Karl Wendlinger

Karl Wendlinger

Nation:	Austria
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1991 Japanese Grand Prix
Last start:	1995 Australian Grand Prix
Constructors
1991  Leyton House  1992  March  1993-1995  Clean
statistics
World Cup balance:	Twelfth World Cup ( 1992 , 1993 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 41 - - -
World Cup points :	14th
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Karl Wendlinger (born December 20, 1968 in Kufstein ) is a former Austrian automobile racing driver . He drove in Formula 1 from 1991 to 1995 and was an active driver in the DTM from 2002 to 2003 . From 2004 he drove in the FIA GT Championship . Wendlinger is married and has two children.

Career

The time before Formula 1

Wendlinger took his first steps in karting in 1983 . He impressed with his good performances and started his first Formula 3 season in 1988 , which he finished as Austrian national champion . The following year he won the German championship in Formula 3. He produced enough attention to himself in 1990 a starting place at Mercedes - factory team in the World Sportscar Championship to secure. The team included Jochen Mass , Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Michael Schumacher .

The time in Formula 1

In 1991 , Wendlinger won the sports car world championship with the Sauber Mercedes team . This success gave him his first two Formula 1 races in 1991 in a Leyton House Ilmor . After the young designer Adrian Newey redesigned the difficult chassis on his debut in Formula 1, the monoposto was transformed and allowed Wendlinger considerable placings and points. He continued his engagement at March-Ilmor in 1992 and at Sauber-Mercedes in 1993 .

Wendlinger had a serious accident in free practice for the Monaco Grand Prix in the 1994 Formula 1 World Championship . He lost control of his vehicle on the fastest stretch of the Circuit de Monaco after the tunnel and raced into the boundary wall of the harbor chicane. His head hit the obstacle due to the then still low cockpit boundaries and he suffered significant brain contusions and a leg injury that stiffened his right knee joint and would subsequently hinder him. He was in a coma for several weeks and was unable to race in 1994. In 1995 he started in six Formula 1 races, but he could no longer build on old achievements and ended his Formula 1 career because he could not find another contract partner.

The time after Formula 1

Karl Wendlinger signed a contract with Audi and competed in the Super Touring Car Cup (STW Cup) in 1996 . The following year he took part in the Italian Touring Car Championship . From 1997 to 1999 he made a detour to the FIA GT championship with a Chrysler Viper GTS-R , which he left in 1999 as a champion. For his achievements in the season he was also named Austria's Motorsportman of the Year 1999 at the end of the year.

ORECA , which had already entered the American Le Mans Series with Wendlinger and Tommy Archer in the middle of the season , switched completely to the American racing series in 2000. As in the previous year, Karl Wendlinger formed a driver pairing with Olivier Beretta . He and Beretta won the GTS category at the end of the year and also won the Daytona 24-hour race .

In 2001 he again took part in the STW Cup for Audi and also started in the V8 Star Championship in the Zakspeed team. In 2002 he switched to the DTM , in which he started for Abt-Audi without success. Wendlinger has been back in the FIA ​​GT championship since the 2004 season. In 2004 he was hired by JMB Racing, where he first drove a Ferrari 575 Maranello GTC and the following year a Maserati MC12 . In 2006 the newly founded Austrian team “Racealliance” signed the Kufsteiner. Together with his teammate Philip Peter , he celebrated a victory in Mugello on his Aston Martin DBR9 .

In the 2007 season, Wendlinger continued to drive for the team that, after restructuring, is now called "Jetalliance Racing". After victories in Monza , Adria and Zolder , Karl Wendlinger, together with this year's team-mate Ryan Sharp from Scotland, came second in the FIA-GT drivers' championship, with 57 points, 4 points behind Thomas Biagi in a Maserati MC12 . At the end of the 2007 season, Karl Wendlinger was named Austria's Motor Sportsman of the Year 2007 by the Supreme National Sports Commission for his outstanding performance.

Wendlinger started the 2008 FIA GT season with teammate Ryan Sharp and won the season opener at Silverstone . Another victory follows in the fourth round of the FIA-GT in Oschersleben . However, at the following season highlight, the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race , the car retired after an accident. In the following race in Bucharest , the team withdrew both vehicles from the start because of a damaged engine mount. The deficit in the championship was already so great at this point that even the following victory in Brno and another podium placement were no longer enough to build on last year's result. The team did not appear at the end of the season in San Luis and then ended its involvement in the FIA ​​GT Championship.

In the 2009 season, Karl Wendlinger and his team mate Ryan Sharp from last year competed in the FIA ​​GT Championship for the new Czech team “KplusK Motorsport” with a revised Saleen S7R . Despite a victory in the opening race at Silverstone, the season was disappointing for the Tyrolean. Another victory in the race at the Hungaroring in Budapest was subsequently withdrawn because Wendlinger's Saleen did not comply with the technical regulations. Due to the team's financial problems, Wendlinger and Sharp were unable to start several races in the 2009 season. Karl Wendlinger therefore parted ways with “KplusK Motorsport” at the end of the season.

In 2010 the FIA ​​GT Championship was discontinued in favor of the FIA GT1 World Championship . Karl Wendlinger secured a cockpit with the Swiss Racing Team and contested the world championship with the Swiss Henri Moser in a Nissan GT-R GT1. The coordination of the car turned out to be extremely problematic, so that Wendlinger and Moser were often not competitive. Compared to the competitor team Sumo Power, which also competed the season on Nissan and even won two races of the season (Silverstone and Portimão ), they had decisive disadvantages in experience. Sumo Power had already participated as a development team in the championship with the Nissan GT-R GT1 in the 2009 season, out of competition, and gained valuable knowledge for tuning the car. The technical regulations of the racing series that came into force in 2010 did not benefit the Swiss Racing Team either. The FIA allowed the teams to compete in the 2010 season with the vehicles of the 2009 season, although these did not meet the current technical specifications of the FIA. In order to compensate for the resulting performance advantage of the old racing vehicles, the FIA ​​carried out a comparison process of the vehicles (called "Balance of Performance") and then placed certain vehicles with technical requirements. Despite this procedure, the settlement was not satisfactory. Vehicles according to the new regulations like the Nissan GT-R GT1 driven by Wendlinger / Moser were at a disadvantage. There were also technical defects and accidents that forced the driver duo Wendlinger / Moser to give up several times. All in all, Karl Wendlinger was only able to place himself twice in the points (10th place in Brno , 10th place Nürburgring ).

In 2011 Karl Wendlinger started again in the FIA ​​GT1 World Championship for the Swiss Racing Team around team boss Othmar Welti with a Lamborghini Murcielago LP 670 R-SV, which the Swiss had taken over from the German team Reiter Engineering. His teammate was the Dutchman Peter Kox . In the first race of the season in Abu Dhabi , the duo was able to place in the midfield (P10 qualification race / P7 championship race). In the second round of the season in Zolder, Wendlinger and Kox came very close to the podium with P4 in both the qualifying race and the championship race. In the following race in Portimão, the Austrian-Dutch racing duo landed on P10 in the qualifying race and P5 in the championship race. The season came to an abrupt end at the fourth round of the season at the Sachsenring . In the qualifying race they only made it to P12. The decisive factor for this was a penalty transfer to the last starting position, as Wendlinger had overtaken under the red flag in qualifying. In the championship race, Wendlinger's and Kox's Lamborghini got into a collision after the start through no fault of their own. The damage to the car made it impossible to continue the race. The damage to the vehicle was so severe that SRT was no longer able to restore it. The season was thus over for Karl Wendlinger. In the overall ranking of the 2011 World Championships, he finished in P16. In the ILMC series, the Tyrolean had a guest start in a Lotus Evora GTE for the Jetalliance Racing Team at the race in Silverstone .

In the 2012 season, Karl Wendlinger switched to the Belgian team KRK Racing, which competed in the Blancpain Endurance Series . In a team of three with Koen Wauters and Anthony Kumpen, he drove a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 in the professional class of the racing series. In the first race of the season in Monza, 3rd place (overall and class) was achieved. In the following race at Silverstone, the trio finished 13th overall (7th place in class). One of the gullwing doors of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 opened during Wendlinger's stint, which led to an unplanned pit stop and the associated loss of time. There was no further use in the racing series because the sponsor of the KRK Racing Team withdrew. The team therefore registered only one car in the amateur class of the Blancpain Endurance Series in the remaining races of the season. In August 2012, Karl Wendlinger competed as a guest starter for the SMS Seyffarth Motorsport team together with Jan Seyffarth in a race of the ADAC GT Masters series at the Eurospeedway Lausitz in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3. In the first race of the weekend, Wendlinger collided while lying in 13th place during his stint and was thrown back to the bottom of the field (27th place). Accordingly, the Wendlinger / Seyffahrt duo started the second race of the weekend from a bad starting position and brought the car to the finish in 23rd position. Karl Wendlinger also drove for the SMS Seyffarth Motorsport team at the season finale of the International GT Open in Barcelona at the Circuit de Catalunya . He shared the cockpit in this race with his Tyrolean compatriot Dominik Baumann, the then FIA GT3 European champion. In the first race of the weekend, the duo from Tyrol finished 5th in the GTS class despite a 15-second time penalty. They made it onto the podium in the second race of the weekend, which they finished in third place.

In 2013, Karl Wendlinger took part in the historic Mille Miglia sports car race as an AMG brand ambassador . Together with his former mentor Jochen Mass, he drove a Mercedes-Benz SS , built in 1930. He also competed in the 2013 Oldtimer Rallye Silvretta Classic with a Mercedes AMG W109 300SEL 6.3 ('Rote Sau'). Karl Wendlinger had another outing at the Spa-Francorchamps 24-hour race. The British Fortec Motorsport team hired the Tyrolean for the race, which he contested together with the British Alex Brundle and Oli Webb in a Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 in the professional class. The trio started the race from 37th place on the grid. After about five hours, the car's cardan shaft was defective. After three hours of repairs, the car was then able to return to the race. More unscheduled pit stops followed due to a defect in the power steering, a blown tire and a problem with the wheel sensor. Finally, the car reached its destination in 31st place overall (13th place in class).

Activity for media

Karl Wendlinger has worked as a co-presenter for ORF in Formula 1 races since 2010 . He is also a frequent guest on the program “Sport and Talk from Hangar 7” on Servus TV as a Formula 1 expert. In February 2012, Karl Wendlinger was appointed Mercedes-AMG brand ambassador alongside Bernd Schneider and David Coulthard and is an instructor at the AMG Driving Academy.

statistics

Statistics in the Formula 1 World Championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1991	Leyton House Racing	Leyton House CG911	Ilmor 3.5 V10	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	37.
1992	March F1	March CG911B	Ilmor 3.5 V10	14th	-	-	-	-	-	3	12.
1993	Clean	Clean C12	Ilmor 3.5 V10	16	-	-	-	-	-	7th	12.
1994	Broker Sauber Mercedes	Clean C13	Mercedes-Benz 3.5 V10	3	-	-	-	-	-	4th	19th
1995	Red Bull Sauber Ford	Clean C14	Ford Zetec-R 3.0 V8	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	28.
total				41	-	-	-	-	-	14th

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1991
															DNF	20th
1992
	DNF	DNF	DNF	8th	12	DNF	4th	DNF	DNF	16	DNF	11	10	DNF
1993
	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	13	6th	DNF	DNF	9	6th	DNF	4th	5	DNF	15th
1994
	6th	DNF	4th	DNS	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ	INJ
1995
	DNF	DNF	DNF	13												10	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1991	Team Sauber Mercedes	Mercedes-Benz C11	Michael sSchumacher	Fritz Kreutzpointner	Rank 5
1992	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905 Evo 1B	Alain Ferté	Eric van de Poele	failure	Engine failure
1996	Porsche AG	Porsche 911 GT1	Yannick Dalmas	Scott Goodyear	Rank 3
1997	Roock Racing	Porsche 911 GT1	Stéphane Ortelli	Allan McNish	failure	accident
1998	Viper Team Oreca	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Marc Duez	Patrick Huisman	failure	Electrics
1999	Viper Team ORECA	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Olivier Beretta	Dominique Dupuy	Rank 10 and class win
2000	Viper Team ORECA	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	Olivier Beretta	Dominique Dupuy	Rank 7 and class win
2001	Playstation Team ORECA	Chrysler LMP 2001	Olivier Beretta	Pedro Lamy	Rank 4
2008	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Heinz-Harald Frentzen	Andrea Piccini	Rank 16

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2000	Viper Team Oreca	Dodge Viper GTS-R	Olivier Beretta	Dominique Dupuy	Rank 7 and class win

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1990	Clean	Sauber C9 Mercedes-Benz C11	SUZ	MON	SIL	SPA	DIJ	ONLY	DON	MOT	MEX
			2	2		1				9
1991	Clean	Mercedes-Benz C291	SUZ	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	LIKE	MEX	AUT
			DNF	DNF	2	5	DNF	DNF	DNF	1
1992	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905	MON	SIL	LEM	DON	SUZ	LIKE
					DNF

Web links

Commons : Karl Wendlinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of Karl Wendlinger
• www.driverdb.com
• Wiener Zeitung October 16, 2009 - Portrait of Karl Wendlinger