Heinz-Harald Frentzen

Frentzen driving for Sauber at the 1995 British Grand Prix.

In 1994 Frentzen was given a Formula One drive by Peter Sauber in a Mercedes powered car, as teammate to Wendlinger. The following year in the now Ford-powered Sauber he got his first podium finish at the Italian Grand Prix and ended the year 9th in the Drivers Championship. However, the 1996 Sauber was unreliable, with many races ending in retirements and Frentzen dropping down the order, though he was one of only four drivers running at the end of that year's chaotic, rain-soaked Monaco Grand Prix. The race was won by Olivier Panis.

Frentzen at the 1998 British Grand Prix.

For the 1997 season, Frentzen replaced Damon Hill at the Williams-Renault team, which had won the drivers' championship three times since 1992. At the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, Frentzen took the lead at the first corner and remained there until his first pit stop. He was running second late in the race when a brake disc exploded, throwing him off the circuit and into retirement.[5] He took his first win at San Marino but the season was disappointing for him; after the family atmosphere at Sauber, Frentzen found life at Williams difficult, in particular having a troubled relationship with Patrick Head. Despite qualifying for many races on the front row he had a tendency to drift back in the race, usually finishing well behind teammate Jacques Villeneuve. However, because of Michael Schumacher's disqualification from the driver's championship Frentzen ended up second in the championship with 42 points to teammate Villeneuve's 81, having scored one win to Villeneuve's seven.

The next year Williams lost the works Renault engine, instead using a rebranded version called Mecachrome. Williams also lost chief designer Adrian Newey to McLaren. Consequently the team suffered a loss of form. Nevertheless, Frentzen finished third in the season opening 1998 Australian Grand Prix. However, McLaren and Ferrari dominated the season, and Williams struggled to keep pace.

The race in Australia was the highlight of Frentzen's year as the Williams lost pace. He ended up with 17 points, with his teammate on 23 points. Frentzen and Villeneuve were replaced by Alessandro Zanardi and Ralf Schumacher for 1999.

Frentzen driving for Jordan at the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix, during his most successful season in F1.

In 1999 Frentzen moved to Jordan in a straight swap with Ralf Schumacher and enjoyed success in the Mugen-Honda powered car, with two race wins and scoring points in the majority of races. During the 1999 European Grand Prix he was leading after a pole position and with both Häkkinen and Irvine outside of the points (Häkkinen because he pitted for wets during a very very short shower period and Irvine because of a very slow pit stop where the rear right tyre was not ready in time) and with both outside the points and equal on 60 points and with him on 50, if positions wouldn't change, he would be equal on points with both Häkkinen and Irvine with 2 races to go. But on the 32nd lap, his Jordan stopped. Häkkinen went on to recover and finish 5th. Before the 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix he was 12 points behind championship leader Häkkinen. But his title dreams were dashed on that race, with Frentzen finishing 6th, with Häkkinen and Irvine finishing 3rd and 1st respectively. With 1 race to go (and 10 points still available for drivers) Frentzen had 51 points, 19 less than championship leader Irvine. Frentzen finished third in the Driver Championship (22 points behind the world champion Mika Häkkinen and was regarded by many as the driver of the year. After the strong season Frentzen was considered as a favourite to challenge for the championship in 2000.[6]

Frentzen driving for Arrows at the 2002 French Grand Prix.

2000 and 2001 were critical years as Honda also began to supply the BAR team, resulting in a race between the teams as to who would secure the regular engine supply. In 2000 Frentzen managed two podiums, which were the best results for the team, but Jordan still finished down the grid and, crucially, behind BAR. After some low points finishes, injury, disagreements about the technical direction of the team (Frentzen reportedly offered to pay for the changes to fix the car, out of his own pocket) and then a string of retirements halfway through the 2001 season, Jordan sacked Frentzen and replaced him with Jean Alesi. Eight years later Eddie Jordan revealed that the termination of Frentzen's contract was a move to appease Honda and sign the Japanese driver Takuma Sato to race for the team.[7] Frentzen subsequently took Alesi's place at the struggling Prost team, and managed to qualify fourth at Spa, before the outfit collapsed financially at the end of the season.

Frentzen driving for Sauber at the 2003 French Grand Prix.

2002 saw Frentzen drive for the Arrows team. He scored points on two occasions and outpaced both the Jaguars who ran the same engine. But the team went bankrupt in August and Frentzen was released from his contract. Back with Sauber for 2003, after a one-off drive replacing Felipe Massa at the 2002 United States Grand Prix, Frentzen was evenly matched with his highly rated teammate Nick Heidfeld and scored a podium finish in the penultimate race of the year in the United States.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

^‡ A non-championship one-off race was held in 2004 at the streets of Shanghai, China.