Feature: Frentzen Ready to Bounce Back

Heinz-Harald Frentzen is like a cork in the ocean waves, occasionally vanishing from view but never sinking.

Fired once and hired three times in the space of a difficult year, with Prost folding and Arrows struggling to compete, the German driver will be bobbing up again on Sunday with Sauber.

The U.S. Formula One Grand Prix will breathe new life into the undertakers' son from Moenchengladbach as he replaces Brazilian Felipe Massa after the young debutant picked up a starting grid penalty.

Just like World Champion Michael Schumacher, with whom he started out as a Mercedes sportscar driver, he will have a Ferrari-powered car at his disposal for the season's penultimate race. But that is where the similarities end.

While Schumacher, record breaker extraordinaire, has acquired a reputation as Mr Consistency with 20 successive races in the points and 17 podiums in a row, Frentzen is more of a mix-and-match Last Minute Man.

He will have had four teams since July last year while Schumacher has competed for only three in more than a decade of Grand Prix racing. He has also been absent from the last three races after parting from Arrows.

Since Jordan fired Frentzen in July last year, the German has turned out in the blue of Prost and the orange of Arrows while also almost making a return to Jordan in France as a stand-in for Giancarlo Fisichella.

Short Notice

"Being part of a team in a short period of time - that was the challenge of the last year I have had," the 35-year- old said at Indianapolis, where he will be squeezing uncomfortably into a car designed for shorter men.

Dumped by Jordan before his home Grand Prix, Frentzen joined Prost as a replacement for Jean Alesi when the Frenchman teamed up with Eddie Jordan. He raced in Hungary last year with just 50 km of testing in the Prost under his belt.

When the French team folded, the German joined Arrows three weeks before the start of the season and with just three days of testing in another unfamiliar car.

Already signed for 2003, Frentzen was then called by Peter Sauber on the Monday after the Italian Grand Prix on September 15 and told to be ready to replace Massa in a car he had never driven. He took it all in his stride.

"I am used to short notice decisions," he said.

Considered a safe pair of hands, although not necessarily in mastering the sophisticated 'launch control' systems used at the race start, Frentzen is a proven winner with three victories for Williams and Jordan in the past.

"Frentzen tends not to make mistakes, he's a quick driver, he's a lot of experience," said Jaguar's Eddie Irvine, who fought with the German in a three-way battle for the Championship in 1999.

"He does a good job. It's not because his name's H-HF. I think in a front-running team like Williams, the pressure there got to him. Where he's a bit of an underdog, he's very good.

"I personally wouldn't hire him because I think there's other guys around but of the guys who are around at the minute he's one of the better choices for sure."

In his short space of time at Arrows, a team definitely running with the underdogs, Frentzen scored two points and showed just how competitive the car could be.

"All these three changes I have done since Jordan have been in a hurry basically, with very little preparation time. So I think that may help me," he said of Sunday's race. "Jumping into cold water with Sauber here...it's quite a lot of work. It's hard work to get familiar with all the systems quickly."

Despite moments when it seemed his Formula One career might be at an end, Frentzen feels he has finally landed on his feet again.

"I think I am now in the team of the future," he declared. "I have a feeling that this team is going to be very strong in the future."