46 Facts About Heinz-Harald Frentzen

1.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was born on 18 May 1967 and known as H-HF, is a German former racing driver.

2.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen competed in multiple disciplines including Sportscars, Formula One and DTM.

3.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen had his most success in Formula One, entering over 150 Grands Prix and winning three.

4.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen has two sisters and two half-sisters.

5.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen's family was connected to motorsport; his father raced between 1950 and 1957.

6.

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.

7.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen began karting at the age of twelve, after his father brought him his first kart, and made an extraordinarily successful start.

8.

In 1981, aged fourteen, Heinz-Harald Frentzen won the German Junior Kart Championship.

9.

Two years later, Heinz-Harald Frentzen entered the CIK Asia Pacific Championships in Australia driving a Dino although he did not finish.

10.

In 1985, Heinz-Harald Frentzen moved into car racing by entering the German Formula Ford 2000 series.

11.

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.

12.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was champion of the German series in his first year and his teammate Marco Werner finished third in the championship.

13.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen participated in the Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries, where he finished 6th in the championship, scoring 56 points.

14.

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.

15.

However, Schumacher did not get the Formula One test drive anyway; Karl Wendlinger won the German Formula 3 Championship and Heinz-Harald Frentzen became joint runner-up with Schumacher.

16.

In 1990, Heinz-Harald Frentzen entered the International Formula 3000 series driving for Eddie Jordan Racing and was partnered by Eddie Irvine.

17.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the season 16th in the championship, scoring 3 points.

18.

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.

19.

In 1994 Heinz-Harald Frentzen was given a Formula One drive by Peter Sauber in a Mercedes powered car, as teammate to Wendlinger.

20.

However, the 1996 Sauber was unreliable, with many races ending in retirements and Heinz-Harald 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.

21.

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.

22.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was running second late in the race when a brake disc exploded, throwing him off the circuit and into retirement.

23.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen took his first win at the fourth race of the year at San Marino.

24.

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.

25.

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.

26.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen would be elevated to second after the disqualification of Michael Schumacher.

27.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen would start the season with a podium at Albert Park, however this would be the highlight of Heinz-Harald Frentzen's year.

28.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen was unable to repeat the podium, and was out-performed by team mate Jacques Villenuve.

29.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the season placed 7th in the championship with 17 points.

30.

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.

31.

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.

32.

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.

33.

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.

34.

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.

35.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen scored points on two occasions and outpaced both the Jaguars who ran the same engine.

36.

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 podium finish in the penultimate race of the year in the United States.

37.

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.

38.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the season 7th in the final standings and quit the team stating he had "no support from the team".

39.

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.

40.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen's team finished 4th in class and 16th overall.

41.

Also in 2008, Heinz-Harald Frentzen built the HHF Hybrid Concept Car which he entered in the 24 Hours Nurburgring with his own team.

42.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen finished the race but was not classified due to two conventional gearbox failures.

43.

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.

44.

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.

45.

The monthly magazine F1 Racing noted that the key issue for Heinz-Harald Frentzen was finding the appropriate settings for his car which was done by himself.

46.

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.