JULY 24, 2011

Glock commits to Marussia Virgin

Timo Glock has committed his immediate F1 future to Marussia Virgin Racing in a long-term deal that will see the German with MVR until the end of 2014.

The team rates Glock highly and after a difficult start to its time in F1, sees his involvement as key to the continuity as it pushes forward after the recently concluded technical partnership with McLaren Applied Technologies.

"That's a clear step," Glock said, "You look at their numbers and it tells the story. The best way forward for us was to make a move like that. We want to be successful and hopefully be fighting for good positions - top fives and podiums - hopefully by the time of the first Russian Grand Prix at Soichi in 2014.

"You have to have targets. We have tasted the difficult times together and I can't wait to be with the team when we start to enjoy the good times. People have asked me so many times this weekend - probably because it's my home race - how I can stay motivated when I'm fighting for 20th place, or whatever. There have been frustrating times, sure, but after a couple of hours my head is straight, you press the reset button and just look forward to the next weekend. I just jump in the car and enjoy so much what I'm doing."

After a disappointing lack of progress in 2011, MVR split with technical partner Wirth Research earlier this year and the new association with McLaren and the acquisition of Wirth premises in Banbury is a signal of intent.

Discussions over the second seat alongside Glock, currently occupied by Jerome D'Ambrosio, will take place after F1's summer break.