By Phil Giles
July 25 2002

Heinz Harald Frentzen has told the FIA's press conference just how close he came for driving with his old team for last Sunday's French Grand Prix. The opportunity arose after Giancarlo's EJ12 hit a tyre barrier and the Italian was ruled unfit to drive in the race.

Q: How close were you to driving the Jordan? It was ironic given your problems a year ago...

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: Yeah, I think Professor Schukies from Deutsche Post had the idea that it made sense if a driver who had not qualified took one of their Deutsche Post cars at Magny Cours on Sunday instead of Fisichella, and I think the idea itself was not too bad. They know I'm a racing driver and would like to race and have a great pleasure of racing but I would say the contractual situation was a little bit more difficult to allow this move in the end. So in the end, for this reason, it didn't work.

Q: It was suggested that you're still in legal conflict with Jordan over matters a year ago.

HHF: Yes, additionally, that was a case.

Q: What would it have been like literally jumping into a car that you had never driven before?

HHF: Well, just from a technical point of view it would have been interesting to see how the car is, how the car behaves so I was a little bit enthusiastic because you never have a chance to have a quick go in the other cars during the weekend. But that was only a dream, anyway, so I didn't really follow it any further.

Q: The chances of you pushing the wrong buttons on the steering wheel would have been pretty high, wouldn't it?

HHF: Well, I thought about that as well, but being last on the grid it wouldn't have made a lot of difference if I'd made a mistake.