1. Heinz-Harald Frentzen progressed to junior formulae in 1985, winning several races in Formula Ford before finishing runner-up in the 1989 German Formula Three Championship amidst a title battle with Karl Wendlinger and Michael Schumacher.
59 Facts About Heinz-Harald Frentzen
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen achieved his maiden victory at the San Marino Grand Prix, taking several podiums as he finished runner-up to Villeneuve after Schumacher's collision with him at the last race of the season saw his disqualification from the standings.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen achieved further wins at the French and Italian Grands Prix in 1999, finishing third in the World Drivers' Championship to Mika Hakkinen and Eddie Irvine.
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Outside of Formula One, Heinz-Harald Frentzen competed full-time in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters from 2004 to 2006, as well as competing in the all-star Speedcar Series in both of its seasons.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen entered two editions of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1992 and 2008, finishing fourth in class at the latter with Aston Martin.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen was born on 18 May 1967 in the West German city of Monchengladbach to Heinrich-Harald Heinz-Harald Frentzen, a German entrepreneur and his Spanish wife Angela Lladosa.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen has two sisters and two half-sisters.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen's family was connected to motorsport; his father raced between 1950 and 1957.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen's parents divorced when he was eight years old and his father subsequently married Mexican-born Arazelli while Angela returned to Spain.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen began karting at the age of twelve, after his father bought him his first kart, and made an extraordinarily successful start.
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In 1981, aged fourteen, Heinz-Harald Frentzen won the German Junior Kart Championship.
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Two years later, Heinz-Harald Frentzen entered the CIK Asia Pacific Championships in Australia driving a Dino although he did not finish.
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In 1985, Heinz-Harald Frentzen moved into car racing by entering the German Formula Ford 2000 series.
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Heinz-Harald 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 Heinz-Harald Frentzen's performances in Formula Ford.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen was champion of the German series in his first year and his teammate Marco Werner finished third in the championship.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen participated in the Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries, where he finished 6th in the championship, scoring 56 points.
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The next step was the German Formula 3 Championship in 1989, where Heinz-Harald Frentzen competed against many future stars including Michael Schumacher and Karl Wendlinger.
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Karl Wendlinger won the German Formula 3 Championship and Heinz-Harald Frentzen became joint runner-up with Schumacher.
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In 1990, Heinz-Harald Frentzen entered the International Formula 3000 series driving for Eddie Jordan Racing and was partnered by Eddie Irvine.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the season 16th in the championship, scoring 3 points.
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In 1991, Heinz-Harald Frentzen continued to drive in International Formula 3000, moving to Vortex Motorsport and scored five points in that year's series.
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In 1994, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was given a Formula One drive by Peter Sauber in a Mercedes powered car, as teammate to fellow Mercedes junior Wendlinger, who had made it to F1 in 1991 and was in his second year with the team.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen began the year strongly, qualifying fifth for his debut in Brazil and scoring his first points with fifth in the Pacific Grand Prix.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen was then thrust into the role of de facto team leader after Wendlinger crashed during qualifying for the fourth round of the season in Monaco, leaving him with severe head injuries that ruled him out for the remainder of the year.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen had the measure of substitute team-mates Andrea de Cesaris and JJ Lehto, scoring points on three further occasions and finishing thirteenth in the World Drivers' Championship.
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The Sauber C14 chassis was uncompetitive at the start of the year, but Heinz-Harald Frentzen produced consistent performances to finish in the points on multiple occasions.
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The performance of the car improved with development throughout the year, culminating in Heinz-Harald Frentzen taking the team's first podium finish at the Italian Grand Prix and qualifying a season's-best fifth in Portugal.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen easily had the measure of his team-mates: first, the returning Wendlinger, who was then replaced by Williams test driver Jean-Christophe Boullion mid-season.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished ninth in the World Drivers' Championship with 15 points.
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In 1996, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was joined by Johnny Herbert and Ford upgraded to a V10 engine configuration, promising more power.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the season twelfth in the World Drivers' Championship with seven points; by this stage, his move to Williams for 1997 had been announced.
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At the first race of the season, Heinz-Harald Frentzen took the lead at the first corner and remained there until his first pit stop.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen was running second late in the race when a brake disc exploded, throwing him off the circuit and into retirement.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen took his first win at the fourth race of the year at San Marino.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen followed this with his first pole position of his career at the following round in Monaco, but did not finish the race.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen was unable to secure another victory and finished third in the driver's championship standings with 42 points to teammate Villeneuve's 81.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen would be elevated to second after the disqualification of Michael Schumacher.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen would start the season with a podium at Albert Park.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the season placed 7th in the championship with 17 points.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen would depart Williams during the off-season after two difficult years, with the time considered disappointing due to difficulty adjusting to the different atmosphere at Williams compared to Sauber and disagreements with head engineer Patrick Head.
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In 1999 Heinz-Harald 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.
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In 2000 Heinz-Harald Frentzen managed two podiums, which were the best results for the team, but Jordan still finished down the grid and, crucially, behind BAR.
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Eight years later Eddie Jordan revealed that the termination of Heinz-Harald Frentzen's contract was a move to appease Honda and sign the Japanese driver Takuma Sato to race for the team.
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Heinz-Harald 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.
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On 30 December 2001, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was signed by Arrows for the 2002 season.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored points on two occasions and outpaced both the Jaguars who ran the same engine.
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Back with Sauber for 2003, after a one-off drive replacing Felipe Massa at the 2002 United States Grand Prix, Heinz-Harald Frentzen was evenly matched with his highly rated teammate Nick Heidfeld and scored a final podium finish in the penultimate race of the year in the United States.
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For 2004, Heinz-Harald Frentzen moved to the German Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters saloon car series to drive for Opel, encouraged by the success achieved in the series by fellow F1 refugee Jean Alesi.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen remained in the DTM with Opel for the 2005 season and finished the year in 8th as best-placed Opel driver, with his best result a 3rd place from pole position at Brno in the Czech Republic.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the season 7th in the final standings and quit the team stating he had "no support from the team".
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Aston Martin Racing driving one of the two factory Aston Martin DBR9s with Karl Wendlinger and Andrea Piccini in the GT1 class.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen's team finished 4th in class and 16th overall.
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Also in 2008, Heinz-Harald Frentzen built the HHF Hybrid Concept Car which he entered in the 24 Hours Nurburgring with his own team.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the race but was not classified due to two conventional gearbox failures.
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In 2011, Heinz-Harald Frentzen won a special one-off "ROC Legends" race against Hans-Joachim Stuck, Marc Duez and Stig Blomqvist as part of the 2011 Race of Champions.
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In 2012, Heinz-Harald Frentzen competed in the ADAC GT Masters season with a Callaway Competition Corvette Z06, and returned to the series in 2014 with a HTP Motorsport Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3.
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The monthly magazine F1 Racing observed that the key issue for Heinz-Harald Frentzen was finding the appropriate settings for his car which was done by himself.
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Sauber team principal Peter Sauber said in 2005 that Heinz-Harald Frentzen was the most important driver for his team but admitted that the driver needed to work in a specific atmosphere and referred to his time at Williams where he was in conflict with technical director Patrick Head.
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Heinz-Harald Frentzen appeared on an episode in the 29th series of British motoring show Top Gear in 2020, in which he appeared as a rival for the presenters in a Germany versus Britain challenge.