Frentzen in F1: one step away from McLaren
In almost ten years of his career spent in Formula 1, Heinz-Harald Frentzen he claimed a total of three victories in the top flight, going on to conquer the title of vice-world champion in 1997. It was precisely that year in which the German enjoyed his most successful moment at the wheel of the last Williams champion , to then play another high-level championship with Jordan in 1999, when he was even indicated as one of the potential winners of the world championship. However, if it hadn’t been for a simple joke, the ex Sauber’s adventure could have taken a positive path at McLaren in the mid-1990swith a team that would later rise to the top of the world with Mika Hakkinen.
The episode that blew up the deal with the then Team Principal of the Woking house, Ron Dennistook place after Frentzen’s first year in Formula 1, i.e. in 1994. The rookie’s good performances particularly convinced the British manager, who wanted to bet on him for the 1995 season, the first with McLaren powered by Mercedes after the difficulties experienced following the separation from Honda.
The joke that blew everything
But what irreversibly broke the nascent relationship between Frentzen and McLaren? The ex-driver recently told the story in the official F1 podcast Beyond the Griddating back to the controversial 1994 Australian GP which saw Michael Schumacher’s first world championship victory after contact between the latter and Damon Hill: “To Adelaideduring the season finale celebration, Ron Dennis called me and told me that he wanted to talk to me – he recalled – the people of Mönchengladbach (where he was born, ed) she used to have a great sense of humor, and when we started talking, Ron he asked me how I was doing with English. I told him that there might be room for improvement, and I, jokingly, asked him how he got along with the German, given that the following year Mercedes would arrive as an engineer. So I told him that he should learn German, but made me a strange face. I thought it was something funny, but my manager hit me on the arm.”
Offended Dennis
A joke that therefore the then president of McLaren did not like at all, to such an extent that, again according to Frentzen, Dennis she didn’t speak to him again: “He was very upset about the joke I made, unbelievable – concluded the former Sauber driver – that’s why I never had a chance at McLaren. He never liked my sense of humor.”
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