead on the last lap. He'd come from I think tenth on the grid...

TG: Sixth or seventh I think.

PJ: From somewhere where you shouldn't win a race he came and won that race. I always remember that. It was a really great day. Superb day and a good memory that you can always hold onto.

TG: For me that's the same. Hockenheim last year was really special. For me personally it was a hard period and there was just the perfect moment. Nurburgring this year when we'd had all the problems before and just leading the championship by two points.

We just fought back as hard as possible and to win at home was a special moment. Here as well, I mean, the last two laps of the race today were something special where you remember everything from the last one and a half years. That was very special to me.