Frentzen happy with his new team

By Huw Alban
April 28 2002

After completing todays test session at Barcelona, OrangeArrows new signing Heinz-Harald Frentzen found some to talk about the events that lead up to last Thursdays annoucement. Winter 2001 has been a strange time for the German, but he had hoped that former employer Prost would pull through.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen joined the Prost team late last season, having been sacked from the Jordan team. In an underachieving chassis the German put up a strong fight, but by the end of the season the French teams financial position was starting to get the better of it. In January the Prost team collapsed, releasing Frentzen onto the drivers market.

Prior to the collapse the rumour mill was spilling over with Frentzen and Arrows theories, mostly fuelled by reports that he had been seen at the team's factory in Leafield.

"It has been a quiet winter, generally," he said to Formula1.com. "It was a very different situation I found myself in. I was gradually coming to realise that I should I join Arrows. They wanted an experienced driver and I thought I could help. Quite earlier on, I started thinking about it and when I saw the package and I saw the people I thought then it will be a worthwhile challenge."

"At some stage I was hoping that Prost would come through. It is very hard to say what would have happened had it come through. Never for a moment did I look at the American series (CART or IRL). That was not the choice I thought about. I know it came very late, but I am glad I made this decision."