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Wednesday, July 25
Frentzen surprised by decision
Reuters
STUTTGART, Germany -- German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen has been fired by the Jordan Formula One team just four days before his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
"The contract between Jordan and Heinz-Harald Frentzen has been cancelled with immediate effect," a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.
|  | | Heinz-Harald Frentzen has scored just six points this season and has been outqualified by his Jordan teammate nine times in 10 races. |
No reasons were given for his dismissal, but Frentzen has scored only six points this season. He has been outqualified by teammate Jarno Trulli nine times in 10 races.
Jordan said there had been an "exchange of views" at the British Grand Prix 10 days ago when the 34-year-old German finished seventh.
"It has been a disappointing season for both of us. We had an exchange of views after the British Grand Prix and this is the result," team chief Eddie Jordan said.
Jordan's third driver Ricardo Zonta will replace Frentzen for Sunday's German Grand Prix. Frentzen said in a statement that he would be discussing his position with his lawyers.
"The reasons I have been given for this termination I contest in their entirety," Frentzen said. "My position in this matter is now under legal advice. Due to the current situation, I am unable to make any further comment whatsoever at this time."
It is very unusual for a driver with points under his belt to be fired midseason.
Frentzen finished third in the title race in 1999 in his first season with Jordan, but slipped to ninth, with 11 points, last year when Jordan suffered severe reliability problems.
That situation has not got much better in 2001. Jordan's new 'launch control' software failed Frentzen in Barcelona and Austria, and the team decided to de-activate it for Monaco.
He has not scored a point since April and in the last two races he has finished lower down the field than he started.
Germany's SID news agency quoted Frentzen's father as saying his son's career had been sabotaged.
"It's not at all normal that the car continues to fail in the races and in the tests everything works wonderfully," Frentzen's father said. "Someone is pressing the buttons."
Frentzen, who had been linked to Toyota as the Japanese team is set to debut in 2002, renewed his contract with Jordan last month.
In a statement released before the European Grand Prix, Jordan said then: "Frentzen's two-year contract with Jordan, signed in July 2000, stands secure."
On Wednesday Toyota denied any interest in the German driver.
"We are not negotiating with Heinz-Harald Frentzen and we are also not interested in any of the current drivers," a Toyota spokesman said.
Fellow German Ralf Schumacher said Frentzen's career was far from over.
"It's the best solution," he said. "I am sure that we will see him in a Toyota. If they're smart they'll sign him because he is the best driver on the market."
Frentzen joined Jordan from Williams in a direct switch with Schumacher, whose relationship with the team had cooled.
Frentzen had finished championship runner-up to Williams teammate Jacques Villeneuve in 1997, but saw his form fall off in 1998 after Williams lost their Renault engines.
After Jordan confirmed Zonta will replace Frentzen at the German Grand Prix, the driver's manager Geraldo Rodrigues said Zonta will also race in the other five remaining races this season.
"I cannot talk about the contract, but Ricardo will replace Frentzen from now until the end of the season and if he does OK he would love to race next year," Rodrigues said. "Jordan obviously believes he has done a good job in testing and maybe they feel he can do a better job than Frentzen. They started talking to us a couple of weeks ago, and they were asking us to be ready.
"We were then told this morning (Wednesday). We were just asked to replace Heinz and we did not ask any more -- that is an internal problem for them."
Zonta was in his first season as test driver for Jordan this year after being released by British American Racing at the end of last season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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