Frentzen Happy to be Back at Sauber

Heinz-Harald Frentzen said today that he is happy to be back with former team Sauber for the 2003 season and said he is confident of success.

The 36-year-old German, who made his Formula One debut with Sauber back in 1994, left the Hinwill outfit in 1996 to join Williams and has since had spells with Jordan, Prost and Arrows before agreeing to return to the Swiss-based team this year.

"A lot of things have changed," Frentzen said at the launch of Sauber's new C22 car in Zurich. "There are a lot more people. The team is bigger and better. There are a lot of people I don't recognise - I think they have got older and greyer since I was here before!

"The team has developed a lot since I was here before and I feel very confident for the season ahead. I know people, especially in the German media, like to talk of a conflict between myself and Nick (Heidfeld), because we are both from Moenchengladbach, but I don't see that at all.

"For me, it is an advantage that we come from the same town. We speak the same dialect and we get along well. Nick is a bit younger than me, of course, but I have known him for a while and we get along fine."

Frentzen, a veteran of 141 Grands Prix, winning three times and scoring 161 points, added that the Ferrari-powered C22 should perform admirably again in 2003 as Sauber look to claim fourth place in the manufacturers' championship.

"The extra power is good and the car itself feels much more stable," said Frentzen, who made one outing for the Sauber team last year as a replacement for suspended Brazilian Felipe Massa at Indianapolis. "It has a lot of technical changes on it and that is good."

But his confidence in his new car was not repeated when it came to discussion of the new regulations and the introduction of one-lap qualifying sessions.

"It will be very different," he said. "There will be no other cars on the track. For us, it is a mental change, but one that we have experienced before in karting. It will be a much bigger challenge for the teams and the engineers."

Frentzen is also set to follow compatriot Michael Schumacher in setting up home in Switzerland along with wife Tanja and daughter Lea, born in April, 2000.