In the Beyond The Grid podcast, Heinz-Harald Frentzen stated that Adrian Newey left Williams at the end of 1996 because of him…
Heinz-Harald Frentzen: “Adrian left the team due to Frank Williams and Patrick Head’s decision to include me in the team without informing him. So the team lost an important part of its success.
The pressure was very high. At first I just didn’t understand the car. By the time I started dealing with it, half the season was over, so I couldn’t participate in the fight for the title. The main problem was that Jacques knew the car and all its tricks, and I had never driven such a vehicle before.
Relationship with Villeneuve? He was happy to beat me, but we were not enemies, we had no conflicts. We can meet and have a beer anytime
Jacques Villeneuve and Jock Clea were an unbeatable combination. Clea knew everything about the machine, all its tricks, and it worked for Jacques, not me. Sometimes I asked him questions, occasionally he tried to help me.
The experience of playing for Williams was a good lesson for me. I realized that being a fast racer is not enough to be successful. You also have to understand the car 100%, but I didn’t understand the Williams car. I had switches and features I had never seen before. This car was far ahead of anything I had driven before.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
