Karl
Wendlinger

Karl Wendlinger was born in Kufstein, Austria, in 1968. He started out in karting and Formula Ford before joining the German Formula 3 Championship in 1988, finishing tenth. He won the title in 1989, which led to a place in the Mercedes sportscar team for 1990. Driving the Sauber-Mercedes C11 alongside Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Mauro Baldi and Jean-Louis Schlesser, the quintet took fifth place in the World Sportscar Championship. In 1991 he stayed with Mercedes in sportscars and also raced in Formula 3000 for Helmut Marko's team.

He made his Formula One debut at the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka with Leyton House, and contested the last two races of that season. He qualified 22nd and retired after a collision at the first corner. In Adelaide, in torrential rain, he was classified 20th. He stayed with the team, now renamed March, in 1992. He finished fourth at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal and ended the year 12th in the world championship.

For 1993 he joined Sauber, then new to Formula One under Peter Sauber, with JJ Lehto as his team mate. He finished fourth at the Italian Grand Prix and was 12th in the championship again. In 1994 the team ran with Mercedes engines, and Frentzen arrived as his new team mate. Wendlinger scored a point in the season opener at Interlagos and took fourth at the San Marino Grand Prix, a weekend overshadowed by the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna. In first practice at Monaco he had a heavy crash and did not race again that year.

He returned to Sauber in 1995, now with Ford engines. He was replaced by Jean-Christophe Boullion before the Monaco Grand Prix and came back for the last two races of the season. In total he started 41 Formula One races, with a best result of fourth place.

After Formula One he raced in sports cars and touring cars. In 1999 he won the FIA GT Championship with Olivier Beretta. He drove for Abt-Audi in the DTM in 2002 and 2005, then raced for JMB Racing and, from 2006, for JetAlliance Racing. In 2008 he won the Tourist Trophy at Silverstone with Ryan Sharp.

Source: Wikipedia, “Karl Wendlinger”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.