Karl Wendlinger (born 20 December 1968) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n professional racing and former

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

driver.

Mercedes Juniors

Born in Kufstein, Wendlinger started his career in

karting Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ...

and in Formula Ford before entering the German Formula 3 Championship in 1988. After managing tenth place in that inaugural season, Wendlinger won the crown in 1989, which earned him also a drive in the

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquarte ...

sportscar team for 1990. Driving the Sauber-Mercedes C11 – alongside Michael Schumacher,

Heinz-Harald Frentzen Heinz-Harald Frentzen (born 18 May 1967) is a German former racing driver. He competed in multiple disciplines including Sportscars, Formula One and DTM. He had his most success in Formula One, entering over 150 Grands Prix and winning three. ...

, Mauro Baldi and Jean-Louis Schlesser – the quintet managed to achieve fifth place in the 1990

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and ...

standings. In 1991, he continued to race with Mercedes sportscars — alongside a Formula 3000 programme with the Helmut Marko team. Towards the end of the year, Mercedes's team boss

Jochen Neerpasch Jochen Neerpasch (born March 23, 1939 in Krefeld, Germany) is a former German racecar driver and motorsports manager. Career His racing career began in the 1960s, first on Borgward touring car, then with the 1964 24 Hours of Le Mans as a first ...

placed two of his protégés in Formula One. Schumacher went to the

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

team before signing for Benetton, whilst Wendlinger made a low key Formula One debut with the Leyton House outfit for the final two Grands Prix of the season.

Formula One

1991–1992: Leyton House/March

Wendlinger's Formula One debut came at the

1991 Japanese Grand Prix The 1991 Japanese Grand Prix (formally the XVII Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held at Suzuka on 20 October 1991. It was the fifteenth round of the 1991 Formula One season. The 53-lap race was won by McLaren dri ...

at Suzuka, bringing some money to the beleaguered Leyton House team in place of long-serving Ivan Capelli. He qualified in 22nd place in a field of 26, but was unable to convert that into anything more, after he retired due to a big collision at turn one, between himself,

JJ Lehto Jyrki Juhani Järvilehto (; born 31 January 1966), better known as "JJ Lehto", is a Finnish racing driver. He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, in 1995 and 2005. He is also a former Formula One driver. He was a protégé of Finnish 1982 Formula ...

, Andrea de Cesaris and Emanuele Pirro. His second race didn't fare much better as the

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

circuit was a wash-out, torrential rain leading to a curtailed event. Wendlinger was classified in 20th place, two laps down on eventual winner Ayrton Senna, after aquaplaning on some of the huge puddles of water present that day. Wendlinger was kept at the renamed March team in 1992, alongside Paul Belmondo. The team were struggling financially due to the withdrawal of the Leyton House organisation, the only modifications to the 1991 car being reworking the cockpit to accommodate Wendlinger's tall frame. The results were very encouraging, including starting 7th at the opening

South African Grand Prix The South African Grand Prix was first run as a Grand Prix motor racing handicap race in 1934 at the Prince George Circuit at East London, Cape Province. It drew top drivers from Europe including Bernd Rosemeyer, Richard "Dick" Seaman, Ri ...

but results were limited by the team's financial restraints. For example, at the Spanish Grand Prix the drying track at the start saw the Footwork team make a late change of tyres to their cars on the starting grid, incurring a fine but finishing 5th and 7th. Wendlinger was 8th, March being unable to afford the fine for changing his tyres at the same time. However, at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal a race of attrition allowed Wendlinger to bring the car home in fourth position, albeit a lap down — but nonetheless a huge result considering the financial troubles his team were in. These three points allowed Wendlinger to finish 12th in the Drivers' Championship ahead of respected names such as Ivan Capelli, Thierry Boutsen, Johnny Herbert and former Brabham and Tyrrell driver Stefano Modena.

1993–1995: Sauber

For 1993, Wendlinger was re-united with Peter Sauber, who that year had become a Formula One team owner. Much was expected of the team and early on Wendlinger and teammate

mixed with the front runners. Initially he was out-paced by the Finn, who scored points in two of the first four races though some of this was down to bad luck; Wendlinger had qualified 5th at Donington for example, only to be eliminated by Michael Andretti on the first lap. At the

Monaco Grand Prix The Monaco Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Monaco) is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigio ...

Wendlinger and Lehto collided, the team blaming the Finn. After that, Wendlinger's results improved. He scored his first point of the season in the next round and added three more points scores — the best being 4th at the

Italian Grand Prix The Italian Grand Prix ( it, Gran Premio d'Italia) is the fifth oldest national Grand Prix (after the French Grand Prix, the United States Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix and the Russian Grand Prix), having been held since 1921. In 2013 it ...

after a long battle with Andretti. Other points finishes in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...

helped give Wendlinger 12th in the Drivers' Championship again with seven points — two points and a place ahead of the more experienced Lehto. For 1994, Wendlinger was retained as Mercedes made their official return to Formula One, buying a stake in

Ilmor Ilmor is a British independent high-performance motor racing engineering company. It was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in November 1983. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and maintenance offices in Plymouth, M ...

and becoming the team's engine supplier.

arrived in place of Lehto. The season started well for Wendlinger: He scored a point in the first race of the year at Interlagos and drove to fourth place in the

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

race, an event marred by the deaths of both Wendlinger's countryman Roland Ratzenberger and the 3-times world champion Ayrton Senna. The next race was in

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

for the fourth round of the Championship. During the first practice session, Wendlinger exited the tunnel and lost control of the car under braking for the Nouvelle Chicane. The Sauber, sliding sideways, hit a barrier with considerable force; the barrier was protected by large plastic containers that were supposed to be filled with water, but weren't. Wendlinger's head struck the metal crash barrier, and FIA doctors found him unconscious. Although his vital signs were quickly stabilized, he remained in a coma for several weeks and did not drive in a race for the rest of the year. He had planned to make his comeback at the Japanese Grand Prix, but pre-race testing revealed his neck was not strong enough. Wendlinger recovered from his injuries before the start of the 1995 Formula One season, where he would be driving at Sauber (now with Ford engines) alongside Frentzen. However, he performed poorly and was reluctantly replaced in the team before the Monaco Grand Prix, a year on from the accident, by Jean-Christophe Boullion. Peter Sauber then recalled Wendlinger for the final two races of the season in one last attempt to regain his pre-accident form, without success. These were his last races in Formula One.

After Formula One

Since then, he has competed successfully in sports cars and

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition with heavily modified road-going cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not mov ...

,Where are they now? – Karl Wendlinger
/ref> winning the FIA GT Championship (with Olivier Beretta) in 1999. After a spell racing for Abt-Audi in DTM in 2002 and 2003 he raced for JMB Racing in FIA GT again, driving a Maserati MC12 with Andrea Bertolini. Since 2006, Wendlinger has been part of the

JetAlliance Racing Jetalliance Racing is an Austrian racing team which currently competes in the FIA GT Championship. Founded by Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer, former CEO of Jetalliance airlines, in 2006 under the name Race Alliance Motorsport, the team has run two private ...

team, competing again in the FIA GT Championship. His teammate in 2006 was Phillip Peter, and in 2007 his teammate was Scottish driver, Ryan Sharp. 2007 Wendlinger competed at the 24 Hours of Daytona with Sigal Sport team in a BMW powered Riley DP. He crashed during the night on his in lap at the end of his second stint and was sent to the hospital as a precaution. The car eventually was retired from the damage.

2008

Wendlinger has been competing for JetAlliance Racing in 2008 alongside Ryan Sharp. They started well at the RAC Tourist Trophy round from Silverstone. Wendlinger and Sharp won the GT1 class and overall race ahead of Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini's Maserati MC12.

Racing record

Career summary

Complete International Formula 3000 results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap.)

Complete Formula One results

( key)

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft/Masters results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) *† — Retired, but was classified as he completed 90% of the winner's race distance.

Complete FIA GT Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete GT1 World Championship results

Helmet

Wendlinger's helmet is yellow with 2 blue parallel lines in the middle of the helmet, a blue circle on the top and 3 red white red arrows between the parallel lines.

References

External links

Official site
n Germanbr>Profile at DriverDB.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wendlinger, Karl Austrian racing drivers Austrian Formula One drivers Leyton House Formula One drivers March Formula One drivers Sauber Formula One drivers German Formula Three Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers FIA GT Championship drivers Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters drivers 1968 births Living people International Formula 3000 drivers People from Kufstein 24 Hours of Daytona drivers American Le Mans Series drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Austrian Formula Three Championship drivers FIA GT1 World Championship drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers ADAC GT Masters drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Sportspeople from Tyrol (state) Peugeot Sport drivers Aston Martin Racing drivers Fortec Motorsport drivers Oreca drivers Mercedes-AMG Motorsport drivers Audi Sport drivers Porsche Motorsports drivers Abt Sportsline drivers RSM Marko drivers David Price Racing drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers