Frentzen clarifies his traction control stance

The Jordan ace spoke out again after his comments on his website were interpreted by controversial German tabloid newspaper "Bild"-Zeitung as an attack on Sauber's Nick Heidfeld, who uses a Petronas-badged Ferrari engine. Frentzen stands by his theory, however, that Ferrari's engineers have found a way around the traction control ban, which ends at next month's Spanish GP.

"In the past 18 races, I had plenty of opportunity to trail behind Ferrari cars or machinery powered by Ferrari engines," said Frentzen. "And one thing was particularly remarkable: out of tight corners, these cars had a pretty stunning acceleration, combined with a misfiring engine.

"For me, it is beyond doubt that somehow Ferrari managed to develop an engine software which reduces the power by a certain margin to the extent that the driven wheels don't spin.

"It cannot be ignored that something like that exists, there is simply no room for a discussion about that. On the other hand, however, you can discuss if the device that exists is legal or illegal. I believe that Formula 1 - thanks to its brilliant engineers - progressed into an area which is hard to be defined even by the FIA. And this is exactly why the FIA opted for the right consequence to change the rules in order to legalise traction control in the future."

Frentzen added that "Bild"-Zeitung ignored main points of his orginal column and interpreted it as a personal attack against Heidfeld.

"At the end of the day, this is quite unfair towards Nick who is blamed to be cheating by "Bild"-Zeitung," added Frentzen. "In the laps when I was following Nick, he drove without any errors. This was a performance that deserved to be awarded with his first ever Formula 1 points.

"On the other hand, I have to admit that it would have been nice if the 'internal Monchengladbach championship' of our common home town had ended in a slightly different way," he quipped.