Early Career
He was born in the West German city of Mönchengladbach (North Rhine-Westphalia) to a German undertaker and a Spanish mother. After 5 years in Karting, at the age of 18 Frentzen entered the German Formula Ford 2000 series, in 1986. As in his karting career, he was funded and supported by his father (a funeral director) who also acted as both team boss and head mechanic. After two seasons in Formula Ford he was runner-up in the 1987 series, despite not participating in all races.
Frentzen progressed to German Formula Opel Lotus in 1988 in the Junior Team of former Formula One driver Jochen Mass, who had been impressed by Frentzen's performances in Formula Ford. Frentzen was champion of the German series in his first year, as well as participating in the Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries (in which he finished 6th). The next step was the German Formula 3 Championship in 1989, where Frentzen competed against many future stars including Michael Schumacher and Karl Wendlinger. At the time, there was a big push by Bernie Ecclestone to have a German driver in the Formula One World Championship, so the ONS (the German National Motorsports committee) decided to support both Frentzen and Schumacher. The ONS put up the reward of a Formula One test to the driver who first would take a victory in a Formula 3 race. This ultimately ended up being Schumacher, in a controversial race at Zeltweg, Austria in which Frentzen claimed Schumacher had forced him off the track. However, Schumacher did not get the Formula One test drive anyway; Karl Wendlinger won the German Formula 3 Championship and Frentzen became joint runner-up with Schumacher (the two finishing on identical points totals).
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