The ex-Jordan, Toyota and Virgin/Marussia Formula 1 racer was a DTM mainstay with BMW between 2013 and 2021, winning five times, but switched to the Italian GT championship for 2022.
Having been the best-placed BMW driver in the final season of Class One regulations in 2020, Glock struggled with the venerable M6 GT3 in 2021 as the DTM switched to GT3 rules, managing only nine points and taking a best finish of seventh at the Nurburgring.
This year the 40-year-old German linked up with the Ceccato Motors team run by 1989 DTM champion Roberto Ravaglia, and has enjoyed a fruitful start to the season with the new M4 GT3 by winning at Monza with Jens Klingmann.
Glock will return to the DTM with Ceccato this weekend as the DTM makes its first visit to Imola, but cautioned that “DTM is far too competitive that you show up and beat everyone”.
Although Glock ran the Michelins used in DTM last year, he hasn’t raced them with the new M4 as his Ceccato team runs on Pirellis in Italian GT, and stated that a top 10 finish “would be a great achievement”.
Explaining his modest ambitions for the weekend during a shakedown at Misano, Glock said: “We need to find out the sweet spot, especially in terms of tyre pressures, which is slightly different the way you go out on cold tyres.
“In Italian GT you can warm up the tyres, and you have no chance to do that in DTM so you need to go out on cold tyres, you need to find a way to get the tyre temperature and pressures in the right spot.
“That’s the first box you need to tick and then get around the characteristic of the tyres, they are slightly different in terms of the construction and therefore the car is behaving slightly differently, and then you need to make your final adjustments on that.
“For sure as well the feeling and the feedback of the tyre is different and you need to get used to that.
“And for sure the M4 is totally different to the M6 I was driving last year, so at the end it’s a new experience again and I just hope we took the chance this morning and understand enough what to do for the weekend.”
Glock explained that the M4 is different “in every detail” to the M6 and is much more suited to his driving style.
“Driving behaviour, feedback of the car, engine response and everything and all the systems, ABS and traction control, are so much better, so much easier that it just fits my driving style in general,” he said.
“I think every driver is much more happy on the M4 now, which is a big step, and you can see this being competitive nearly everywhere.
“I’m enjoying every lap in that car and the racing as well with the car because we just have a very consistent car over a race distance as well which was another downside on the M6.”
Glock revealed that he previously had held discussions with Ceccato team manager Ravaglia, with whom he had previously raced when the team was known as ROAL Motorsport at the 2015 Spa 24 Hours, about doing a DTM programme in 2022 “which didn’t work out” before committing to a guest appearance.
Glock added that a full-time DTM comeback with Ceccato “could be an option”, but when approached for comment by Autosport last week, Ravaglia stressed that the outing was a one-off for now.
“For now we plan to do only this DTM race,” the BMW marque legend said.
“We are committed in the Italian GT to defend the colours of BMW Italia, but for sure whatever result we get will not affect future decisions.”
Ravaglia also acknowledged that “for us everything is new”, with the team also having to perform tyre changes against the clock.
“We had a little time to prepare it,” he said.
