Heinz-Harald Frentzen

Frentzen began racing in karts, winning the German Junior championship in 1981. From 85 - 87 he competed in FF2000 finishing 2nd in '87. In '88 he was German Formula Opel Lotus champion and was 6th in the Opel Lotus Euroseries. He spent one year in German F3, finishing 2nd, before moving onto F3000 in 1990. He spent one season each with Eddie Jordan and Vortex before accepting a financially attractive offer to move to Japan and race for the Nova team. In 1994, he made his F1 debut for the Sauber team and scored a total of 7 points in 15 races. After Senna's death at Imola, Frank Williams offered Frentzen Senna's drive but he turned it down out of loyalty to Peter Sauber whose other driver, Karl Wendlinger, had just been seriously injured. Williams was reportedly very impressed by Frentzen's loyalty and at some point, exactly when remains unclear, he was signed to drive for Williams in 1997 replacing world champion Damon Hill.