Thomas de Bock

Thomas De Bock (born June 10th 1986 in Heusy, Belgium) is a Belgian racing driver known for competing in Formula One and F1RWRS. He is also known by his nickname, "The Ram", a literal translation of his surname and a reference to his frequent incidents.

Early life career

De Bock was born near Verviers, less than 20km away from the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Later on, amidst political crises in Belgium regarding the possible splitting of the country, De Bock spoke out against Flemish separatism, citing himself as an example. His four grandparents are Walloon, Flemish, Bruxellois and French.

De Bock first got into karting at the age of 8, when he and his family had moved to Malaysia. The Formula 1 Grand Prix had not yet been organized, and there was little knowledge about motorsport, apart from sports cars and motorcycles in Shah Alam and Johor. The advantage was that karts were much cheaper than in Europe. His family quickly noticed his interest in karting, and bought a racing kart, which Thomas used to compete in the Malaysian junior go-kart championship, in which he finished second. In 1996, De Bock won the junior championship in his third season. In early 1997, Thomas returned to Belgium, and his results in Malaysia managed to get him into the Precision Motorsports young driver program. He didn't waste any time, and was runner-up in the 1997 Belgian junior kart championship, a title he won the next year, also winning the Benelux championship. In 2000, De Bock was runner-up in the European karting championship, having won the Dutch junior championship in 1999. These results were enough to give the 14-year-old De Bock a seat in the Belgian Formula Ford championship for 2001.

Thomas was fourth in his first season, winning the 2002 season easily, with six wins out of ten races, and quickly moved to British Formula Renault at the age of 17 in 2003. There, De Bock was straddled in an underpowered car and was unable to crack the top 5 in the championship. He still managed to put on some impressive performances, including a lights-to-flag win at Snetterton in 2004. His impressive performances saw him become part of the Red Bull young driver program in 2006 at the age of 19, earning him a seat in International Formula 3. He was only able to finish third in the series with three wins, but his dominant victory at Macao was enough to get him a drive in GP2 for 2007. He wasn't impressive, only finishing 11th with a handful of podiums, but his good turn of form in 2008 saw him net second place in the championship with five race wins, enough to guarantee a Formula One seat at Toro Rosso for 2009.

Formula One and first steps in the F1RWRS

De Bock made his début in the 2009 Australian Grand Prix. He quickly made a name for himself by finishing seventh in his first race out of 11 finishers, just ahead of teammate Sébastien Bourdais. However, this performance would not be repeated, and he spent the first half of the season being thouroughly outpaced by the Frenchman, with a best finish of 13th place in Germany, while Bourdais scored four points. He did, however, prove to be very reliable, only retiring twice. After the Hungarian Grand Prix, he was fired by Toro Rosso and replaced by the Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari.

Despite this setback, De Bock immediately set about looking for another drive in Formula One. In the meantime, he dabbled in GT racing and IndyCar late in 2009. During the winter, two opportunities arose. The first was a drive for Renault in Formula One alongside Romain Grosjean, the other was to enter the driver pool for the first season in the F1 breakaway series F1RWRS. However, with Daniel Melrose and Dave Simpson choosing to take part in both championships, De Bock followed them and would attempt to cope with two world championships at once.

The 2010 season proved much more successful for De Bock. He scored points from the first race, with 8th position ahead of teammate Grosjean, who came 10th. Indeed, De Bock generally had the measure of Grosjean throughout the first half of the season, with fourth place in the first race at Detroit and what would be his only podium with third place in the second race at Melbourne. He continued to show pace at other moments, including second place in first qualifying at Monza. However, at Donington, he was given a suspended one-race ban for causing an accident with Sebastian Vettel. This ban was triggered in Hungary after he ignored blue flags, and he missed the first race in Singapore, replaced by Nicolas Prost. Grosjean had a spectacular return to form in the second half of the season, with four top five finishes including a podium at Monza. Eventually, he passed De Bock in the points standings. The Belgian finished the season in 13th position, on 75 points to Grosjean's 90.

After an underwhelming season, De Bock was only Renault's third choice for the second car, and sure enough, Prost secured the drive for the full season, leaving De Bock out of a Formula One drive. Instead, he decided to concentrate on F1RWRS full-time.

F1RWRS

2010: Rosenforth

De Bock choosing to join the theoretically frontrunning Rosenforth Engineering team seemed like a good idea at first. However, while his teammate Frank Zimmer fought at the front of the field for the whole year, De Bock was unable to get any speed out of his car except for a few occasions.

There were two of those occasions, the first being the Luxembourg Grand Prix. Despite a bad performance in qualifying and a dismal start to the race, he made the most of his strategy and made his way up to fifth place, eventually dropping to seventh at the end of the race, scoring his only points of the year. In Bahrain, he managed to qualify in tenth position, but failed to make an impact during the race and finished in 14th position.

Sick of his lack of pace at Rosenforth, De Bock wanted to change teams, and was hired by Team Calinetic as teammate to defending champion Gary Cameron.

2011: Calinetic

At first, it seemed that De Bock had made a mistake by switching teams, as he was regularly beaten in testing by Phoenix McAllister, his replacement at Rosenforth. With the addition of pre-qualifying, there would also be a distinct possibility of not even starting the race. De Bock fell foul of the rule twice during the year, but then again, so did most of the drivers.

As it turned out, De Bock had indeed made the right choice. While the rosenforth was quicker, the team folded mid-season due to intra-team tensions pushing McAllister to resort to legal action over the team. Meanwhile, De Bock silenced all the naysayers at the Bavarian Grand Prix, after a consistant drive saw him net second place, his first podium. In the next races, he couldn't make a mark, apart from a brief second place at Oschesleben during the pitstop phase.

His next good performance came at his home race, where getting in trouble less than most of the other drivers got him in the lead, before a collision dropped his to third place. With 18 points, Thomas was now fifth in the championship. Then followed five races without a single point, apart from the Kent Grand Prix where, despite finishing outside the points, he managed to score the point for pole position, the first of his career.

His next tangible result was a good one. At Bathurst, Thomas was one of the drivers who avoided the lap 1 carnage, and he took pole position in the second race. He was passed early on by Ashley Watkinson and eventually finished second, but a few more points were welcome.

From then on, Thomas decided to stay calm and bring the points home instead of giving it his all and risk not scoring. In the last four races, he scored thrice, finishing either seventh or eighth. He crashed out of the United States Grand Prix. He scored a total of 34 points that year, a career high, tying for eighth place in the championship.

In the middle of the season, Thomas announced his intention to join the rising Belgian ENB team to bring some experience to the outfit that was new to top-tier open-wheel racing. With the buyout by Gillet, the team looked promising.

2012: Ecurie Nationale Belge

As it turned out, the decision would be a bad one in the short term. While Calinetic failed to pre-qualify for most of the races, they scored high in the first three races, while ENB failed to score at all until the Australian Grand Prix at Bathurst.

The team was in a desperate state at that point. Out of 24 entries, there were 10 DNPQs and five retirements, with the rest being finishes out of the points. Aurelien failed to pre-qualify for the race, what would turn out to be the team's last failure to pre-qualify. Thomas, meanwhile, qualified in the top ten for the second time that season. The race was of such high attrition that only nine cars finished, with none of the frontrunners making it to the end. Thomas stayed out of trouble and picked up an unbelievable maiden victory on his 31st start, a record later broken by Kay Lon.

He later finished third in the season-ending Indianapolis 500, worth double-points. 15 points at Bathurst and 16 at Indy meant that by scoring just twice, he had racked up 31 points, enough for twelfth in the championship, a position that would never have been considered just a few races earlier. With new rules to be enforced for 2013, as well as a complete buyout by Gillet convinced Thomas to stay aboard. In those times, stability would be the best option.

2013-14: Gillet

2013

The season didn't start well for Thomas, as he was slower than Moll from pre-season testing onwards. Even worse, he retired from the opening race due to a driver error.

With the issue found to be qualifying pace, Thomas started to work harder in qualifying, and immediately put his car on the second row of the grid in Mexico. He stayed up front during the race and was in a solid third place, ahead of eventual winner Kay Lon, before a puncture caused his third successive retirement. It was clear that while the Gillet was undoubtedly a quick car, reliability was cruelly lacking, and that the team would need all the finishes they could get.

At Dallas, the Gillets filled up the second row of the grid, and thanks to unreliability by the early leaders looked set for a one-two finish. However, Moll's car called it quits with a few laps remaining, but Thomas took his second career win. In the same situation at Monaco, Thomas led most of the last part of the race before suffering from suspension issues with less than ten laps to go, leaving Sammy Jones then Moll to take the lead, and eventually the race win.

At Oulton Park, despite a disappointing showing in qualifying, De Bock made his way up the field and eventually finished fourth. This would be his second-to-last finish of the season. His last finish was a good one, however. At the Norisring, Thomas qualified fourth and moved up to third. Thanks to his one-stop strategy, he found himself in the lead and never let go, scoring his second win of the season the day before his 27th birthday.

That didn't stop him from putting on good performances, such as running second in Belgium with just a few laps left, or retiring at Estoril while fighting for a podium with Ben Fleet. He was also in second place at the Chinese Grand Prix before retiring with 20 laps left. With the promise of increased reliability (due to Gillet being one of the only teams to persevere with their chassis by upgrading it), 2014 looked promising.

2014

The car's promising pace in testing didn't immediately translate to pace, and Thomas was well in the midfield for qualifying at the Tasman Grand Prix. He then proceeded to make up the lost ground, and he reached the top ten on lap 30, cracking the points ten laps later. However, with ten laps to go, he was involved in an accident with Nicolas Steele, Jack Christopherson and Mark Dagnall. In eighth at that point, he was able to continue virtually undamaged, and thanks to late-race problems experienced by the drivers ahead, he salvaged the final point in sixth position.

At Bathurst, he qualified fourth and used the attrition ahead of him to win the race and take the championship lead. He kept it until Mexico, where fifth place wasn't near enough to fend off defending champion Mark Dagnall. Thanks to more good fortune at Brands Hatch, Thomas won his second race of the season, leading home Gillet's first ever 1-2 finish.

However, he was unable to mount a consistent challenge to Dagnall, after an uninspired German Grand Prix was followed by an avoidable mistake at the Italian Grand Prix, where he crashed out of a certain podium position. He partially made up for it in Cyprus by finishing in an anonymous sixth place, and was set to finish on the podium once more in Zandvoort had his pit crew not made a mistake when changing a wheel. Remaining in mathematical contention to the title with three races left in the season, he eventually retired in all three, ending up seventh in the championship, just three points behind Moll, who was fourth.

2015

The following seasons turned out to be difficult for the Gillet team. Dwindling finances meant that the chassis was fundamentally flawed, and while reliability was finally on the team's side, pace was not. Points came easily, but they were minor points and not podiums. Both De Bock and Moll scored five times over the season, but only a total of 27 were scored.

This time, De Bock was the top scorer, with 18 points thanks to his two podiums, finishing second in Monaco and an emotional third in Belgium, his first finish at his home race since his third place in 2011. After that drive, though, he and the team failed to score any more points (save for Moll's fifth place at Zandvoort), even suffering the embarrassment of failing to prequalify at Fuji. He finished the season in eighth position. It was the first time since 2011 that he hadn't won a single Grand Prix.

2016

Initial testing proved very grim for Gillet, as the car was not only slow, but unreliable as well. While the second half of this statement held true throughout the season, De Bock was able to show flashes of pace on quite a few occasions along the difficult year. Indeed, out of 32 entries, the team only recorded seven finishes, the least of any team (bar Melrose Racing Team) to have pre-qualified for every event.

While the car always remained slow in qualifying (resulting in five races spent in pre-qualifying in the middle of the season), De Bock usually managed to race it towards the very front when it didn't fail. Indeed, he scored in every race he finished. In the New South Wales Grand Prix (Gillet's high point of the season), De Bock briefly had a chance of winning, but a botched pit stop relegated him to second place behind Philippe Nicolas. Later on, he scored another podium in Monaco with third place, picking the Driver of the Race award and his first ever fastest lap. His other finishes (and therefore points finishes), came in Long Beach and Fuji, with sixth place and fifth place respectively.

Chronic reliability issues plagued the team, and De Bock was robbed of certain points on more than one occasion. Moll, meanwhile, was unable to score in any of his three finishes, coming close at Bathurst but spinning on the final lap and ending up seventh. For the first time since 2012, Moll failed to score, and De Bock again beat his teammate in the championship, finishing 11th with 15 points. Despite his successes, De Bock also gained a reputation for his numerous on-track incidents, earning two Reject of the Race awards (in Germany and China). These incidents earned him the nickname "the Ram", also in reference to the translation of his surname from Dutch.

Complete Motorsport Results

Career Summary

Year	Series	Team	Position
1994	Malaysian Junior Go-Karts	Independent	2nd
1995	Malaysian Junior Go-Karts	Independent	3rd
1996	Malaysian Junior Go-Karts	Independent	1st
1997	Belgian Junior Kart Championship	Precision Motorsports Junior Team	2nd
1998	Belgian Junior Kart Championship	Precision Motorsports Junior Team	1st
	Benelux Junior Kart Championship	Precision Motorsports Junior Team	1st
1999	Dutch Junior Kart Championship	Precision Motorsports Junior Team	1st
2000	European Junior Kart Championship	Precision Motorsports Junior Team	1st
2001	Belgian Formula Ford	Boutsen Motorsports	4th
2002	Belgian Formula Ford	Boutsen Motorsports	1st
2003	British Formula Renault	Apotex Scorpio Motorsport	13th
2004	British Formula Renault	Eurotek Motorsport	10th
2005	British Formula Renault	Eurotek Motorsports	11th
2006	International Formula 3	Carlin Motorsport	3rd
	Macau Grand Prix	Carlin Motorsport	1st
2007	GP2	Trust Team Arden	11th
2008	GP2	Trust Team Arden	2nd
2009	Formula 1	Scuderia Toro Rosso	22nd
2010	Formula 1	Renault Racing Team	13th
	F1RWRS	Rosenforth Engineering	19th
2011	F1RWRS	Team Calinetic	8th
2012	F1RWRS	Ecurie Nationale Belge	12th
2013	F1RWRS	Gillet - Ecurie Nationale Belge	7th
2014	F1RWRS	Gillet - Ecurie Nationale Belge	7th
2015	F1RWRS	Gillet - Ecurie Nationale Belge	8th
2016	F1RWRS	Gillet - Ecurie Nationale Belge	11th
2017	F1RWRS	Gillet - Ecurie Nationale Belge	1st
		DScity Voeckler Renault
2018	ARWS	DScity Voeckler Renault	7th
2019	IndyCar	Team Penske	11th

Complete Formula One Results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	WDC	Points
2009	Squadra Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR4	Ferrari 056	BHR 14	AUS 8	MAL‡ 10	USA Ret	JPN 20	ESP 12	TUR Ret	EUR 12	MON 17	GBR 7	IRE 13	GER 11	BEL 9	ITA 11	HUN 13	SIN 12	CHN 11	BRA	URU	ABU																	22nd	3
2010	Renault F1 Team	Renault R30	Renault RS27-2010	BHR I 8	BHR II Ret	USA I 4	USA II Ret	JPN I 18	JPN II 10	AUS I Ret	AUS II 3	TUR I 9	TUR II Ret	EUR I 12	EUR II 15	MON I 14	MON II 7	GBR I 12	GBR II Ret	IRL I 12	IRL II 12	GER I 5	GER II 9	ESP I 9	ESP II 7	ITA I 7	ITA II 13	HUN I 11	HUN II 13	SIN I EX	SIN II Ret	KOR I 10	KOR II Ret	BRA I 7	BRA II 11	URU I 16	URU II 11	ABU I 18	ABU II 9	13th	75

Complete F1RWRS Results

Year	Team	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Pts
2010	Rosenforth Engineering	Rosenforth RF10	Jaguar AJ-V8	GER 18	LUX 7	SAX 18	CHN 17	TAS 19	BHR 13	BEL 16	GBR 17	AUS 19										19th	4
2011	Team Calinetic	Calinetic CAL2	Ford Boss 302 V8	BAV 2	GER DNPQ	SAX 14	LUX Ret	BEL 3	GBR DNPQ	ENG 10	KEN 13	NED 14	TAS 9	AUS 2	NSW 7	SUR 8	CHN 8	USA Ret				=8th	34
2012	Equipe de Course Belge	ENB JC02	Gillet G32 V10	BAV Ret	SAX 15	GER DNPQ	LUX Ret	BEL Ret	NED DNPQ	GBR 13	KEN DNPQ	ENG DNPQ	TAS Ret	SUR 15	NSW 18	AUS 1	CHN 14	USA 16	500 3			12th	31
2013	Gillet Ecurie Nationale Belge	Gillet ENB113	Gillet GV10	TAS Ret	AUS Ret	MEX Ret	USA 1	MON Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 4	GER 1	NED Ret	BEL Ret	POR Ret	MED Ret	MAC Ret	CHN Ret	JPN Ret	BRA Ret			7th	23
2014	Gillet Ecurie Nationale Belge	Gillet ENB114	Gillet GV10	TAS 6	AUS 1	BRA Ret	MEX 5	USA Ret	MON Ret	FRA Ret	GBR 1	GER 8	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	MED 6	NED Ret	MAC Ret	CHN Ret	JPN Ret			7th	24
2015	Gillet Ecurie Nationale Belge	Gillet ENB115	Gillet GV10	TAS 4	AUS 5	MED 12	MON 2	MEX 4	USA Ret	CAN Ret	GBR 11	GER Ret	BEL 3	AUT Ret	ITA 12	NED 9	CHN Ret	JPN DNPQ	BRA 11			8th	18
2016	Gillet Ecurie Nationale Belge	Gillet ENB116	Gillet GV11	AUS Ret	NSW 2	GBR Ret	ITA Ret	AUT Ret	CAN Ret	USS 6	USN Ret	GER Ret	NED Ret	MON 3	BEL Ret	MEX Ret	ARG Ret	CHN Ret	JPN 5			11th	15
2017	Gillet Ecurie Nationale Belge	Gillet ENB117	Gillet GV11B	AUS DNQ	NSW Ret	GBR DNPQ																1st	69
	DSCity Voeckler Renault	Voeckler VGPOne	Renault RSXXI-17				ITA 2	AUT 3	CAN 2	USS 4†	USN 2	GER Ret	NED 2	BEL 1	MON 4	MOR 1	ARG 11†	JPN 12†	CHN 1
2018	DScity Voeckler Renault	Voeckler VGPTwo	Renault RSXXII	AUS Ret	NSW Ret	ITA Ret	MAR 3	CAL 6	USA 6	CAN 6	GBR Ret	AUT 2	GER Ret	SCA 3	BEL EX	MON 3	RSA Ret	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	JPN Ret	CHN EX	7th	25

• * Season in progress
• † Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Sporting Accolades
Preceded by: Rhys Davies 2016	F1RWRS Champion 2017	Succeeded by: Terry Hawkin (ARWS) 2018