Heinz-Harald Frentzen
For Heinz-Harald Frentzen, it has been a long and sometimes frustrating road to the top, and even when he seemed to have finally climbed to the summit of Formula One with the chance of a lifetime at Williams in 1997, the likeable German had to prove himself all over again.
He raced karts from 1980 to 1985, taking a German junior championship, before three seasons in German FF2000, where he finished runner-up in 1987. This set up a move into the German Opel Lotus Challenge the following year, and Heinz-Harald not only took the title but also scored a couple of wins in the GM Lotus Euroseries.
It was in 1989 that motor-racing aficionados worldwide really started to take an interest in the trio of talented youngsters, Wendlinger, Michael Schumacher and Frentzen, who were battling for the German F3 title. Eventually, the last two shared second place just one point adrift of Wendlinger, but their performances were such that all three were earmarked to join the Mercedes Benz Group C programme for 1990. In addition, Heinz-Harald found long-term backing from Camel to join Eddie Jordan in F3000.
It was now that his career began to stall, however. Left in the third car at EJR and with no real experience, he struggled all year. With the troublesome Lola in '91, things hardly improved, but worse was to follow as Camel took its budget to Benetton with Schumacher for 1992, and Heinz-Harald was left high and dry without a drive of any sort.
He initially agreed to race for March in '93, but wisely backed away and plumped instead to go to Japan to compete in F3000 for Super Nova, in place of the indisposed Volker Weidler. The time he spent there did a great deal to build his confidence and, when the chance of a test for Sauber came in the autumn of 1993, Frentzen was equipped to make the most of it.
The first year in F1 saw Frentzen assume the team leadership after Wendlinger's accident and quickly become a top-six contender, despite the Sauber's obvious limitations. The quiet and unassuming man took another giant stride forward in 1995, working ceaselessly to push the Ford-engined car towards the front of the grid. In the second half of the season, Frentzen put in some superb drives to enhance his rising reputation. That he had come to be so highly regarded in just two seasons of Formula One in a car not good enough to challenge the leaders showed the reservoir of talent which he possessed.
Despite the introduction of the new Ford Zetec-R V10, however, the German's 1996 season was something of an anti-climax, with Frentzen seeming less than fully committed when the Sauber C15 failed to come up to scratch. Williams, of course, had already made their move and controversially signed Frentzen to replace Damon Hill for the 1997 season. Life at Williams is never a bed of roses and it was to prove less than fertile ground for Frentzen, who failed to bloom in the harsh environment. A win at Imola and a string of podium finishes brought the runner-up position in the championship behind team-mate Jacques Villeneuve, but lurking in the background was the feeling that his contribution could, and should, have been much greater. Worse was to follow for 1998, which turned into something of a nightmare for the mild-mannered Frentzen. The new narrow-track and grooved-tyre regulations found the Williams FW20 wanting and Heinz-Harald seemed resigned to his number two status behind Villeneuve.
He was prematurely written off by many, but not by Eddie Jordan, who swiftly moved to bring the German on board for the 1999 season. A superb second place at the opening race in Australia provided Heinz-Harald with an immediate and much-needed boost to his confidence and he simply never looked back. Team-mate Damon Hill was left floundering by Frentzen's pace, and his smooth style and calmness under pressure brought two well-judged wins which, together with a further ten top-six finishes, earned an impressive third place in the championship table. More importantly, perhaps, Frentzen had regained his credibility as a top-rank driver.
Naturally, given their storming debut season, Jordan and Frentzen remained in tandem for 2000, when the German found himself partnered by rising Italian star Jarno Trulli in the wake of Hill's retirement. This did not distract him from trying to mount another assault on the drivers' crown, but a disappointing season with the radical looking EJ10 left both drivers struggling to stay in touch with the likes of Williams and BAR, rather than challenging Ferrari and McLaren. Frentzen managed just ninth place in the drivers' table, with a paltry eleven points and two podiums to his name after a reliability-plagued season.
The Frentzen/Trulli/Jordan axis remained together for much of 2001. The year, though, was disappointing for Frentzen, and the German was out-performed by his team-mate, especially in qualifying. By the time of the British Grand Prix, relations between the three-time GP winner and team boss Jordan were strained, and Frentzen, who had already missed the Canadian GP with concussion following a Monaco crash, was subsequently fired days before his home race. Four years later, Jordan revealed that the sacking was, in part, politically motivated by the fact that he needed to sign Takuma Sato in order to keep Honda power.
Frentzen was not out of work for very long, however, as Alain Prost moved swiftly to snap him up to replace the equally disaffected Jean Alesi. The result was a seat swap between the two veterans, with Frentzen sampling Ferrari power in the AP04 for the final five rounds. No points meant no improvement on his 13th place overall, however, but the German was soon making complimentary noises about staying with Prost into 2002.
Unfortunately for all parties, the French team was thrust into receivership towards the end of 2001, and then declared bankrupt in January 2002 when no rescue package could be secured. Frentzen, though, was determined to stay in F1, and subsequently secured an Arrows drive alongside Enrique Bernoldi for 2002. The deal was for one-year only, but Arrows, like Prost the previous year, then ran into financial difficulties and Frentzen left the outfit in August. He had signed to race for Sauber in 2003, again on a one-year contract, but made an early return for the Swiss team, replacing Felipe Massa for the 2002 U.S. GP. Frentzen ended the year with just two points in the bag, courtesy of a fifth place finish at the Monaco GP and joint 15th in the drivers' championship.
Frentzen's tenth season in F1 saw him come full circle with a full-time ride at Sauber, but the campaign was not to be the happy homecoming he had hoped for. Despite out-performing fellow Mönchengladbach native Nick Heidfeld, H-HF managed just 13 points, based largely on third place in the penultimate race at Indianapolis to go with top-eight results in Australia and Brazil at the start of the year. That was not enough to convince Sauber to retain him for 2004, when he was replaced by the returning Massa.
With few realistic options for continuing his Formula One career, Frentzen retired to look elsewhere for his motor sport fix. That search led him back home, and a seat in Opel's DTM squad for 2004. A moderate first season in what was an under-performing car was nevertheless deemed good enough for a second crack in 2005 indeed he finally notched a surprise podium place at Brno, but with Opel quitting the series at the end of the year, Frentzen's future remained in limbo once again until after protracted negotiations he signed to drive the Abt Sportsline Audi.
For the first time in the DTM Heinz-Harald had the chance to prove his competitiveness in a potentially winning machine but Mercedes had the edge in 2006 and two trips to the podium were the best he could achieve, eventually placing seventh in the series, just one point behind Mika Häkkinen. All had not been well behind the scenes however, and Frentzen felt his established team-mates were being given preferential treatment. After the final race of the season Frentzen let-rip in a TV interview about his unhappy lot, leaving Audi with little option but to dispense with his services.
