Frentzen worth his weight in gold ?

Fantastic ambience
By Huw Alban
May 13 2002

OrangeArrows boss Tom Walkinshaw has recently poured yet more praise on Heinz-Harald Frentzen for the effect he is having on the team's spirits. Frentzen is also sharing his experience with Enrique Bernoldi, resulting in a recent upturn in the Brazilian's form.

In a recent quote, Arrows team boss Tom Walkinshaw has given a unique peak into the inner workings of the Arrows F1 Team describing the working relationship between his drivers.

Walkinshaw's comments come on the back of another strong competitive show from the team in Austria, and a recent upturn in form of the 2002 car, the A23. Tom has made quite a few comments about Frentzen's inclusion in his team and the positive effect that it is having. Apparently Heinz-Harald has been teaching Enrique the finer points of car setup, and this teaching time is having an immediate effect with Enrique recording his best ever qualifying position for Sundays Austrian Grand Prix (12th).

"The ambience is just fantastic in the team now," Walkinshaw has been quoted as saying. "Heinz takes time to explain to Enrique why he wants the car a certain way and he
couldn't have a better teacher. Heinz likes to tell him and Enrique likes to
listen and ask the questions, and the pair have seemed to get on very well."

Tom's comments are interesting in the fact that visitors to this site who can take advantage of the digital coverage of F1, have indicated that Frentzen deliberately blocked Bernoldi during the Qualifying hour in Austria. In addition the relationship between the two may have been soured slightly during the race, since it was Bernoldi that ran into the back of Frentzen at the first corner damaging the German's diffuser. Hopefully the two have put it down to a racing incident, allowing the team to continue to progress forward.

"He can fit into some teams and maybe not others," the Scot continued, "and
all I can say is that he's really fitted into our team and he's worth his weight
in gold at the moment."

Walkinshaw also had words of thanks to Cosworth, despite an attack on him from Jaguar boss Niki Lauda who was instrumental in securing the engine deal in the first place. "Jaguar and
Cosworth are now helping us with the engine to get more power and bring us close to what they've got. If we keep proving we can do a good job and keep our performance up then maybe Cosworth will see their way to giving us a works engine, the same spec as Jaguar, and then hopefully we can do that little bit better."

This quote is odd, in that when the engine deal was announced last year the indication was that Arrows would be getting the same spec engines as those used by the Jaguar. At the moment though it doesn't really matter as it is Arrows that are making the best use of the engine anyway ! ... and long may it continue !