Glock a contender for Manor seat

Further to my post yesterday about the new teams, it appears that Timo Glock might have got cold feet about a move to Renault and is considering a drive with the new Manor team.

During the Abu Dhabi weekend the German media was reporting that Glock had signed for Renault, but with no announcement forthcoming and uncertainty still clouding Renault's long term plans in F1 after their board meeting last week, Glock's manager, Hans-Bernard Kamps has said that Manor is a real possibility. The other driver in the frame is Lucas di Grassi.

Glock has had a rollercoaster career. He got to F1 with Jordan in 2004, but then had to rebuild his career in the USA and then GP2, before bouncing back into F1 again with Toyota in 2008.

To start again, effectively, building up a new team is not what he would consider ideal, but needs must in these strange times. A driver of Glock's calibre would give Manor a huge boost and an excellent reference point. On his day he is as fast as Jarno Trulli and is a tenacious racer, as his podium drives in Singapore this year and Hungary last year.

On paper Manor should be one of the better organised of the new teams, with the backing of Virgin, even if the decision Nick Wirth has taken to design the car exclusively using CFD simulation tools, rather than a wind tunnel is a big gamble, which could go either way.