Spurning the F1 path for BMW and the DTM
The career of British-born Tom Blomqvist had been a struggle before last year. But a cracking season in European F3 led to a starring BMW test, and now he's a DTM debutant. He talks to MARCUS SIMMONS
Once the dust cleared on Formula 3 Armageddon in last November's Macau Grand Prix, once he clambered free of the Carlin Dallara in which he was cocooned as first Esteban Ocon's broken machine veered him into the barrier as they dueled side-by-side for the lead, and then Yu Kanamaru vaulted him Evel Knievel-style before landing on the wall next to his head, the first reaction for Tom Blomqvist was acute disappointment.
But, for pretty much the first time in his four-year F3 career, the 21-year-old wasn't racing for his very future in the sport.
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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.
Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.
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