Heinz-Harald Frentzen was born at 18-May-1967 in Mönchengladbach/Germany. When he was 13 years old he started racing with Go-Karts. His father - Harald Frentzen - bought a kart and took the function as both mechanic and team boss. So the father-and-son-team competed in the German Junior Kart Championship in 1980.

In the end of his second season in 1981 he already won the German Junior Kart Championship. In this year he met Michael Schumacher the first time and competed with him in the championship. In 1984 he was vice champion of the German Kart Championship.

In the age of 18 he went to the Formula Ford 2000 with his own racecar in 1986. Again he was supported by his father who again was both team boss and mechanic. Heinz-Harald Frentzen naturally had to take care of his car by himself and worked on the technic too. Besides he worked in his fathers undertaker company. After two seasons he was Vice Champion of the German Formula Ford in 1987 without participating in all races.

Next station in his life was an engagement in German Formula Opel Lotus in 1988 in the Junior Team of former Formula One driver Jochen Mass. Jochen Mass noticed Frentzen's abilities and chose him as a driver for his team. HHF finished this season as German Formula Opel Lotus Champion. In the same year he participated in the Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries and finished at 6th over-all position.

After that he went to the German Formula 3 Championship in 1989. There he competed against drivers like Michael Schumacher and Karl Wendlinger.

Bernie Ecclestone wanted to have a German driver for his Formula One Championship, so the ONS (the German National Motorsports committee) decided to support both Frentzen and Schumacher. The problem was that just one driver could go to the Formula One Championship.

So the ONS decided to give a possibility for testing a Formula One car to that driver who first would take a victory in a Formula 3 race. In the race at Zeltweg/Austria Heinz-Harald Frentzen noticed Michael Schumacher's ambition for getting this Formula One test drive. He felt himself pushed off the track by Schumacher who after that incident won the race.

But Schumacher did not get the Formula One test drive anyway. Karl Wendlinger won the german Formula 3 Championship and Heinz-Harald Frentzen became Vicechampion together with Michael Schumacher since they had the same amount of points.

In the year 1989 HHF got a contract as driver for Mercedes-Benz together with Michael Schumacher and Karl Wendlinger. These three were the most talented German drivers and they got a chance to proove that in the Sportsprototypes Group C Championship with the Sauber-Mercedes Team. The experienced drivers like Jochen Mass, Mauro Baldi and Jean-Louis Schlesser were the driving instructors for the three 'young guns'.

There they learned all basic capabilities for driving with most powerfull racecars. The Sauber-Mercedes had a biturbo 5-litre-engine with about 800 to 900 HP. Besides that Frentzen, Schumacher and Wendlinger learned how to deal with journalism. Frentzen was known as the fastest of them and the team learned that he had less gasoline consumption and produced less tyre wear than Schumacher and Wendlinger.

After finishing second together with his "driving-instructor" Jochen Mass at Donington he went to Formula 3000 the next year. He thought this would be the right way to Formula One.

First it was very promising. HHF joined the Team of Eddie Jordan and soon was fastest out of 33 Formula 3000 drivers during the winter tests. But then the car made a lot of problems and Heinz-Harald Frentzen rarely saw the checkered flag.

Frentzens personal sponsor Camel/Reynolds Company promised him to give him the opportunity of joining the Formula One Championship if he had good results in the F3000 Championship. He left the Mercedes Junior Team and that turned out to be the wrong decision. Eddie Jordan left the F3000 Championship with his Team and entered the Formula One Championship in 1991. So Frentzen had to search for a new team. He joined the English Vortex Team.

But this season 1991 went wrong since the Vortex Team decided to use the wrong chassis. Heinz-Harald finished only twice with a 5th place as his best result this year. But nevertheless the Reynolds Company provided HHF a possibility to test Formula One cars with Tyrrell and Brabham. He seemed to be the most promising German driver for Formula One but then Michael Schumacher went to Formula One first.

With the support of Mercedes-Benz Schumacher joined the Jordan Formula One Team and took over Frentzen's personal sponsor Camel. Besides that another German was in Formula One at that year - Michael Bartels. A third German driver was not welcome for Ecclestone. Michael Bartels left Formula One in the end of the 1991 season but there was no possibility left for Frentzen to enter.

Heinz-Harald had not the chance anymore for racing and so he went back home and helped his father in his office.

After a break of five months Heinz-Harald got an offer to compete in the 24-hours-race of Le Mans with a private Lola-Sportscar in 1992. Since his Japanese team mate mutinied during the race Heinz-Harald had to drive the rest of the race alone. During the race it rained cats and dogs but he was the fastest on the track with his little underpowered Lola. He was 5 seconds per lap faster than the factory backed Peugeot Team with its powerful racecars and its super-racedrivers. When the track dried the Peugeot Team could dominate the race. After a long race HHF finished on 14th position.

Due to his "comeback" at Le Mans setting one fastest lap after another he got the chance in the same year for a seat in a Formula 3000 car with the japanese Nova Team, because his predecessor Volker Weidler became ill. He engaged during the whole F 3000 season in Japan which he finished on 14th place in the Championship table. He was not satisfied with his results. There was just a 3rd position to be noticed.

In 1993 there was at least one victory for HHF but despite that this season was not very successful too. In this time he met Eddie Irvine whom he used to drink underneath the table ;-)

In this time he tested a Mugen Formula One engine and tyres for Bridgestone in an 1991 chassis from Tyrrell. He drove about 20.000 kilometres during the tests and could gain some experience in that time. At that time the Japanese Formula 3000 was more similar to Formula One in terms of technology than the European F3000.

There was more telemetry used, more powerful engines, more speed and softer tyres for the cars. The Japanese Teams used more computer equipment. Heinz-Harald Frentzen had the possibility to learn all about that. The March Formula One Team made an offer to Frentzen to drive for them in The Formula One Championship. But he was not interested. There were rumours about the financial situation of the team and soon March disappeared from the Formula One circus. The most important thing was that Heinz-Harald Frentzen did not have any public obligations and could concentrate fully on driving.

The year 1993 brought better luck to Heinz-Harald. He finished 9th place in the japanese Formula 3000 championship and at the beginning of August Peter Sauber contacted him and asked him to do some tests in his Sauber-Ilmor F1 car at the Mugello circuit. Although he crashed the car    ;-)    Peter Sauber thought it would be the time for Frentzen to engage in the Formula One championship.

During the tests he was faster than Karl Wendlinger - his team mate in 1994 - and he got his first contract with the Sauber Formula One Team.

In the first race at Interlagos circuit in Brazil Heinz-Harald Frentzen qualified on 5th place in his Sauber-Mercedes. He was the best newcomer in Formula One since Carlos Reutemann in 1972! But unfortunately he spun off in lap 16 of the race because his water bottle made a mess in his helmet and he didn't see much of the track for some seconds. But in the second race at Aida/Japan he finished on 5th position and was even better than his Idol Ayrton Senna who had an accident in the first corner after the race was started.

Then the "black weekend" of Imola came. First Roland Ratzenberger a friend of HHF from the years at Japan died in his Simtek-Ford during the free practice session. Then Ayrton Senna - Frentzen's idol - died during the race when he went off the track with his Williams-Renault at the Tamburello section. The Formula One had one of the worst crisis since it existed.

Despite the difficult time HHF finished his first Grand Prix Season 1994 with 7 points in 15 races on a 13th position in the drivers championship. The Sauber Team didn't engage in the Monaco Grand Prix after the accident of Heinz-Harald's team mate Karl Wendlinger who got severe injuries in the first practice session. After the Monaco Grand Prix Frank Williams asked Frentzen to drive for him. The late Ayrton Senna was much impressed by Frentzen and wanted to have him as second driver for the Williams-Renault team instead of Hill. After Senna died Frank Williams remembered Senna's wish and wanted Frentzen to sign a contract with him. But Frentzen didn't want to leave the Sauber Team after the severe injuries of Karl Wendlinger. And he owed Peter Sauber a lot because Sauber made his Formula One engagement possible.

His second season 1995 went better for Heinz-Harald Frentzen. In the beginning the Sauber C15 with the Ford Zetec-R V8 engine was about 4.5 seconds per lap slower than the fastest cars of Williams and Renault. But in a great effort the Sauber Team rebuilt the car piece after piece. With a high nose, an other undercarriage and other sidepods the car got better and better and at the end of the season Heinz-Harald managed to come 1.5 seconds close to Williams and Benetton.

In the season's last race in Adelaide he was on 2nd position when the engine blew up. Heinz-Harald Frentzen collected 15 points in 17 races and had the 9th place in the drivers championship. In Monza/Italy he had his first podium when he finished 3rd place. In Estoril/Portugal he had to start at the back of the field after his engine stalled in the warm-up lap. He started a great hunt for a better position. In laps 13 to 15 he overtook Blundell and Hakkinen with their Mercedes-powered McLarens and at the end of the race he laid on 6th position behind a Ferrari without taking use of retirements of his competitors. It was a desaster for the former engine partner Mercedes - now linked with the McLaren Team - and a great event for the Sauber Team.

At the end of the 1996 season Heinz-Harald had collected 7 Championship points. The chassis of the Sauber C15 was quite good in this year. At slower tracks where the chassis handling counts more relative to engine power HHF could qualify much better than on faster tracks where teams with stronger engines were much more favourised.

Unfortunately the Ford V10 engine showed to be weak and not very reliable. There were a lot of engine and electronics failures during the season. With a better engine HHF could have done better than ending up 12th in the championship.

At the end of 1996 he left the Sauber Team and headed for the Williams Team as Frank Williams offered him a contract for 1997 as replacement for 1996 World Champion Damon Hill.

There he has to prove his qualities as team mate of Jacques Villeneuve and he gets the chance to challenge Michael Schumacher for the World Championship Title. He waited a long time for it.

The 1997 season's start was difficult for Heinz-Harald Frentzen. He had some problems to get used to the organisation of the Williams Team. During the first three races he had to use the last years setup from Damon Hill with very soft springs and a slight understeer. But Frentzen ever preferred to drive with slight oversteer.

Frentzen began to learn to brake with the left foot and although he didn't have much kilometers of testing he soon get used to this. Another big problem was the fact that the Williams FW19 wasn't a much reliable car. So in all three races Frentzen's car suffered technical problems, which teammate Villeneuve's car didn't do.

In the first race he lead the field for a long time until 6 laps before the finish the left front brake disc exploded. The British press people began to insult Frentzen because he was the replacement for world champion Damon Hill and didn't perform well in their opinion. Before the San Marino GP at Imola the Team let Frentzen the possibility to work on his own car setup. The result of that was his first Formula One victory at the GP of San Marino.

An event in the history books was the fact that this was the first German double triumph in Formula One history with Michael Schumacher being on second position. So there was still a lot of work to do for him but now Heinz-Harald Frentzen was the hunter. During the qualifying session for the GP of Monaco he took his first pole position. But the race ended as a desaster for both Williams drivers. The Team decided to send them out on slick tyres despite the track was wet and it was raining. Both had to retire due to crashs. In the following two races Heinz-Harald Frentzen suffered from tyre damages because the Goodyear compound was too bad.

In Magny-Cours he finished on 2nd position after a thrilling duel with Michael Schumacher in the wet.Both stayed out on the track with slick tyres when the rain came down.

During the next three races at Silverstone, Hockenheim and Hungaroring Frentzen was very unlucky. In Silverstone he made a mistake and stalled the engine in the starting grid. After he had to start from the end of the field he collided with Verstappen and had to retire. In Hockenheim he was rammed by Irvine and had to retire. And at the Hungaroring race he retired in the lead, when his fuel valve broke. Frentzen had set on hard tyres. He was the only one of the top drivers. And he was right. But he suffered from a very rare fuel valve failure.

The next five races Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished on the podium. Four times third position and 1 time second at Suzuka/Japan. At the last race he had to support his team mate Jacques Villeneuve who was going for the championship title. Only Schumacher and Villeneuve were candidates. Frentzen drove a tactical race and finished on sixth. At the end of the 1997 season he was promoted for vice-champion because Michael Schumacher was disqualified after his attack against Jacques Villeneuve.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was not satisfied with this season. From his point of view he could have been a candidate for the championship title until the last race. But there is a new game in 1998.

In the 1998 season the Williams car did not improve much compared to the 1997 model. The car was difficult to drive and not that much reliable. The Supertec engine was too weak compared to the engine of the other Championship contenders.

Both drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and World Champion Jacques Villeneuve had to struggle with the car. The interesting thing was that when the car was really difficult to drive during the first half of the season Heinz-Harald Frentzen could gain better results than Jacques Villeneuve.

In the first race at Melbourne/Australia HHF could secure a third place for the Williams team. Then a difficult time started for the drivers and the team cumulating in bad positions on the starting grid at the Hockenheim GP. But these positions 5 (Frentzen) and 9 (Villeneuve) where due to the fact Patrick Head 'proposed' the car setup for both drivers and did not let them find out their own. During the second half of the 1998 season the car gained in terms of driveability and reliability.

Only then Jacques Villeneuve was able to catch up with Heinz-Harald Frentzen. In autumn Frank Williams made clear he would not need the services of Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the season 1999. Instead he signed Ralf Schumacher after the Williams Team was scheduled to join up with the BMW Motor Company as an engine supplier for the season 2000.

But HHF had decided by himself already to divide with the Williams Team and to plan his future with the Jordan Team in 1999. There he would join up Damon Hill and return to that team he drove for in the 1991 European Formula 3000 series.

Jacques Villeneuve left the Williams Team also and headed for the newly formed up team British American Racing. After a disappointing year with only 17 championship points and being 7th in the drivers championship Heinz-Harald Frentzen decided to walk new ways.

1999 was the year of the greatest success in Heinz-Harald Frentzen's Formula One career. Most people had written him off after the difficult times at Williams. What a surprise for them when he made a 'comeback'. He started with a 'big bang' into the season being 2nd behind McLaren driver Mika Hakkinen at the GP of Australia.

In the following races the Jordan 199 equipped with a Mugen V10 engine proved to be a reliable car and although it was not as good as the McLarens and Ferraris Frentzen was a top scorer when he finished a race.

The driver Frentzen had performed a amazing change and the human being Frentzen too. Whenever the car did not fail HHF scored points. With one exception (Malaysia, 6th) he was never worse than 4th. Things had went good so far until the race of Canada when a brake disc broke on the car 2 laps to go in the closing stages of the race. Heinz-Harald Frentzen spun off in a wall which unfortunately caused bad injuries in his right knee. Weeks later it was discovered that his kneecap was broken but despite the pain Frentzen went on motor racing.

His sturdiness paid off in the weird wet weather race at Magny Cours/France when the Jordan Team decided to fuel up Frentzen's car fully and take advantage of a safety car phase. The Jordan 199 had the biggest fuel tank of all cars and this and the driving abilities of Heinz-Harald Frentzen in the rain lead to a magnificient victory in a thrilling race after battling with Mika Hakkinen and Rubens Barrichello.

This result and the results from the following races gave Frentzen and the Jordan Team a preliminary 3rd position in the constructors championship. Frentzens's team mate Damon Hill had a hard time struggling with the drive characteristics of the carved wheels. He clearly could not catch up with Frentzen who was rising like 'Phenix from the ashes'. The Monza race brought another spectacular victory for Frentzen and the Jordan Team. Frentzen drove Hakkinen into a mistake and could secure his second season's victory.

After that race Frentzen suddenly was a championship contender and was hunting Mika Hakkinen and Eddie Irvine who had taken over the roll of Michael Schumacher after he had to retire from racing due to a leg injury he had gotten in a highspeed crash at Silverstone.

In the qualifying for the European Grand Prix at Nüburgring circuit Heinz-Harald Frentzen secured the pole position in a crazy manner. He decided to go out in the closing stages of the qualifying session only and to fill up his Jordan for 7 laps instead if 3 or 4. Thus he came into the pits with 3 minutes to go and the Jordan Team made a 'racing-like' wheel change in the pits within seconds to let him out on the circuit for one more flying lap. During this lap he set the fastest time and no one could top it anymore. He lead the race under difficult wet and drying up conditions only to retire after his pitstop due to an electrical failure. What a pity as this one and the other retirements earlier in the season probably costed him the championship title. Until Japan Heinz-Harald Frentzen could not catch up anymore with Mika Hakkinen and Eddie Irvine who had the clearly better cars.

Thus HHF had to be satisfied with a 3rd position in the drivers championship 1999. The Jordan Team held the 3rd position in the constructors championship which Frentzen contributed to by 53 points and Damon Hill by 7 points. It had been a great season for Frentzen with a regained public admiration and a driving without any mistakes during the races. He simply was the revelation of the year.

In this light it was completely understandable that Eddie Jordan signed the services of Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the 2000 season. It was the retirement from Damon Hill from Formula One which was the downside for the sport at the end of the season.

The year 2000 was a difficult one for Heinz-Harald Frentzen as his Jordan EJ10 car did not prove reliable as it was in 1999. In 17 races HHF had to retire 11 times, 9 times because of car problems, 2 times because of an accident.

The highlights of this year were the race in Brazil when he finished third on the podium after Coulthard's disqualification and the races in Monaco and Indianapolis. Even if HHF made a mistake during the Monaco GP in Lap 64 lying on position 2 causing the end of his race he drove a great race. He had tuned his car like noone of the other drivers had done it with a greater chassis roll component. Exactly this did the trick in the narrow street course of Monaco. But then - laying in front of Coulthard's McLaren - Heinz-Harald Frentzen made a mistake and slipped on a oily spot on the track causing his car sliding into the nearby wall. What a bad luck.

The USA GP held for the first time on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was another great race by HHF. The circuit is somewhat demanding as its high speed part in the Champ Car oval and the slow turns part in the infield of the track is irreconsilable for the fine tuning of a Formula One car. Nevertheless Heinz-Harald - having qualified on 7th - managed to bring his car on position 3 during the later stages of the race and had a hard race against Villeneuve holding him behind and securing 3rd. The hard work was rewarded with his second podium finish on third in this season.

Having been a championship contender in 1999 with 2 victories and 3rd position in the drivers championship he had to end the season 2000 as 9th with 11 points only. The car was not really great and was very unreliable.

The season 2001 was a very troublesome one. Again the car was not very fast and was just a little more reliable than the 2000 contender. Also HHF had two severe accidents during practice sessions where he was injured and suffered concussion. He even had to withdraw from the Canadian GP. Behind the scenes there was even more trouble to come. Heinz-Harald Frentzen had a good backing from his race engineer Sam Michaels during 1999 to 2000. In 2001 Sam Michaels left Jordan and headed to Williams.

He was replaced by David Brown, Frentzen's new race engineer. Rumour has it that the new race engineer did not get along with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who is a driver who gives a good input about the car's behaviour and who even develops solutions for car problems. But what was appreciated by his former race engineer did not seem to fit in the work of his new race engineer presumably leading to differences between the driver and the Jordan engineers.

After the British Grand Prix Heinz-Harald Frentzen suddenly was sacked by team boss Eddie Jordan. The whole Formula One world was in shock. The driver who brought the greatest success to Eddie Jordan's team was fired just 2 months after the contract was prolongated for the 2002 season!

There are rumours about the motivations Eddie Jordan had for the sacking. Some say his engineers disliked that Frentzen proposed technical solutions to eliminate the car's deficiencies, he even offered his own money to finance the technical changes on the car. Some say Eddie Jordan needed to secure Honda works engines for the 2003 season and therefore had to sacrifice one driver for a Japanese one.

Because of the sacking HHF had to pass his Home Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring in Germany.

While he was looking for another team, Eddie Jordan made a contract with Jean Alesi for the remaining races in 2001 (only to replace him by a Japanese driver at the end of the season forcing Alesi to retire) who left the team of Alain Prost.

Frentzen was then offered a drive with the French outfit beginning with the Hungarian Grand Prix. The work there proved as very exciting again for HHF as the engineers 'read his lips' to improve the poor handling of their car. And HHF had the opportunity to drive engine, gearbox and rear axis of the 2000 Ferrari. He constantly worked to improve the balance of the car which brought the first fruits during the qualifying for the Belgian GP when the weather was inconsistent and HHF could secure 4th position on the starting grid. Unfortunately his gerbox caused problems and it stalled the engine right before the start.

Even though the car was not ideal Heinz-Harald could show good performances in Indianapolis and Suzuka with a lot of overtking manouevres. In Suzuka he qualified 15th only and during the first lap he and de la Rosa touched cars thus HHF had to drive back to the pit to get a new car nose and front wing. He joined the race on last position 1 minute back to the last but one but he drove sort of qualifying laps throughout the whole race, overtook a lot of other drivers and was 12th in the end with even driving the seventh fastest racelap.

According to his statement he wanted to stay at Prost for the 2002 season where he has found a friendly atmosphere but it is not sure that team boss Alain Prost can secure the necessary financial backing for the next year.

We all hope that Heinz-Harald Frentzen will be a part of next year's Formula One Season.

To be continued ...