Roland Ratzenberger

Roland Ratzenberger (born 4th July 1960, in Salzburg, Austria) is a Austrian racing driver best known for his touring car exploits during the 1980s and 1990s.

WTCM

Ratzenberger became one of the first drivers to commit to the new World Touring Car Masters series in 1988, joining the works Ford team Kaliber Industrial Control Services Racing alongside Steve Soper, Andy Rouse and Tim Harvey. Barring the opening round, where Nissan dominated with their illegal R32 Skylines - the Ford Sierra RS500 was the car the beat all year. Ratzenberger took two wins in 1988 on his way to fourth place in the championship but was the lowest scorer of his teammates.

Ford switched outfits in 1989, changing from the British Rousesport team to the German Zakspeed team. Ratzenberger was the only man that Ford kept on the books, with defending champion Harvey moving to Mercedes-Benz and Soper and Rouse staying put at their 1988 team. Ratzenberger was joined by German touring car stars Klaus Ludwig, Manuel Reuter and Frank Biela in the team. Ratzenberger flourished in the more comfortable Germanic environment and took three wins on his way to his first World Championship, beating Ludwig by 31 points. There were strong rumours that Ratzenberger might take part in the last few Formula One races of the season for Zakspeed, however this did not come to fruition.

Much like Harvey the year before, Ratzenberger opted to leave Ford and join Mercedes-Benz on a one-year deal for their 1990 assault on Class C - with new team sponsors SONAX heavily bankrolling the champion. With strong rumours swirling that the touring car world was heading towards a 2.0l engine format soon, Ratzenberger saw this as a great opportunity to get a headstart on many of his rivals. Ratzenberger was reunited with his 1988 teammate Tim Harvey again as well as being joined by Mauro Baldi and Armin Hahne. Ratzenberger took six class wins in an incredibly competitive season, however Mercedes were completely swept aside by BMW in Class C and Ratzenberger's results were only enough for sixth.

Ratzenberger remained in the Mercedes fold in 1991 - with the German manufacturer one allowed to grandfather their 190Es into the new Super Touring ruleset. Ratzenberger was joined in the team by former F1 driver Hans-Joachim Stuck who had a reasonably good season the year before in an independent Audi.

WSC

1989 Ratzenberger first started in sportscars in 1989 with Brun Motorsports, driving a Porsche 962C on a part-time basis, racing in rounds not clashing with his WTCM commitments. He made his WSC debut at the Dijon round in May, finishing 9th in the #5 Porsche along with Norwegian Harald Huysman. In his first outing at Le Mans that year, he, still driving alongside Huysman in the #5 Porsche, would finish 10th overall. quiet races at Brands Hatch And the Nurburgring followed, but Ratzenberger would bounce back with a 5th place at Donington before concluding his first WSC season with a brilliant second place finish at Mexico City.

1990-1992: Sauber Mercedes When Ratzenberger signed with Mercedes in 1990, he would compete in both the WTCM AMG team and the Sauber Mercedes outfit in WSC. Driving front running machinery, Roland would only miss 1 race in 1990 as Sauber Mercedes dominated. 1991 would see Jaguar and Peugeot run at the front, however, while 1992 would see Sauber concentrate on developping their upcomimg F1 program.

All Japan F3000: 1990-1992

Still looking to reach Formula 1, Ratzenberger also competed in the All Japan Formula 3000 in the early 90s, at the time one of the best national open wheel series in the world. While he only competed on a part-time basis in both 1990 and 1991, Sauber leaving WSC and AMG leaving WTCM allowed Roland to fully concentrate on open wheelers full time in 1992. Driving the Lola-Mugen Honda combo of Stellar intrnational, the team unfortunately lacked the reliability needed to compete for the title. Nonetheless, Ratzenberger would score his only win in all Japan F3000 at Tokachi, in the third-to-last round of the series, the round which saw future F1 rival Ukyo Katayama clinch the 1992 All Japan title.

Formula 1

1993-: Minardi

Despite rumours saying that he would join Sauber in their debut season in Formula 1 in 1993, Roland opted to go for the lowly Italian squad Minardi for his first year in the sport, partnering longtime veteran Michele Alboreto.

Despite not scoring any points, Ratzenberger proved to be a reliable pair of hands, firmly finishing in the midfield for his first season in the sport. Giancarlo Minardi was satisfied, and opted to extend his contract for 1994.

Complete Career Results

Complete World Touring Car Masters Results

Year	Team	Car	Class																								WDC	Pts	Class	Pts
1988	Kaliber Industrial Control Services Racing	Ford Sierra RS500	A M	Template:AUS				Template:USA								Template:FRA		Template:GBR				Template:BEL					4th	198	4th	321
				E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E
				BAT 6	BAT 2	FUJ 3	FUJ 4	GLN 26†	GLN 3	NOR 2	NOR 1	KYA Ret	KYA 4	HOC Ret	HOC 11	CHA 1	CHA 2	BIR Ret	BIR 5	MNZ 3	MNZ 4	SPA DNQ	SPA DNQ	NUR 6
1989	Zakspeed	Ford Sierra RS500	A M			Template:USA				Template:FRA						Template:FRA		Template:GBR		Template:BEL				Template:AUS			1st	224	1st	324
				E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E
				FUJ 5	FUJ 2	GLN Ret	GLN Ret	KYA Ret	KYA 6	PAU 2	PAU 6	BRN 1	BRN 3	MNZ Ret	MNZ Ret	CHA Ret	CHA 8	BIR 7	BIR 3	SPA 2	SPA 2	NUR 1	NUR 1	BAT 2
1990	Mercedes-Benz AMG Team SONAX	Mercedes-Benz 190E	C M			Template:USA				Template:GBR		Template:FRA						Template:FRA		Template:GBR		Template:BEL				Template:AUS	26th	36	6th	295
				E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E	S	E
				FUJ 21	FUJ 26	GLN 21	GLN 21	LAG 18	LAG 21	BRH DNQ	BRH DNQ	PAU 10	PAU 4	BRN Ret	BRN 23	MNZ Ret	MNZ 26	CHA 11	CHA 22	BIR 16	BIR 22	SPA DNQ	SPA DNQ	NUR 13	NUR 24	BAT Ret