Toyota deny 2002 Frentzen drive offer deal

By Huw Alban
July 23 2002

A wild report has appeared in the British press that Heinz-Harald Frentzen was offered a multi-million dollar deal to drive for the Toyota team for the rest of 2002, at the expense of Allan McNish. This has since been denied by Toyota.

According to The Sun newspaper, Frentzen was offered $4million to switch places with the Scot who, according to the paper, has not impressed his Toyota bosses. Frentzen has spoken many times this year of his determination to help Arrows succeed, but the paper reports that he was so desperate to race in France that he nearly accepted an offer from Jordan GP, to replace the injured Giancarlo Fisichella. This, however, is contrary to reports on Sunday that he had refused the offer himself because of his own dispute with his former team.

The Sun believes that Frentzen is starting to get frustrated with the legal wrangling that is preventing Arrows from competing, enough perhaps to leave the team despite his earlier statements about his commitment. Tom Walkinshaw is apparently very keen to retain the German, who has scored two World Championship points for Arrows this year.

The F1 news site pitpass.com has been in contact with a Toyota source, who apparently confirmed that there was no truth whatsoever in the story published by The Sun. It does however start the worrying trend of doubt as the F1 driver rumour mill starts to wind itself up, as it always does about mid way through the season. This site would very much like to see the Bernoldi-Frentzen partnership stay, as the potential of both is very clear.