Heinz-Harald Frentzen

Frentzen during his tenure for Sauber in the World Sportscar Championship

**Heinz-Harald Frentzen** (born 18 May 1967) is a German racing driver who currently competing in Formula One, driving for Joest.

He would compete in a series of formulae from German and European Formula Ford, German and British Formula Three and International Formula 3000, before he would have the opportunity to race in Formula One. Frentzen would make his Formula One debut with Jordan for the start of the 1992 season.

## Background

Frentzen was born on 18 May 1967 in the West German city of Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia to Heinrich-Harald Frentzen (b. 1933), a German entrepreneur and his Spanish wife Angela Lladosa (b. 1937). He has two sisters (Sylvia, a theologian; Sonja, a teacher) and two half-sisters (Samantha, a former student; and Nicole-Nadine). Frentzen's parents divorced when he was eight years old and his father subsequently married Mexican-born Arazelli while Angela returned to Spain. His family was connected to motorsport; his father raced between 1950 and 1957.

In 1990 Frentzen was in a relationship with Corinna Betsch, but after separating they remained friends and Betsch would later begin dating fellow German driver, Michael Schumacher.

## Career

### Before Formula One

Frentzen began karting at the age of twelve, after his father brought him his first kart, and made an extraordinarily successful start. In 1981, aged fourteen, Frentzen won the German Junior Kart Championship. Two years later, Frentzen entered the CIK Asia Pacific Championships in Australia driving a Dino although he did not finish. In 1984, he finished runner-up in the 100cc class. He was funded and supported by his father — a funeral director — who also acted as both team boss and head mechanic.

In 1985, Frentzen moved into car racing by entering the German Formula Ford 2000 series. After two seasons in Formula Ford he was runner-up in the 1987 series, despite not participating in all races. Frentzen progressed to German Formula Opel Lotus in 1988 in the Junior Team of former Formula One driver Jochen Mass, who had been impressed by Frentzen's performances in Formula Ford. Frentzen was champion of the German series in his first year and his teammate Marco Werner finished third in the championship. He also participated in the Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries, where he finished 6th in the championship, scoring 56 points.

The next step was the German Formula 3 Championship in 1989, where Frentzen competed against many future stars including Michael Schumacher and Karl Wendlinger. At the time, there was a big push by Bernie Ecclestone to have a German driver in the Formula One World Championship, so the ONS (the German National Motorsports committee) decided to support both Frentzen and Schumacher. The ONS put up the reward of a Formula One test to the driver who first would take a victory in a Formula 3 race. This ultimately ended up being Schumacher, in a controversial race at Zeltweg, Austria in which Frentzen claimed Schumacher had forced him off the track. However, Schumacher did not get the Formula One test drive anyway; Karl Wendlinger won the German Formula 3 Championship and Frentzen became joint runner-up with Schumacher (the two finishing on identical points totals).

In 1990, Frentzen entered the International Formula 3000 series driving for Eddie Jordan Racing and was partnered by Eddie Irvine. Frentzen finished the season 16th in the championship, scoring 3 points. In the same year, he also participated in the World Sports Prototype Championship driving a Mercedes-Benz C11 scoring one podium and six points. In 1991, Frentzen continued to drive in International Formula 3000, moving to Vortex Motorsport and scored five points in that year's series.

#### Jordan (1992)

Ahead of the 1992 season, Frentzen would return to drive for Eddie Jordan, this time at the Jordan F1 team. Frentzen would be accompanied by British driver, Damon Hill. With some positive performances from the 1991 season it was hoped that the Jordan team could make the most of the works Ilmor engines to regularly score in 1992. Indeed, the season did show early promise with Frentzen circulating in top ten positions in early races and it looked like he would soon achieve points finishes. However, the Brazilian Grand Prix would be Frentzen's worst performance, with poor race performance and technical issues resulting in the ignominy of finishing the race but not classifying as he failed to complete 90% of race distance before the end of the race. The highlight of the first half of the season would be 8th at the Monaco Grand Prix, finishing just behind the top six and his teammate. The first half of the season would see Frentzen classified in just 3 races, but his reliability would improve for the second half of the season. He would also have a new teammate to contend with as Hill would move on to the Williams team for the remainder of the season. His new teammate was fellow German Karl Wendlinger and while both drivers would perform admirably, Frentzen would regularly outperform his teammate, only once having a lower classified position than Wendlinger. However, despite the strong performance Frentzen would fail to secure a points finish and his best result would come at the Belgian Grand Prix. The season concluded with Frentzen retiring from the last two races, while his teammate Wendlinger secured 5th place and Jordan's only points for the season.

#### Joest (1993)

Following the exit of Gerhard Berger and Riccardo Patrese, Joest would hire Frentzen as the lead driver for their 1993 challenger.

## Formula One Statistical Overview

### Formula One Record

 1993 |  Joest Racing

Notes

* \* – Season still in progress.

### Complete Formula One results

(key)

Notes

* \* – Season still in progress.