Enrique and H-H eager to start 2002

By Huw Alban
April 29 2002

The first race of any season is a teaser. Have the team done enough testing miles ? Is the new car any good ? Is this going to be THE year for the team ? OrangeArrows drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi can't answer those questions, but they are looking forward to the weekend.

For newly-signed Heinz-Harald Frentzen this should be an interesting weekend. In 2001, driving for the Jordan team, Heinz-Harald finished in 5th place. Heinz-Harald has no illusions of repeating that performance, but remains optimistic about his new team and their car.

"I’m very much looking forward to starting the new season with my new team," he said to official Arrows website. "The whole package looks good and the team is full of very good, professional people. After only a few hundred kilometres of testing we still have a lot of sorting to do on the car but I am convinced it has potential. I’m optimistic that after the first three fly-aways we can start making a noticeable improvement with more time to test different chassis combinations. This is our first chance to see how competitive we’re going to be but the real test for everyone in Melbourne is reliability so I think if we can finish the race we will all be happy."

Enrique Bernoldi is also up to the new challenge and in 2001 put in a very solid weekend, only to spoil it by crashing out of the race proper after only 3 laps.

"Last year was my first trip to Australia and I loved every minute of it. I feel more confident now I have a year of F1 behind me. I have learned a lot by competing with top drivers and of course I know the OrangeArrows team well now. I’m looking forward to racing the A23 as it is definitely a marked improvement on the A22. The Albert Park circuit is a good challenge with some interesting corners and some overtaking opportunities. I just hope I have a longer race this year!"