Frank Zimmer

Frank Zimmer is an Australian racing driver (born 11th January 1983 in Orange, NSW), who was a V8 Supercar champion in 2005, as well as a Formula One frontrunner and F1RWRS race winner.

Racing career

Zimmer's racing helmet.

Zimmer made his debut in the Australian Formula Ford Series in 1999, racing for his elder brother's team, finishin fifth in the championship with a race win at Calder Park. He would continue to race in 2000, before winning the championship in 2001, winning both rounds in New South Wales at Eastern Creek and Oran Park, as well as the final round at Sandown.

In 2002 he graduated to the V8 Supercar Development Series, driving a Holden VS Commodore for MW Motorsport. He won a race at Wakefield Park, finishing 6th in the championship, beating his boss Matthew White. The following year, he was promoted to the Holden Young Lions team, where he duelled with the Ford-backed Mark Winterbottom for the title, ultimately losing out by 20 points, losing out on dropped points despite scoring more. His early performances were enough for him to receive an endurance drive for Garry Rogers Motorsport, where he drove with Nathan Pretty at Sandown and Bathurst. Together they finished 20th at Sandown, but an engine failure shortly after he got in the car at Mount Panorama put him out of the race.

His performance in the development series was enough to convince Rogers to give him a full time drive in 2004, replacing Jamie Whincup in the #33 Commodore. He drove well enough to win at Winton, and partnering Garth Tander in the #34, they won the race at Sandown. Zimmer matched Tander well, finishing just behind him in the championship, 11th overall with Tander 10th. Unfortunately, they retired once again at Bathurst, after dropping a cylinder going across the top of the mountain.

2005 was his breakthrough year. With Tander leaving for the HSV Dealer Team, Rogers hired Cameron McConville to replace him. Zimmer immediately won at the season-opening Clipsal 500 Adelaide, and after winning the rounds at Eastern Creek, Shanghai, Surfers Paradise and Symmons Plains, as well as the Sandown 500 for the second time, to beat the Fords of Craig Lowndes, Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall to the title. But once again, he struck engine trouble at Bathurst, retiring from 2nd place with 30 laps to go.

In 2006, he decided to move to Europe for a change of scenery. He left GRM on good terms with Garry, and with the help of his brother John, secured a drive with iSport in the GP2 Series. He had some difficulty getting adapted to the cars, and only managed to finish 7th in the championship with no race wins.

Zimmer returned to Australia to race for GRM at Sandown, the week before the GP2 finale at Monza, as well at Bathurst, where he finally managed to finish a race, in 7th place. Upon returning to Europe, he tried to find another GP2 drive, but couldn't secure one.

However, late in the off-season, Zimmer received an offer from F1 team owner Aguri Suzuki to drive for his F1 team, Super Aguri. He accepted the drive, and spent the season doing fairly well for himself despite not scoring any points, not even finishing in the top 10. In fact, he was signed to drive for Honda in 2008, where he was often in front of teammate Jenson Button. He scored 7 points in the first six races, but the car was not fast or reliable enough to score again for the rest of the year. He did however get into strife at the Brazilian GP for setting his car on fire.

In 2009, he stuck with the Honda team as they were sold and bought by Ross Brawn, becoming Brawn GP. Zimmer scored the occasional podium, but Button was the better driver for the Brawn team, although both were taken to the cleaners by Daniel Melrose. Zimmer did not drive at the Japanese Grand Prix that year, as he was preparing himself for a return to Bathurst. This angered his team, who promptly sacked him. Zimmer didn't care however, as he won his first Bathurst 1000, again teaming up with Lee Holdsworth. He spent the remainder of 2009 setting up a rival series to F1, and called it the F1RWRS

Complete Formula One Grand Prix results

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	WDC	Points
2006	Super Aguri F1 Team	Super Aguri SA05	Honda RA806E 2.4 V8	BHR 20	MAL 19	AUS 16	BEL Ret	EUR 21†	SMR 19	MON 20	ESP Ret	GBR 15	CAN 15	USA 15	FRA Ret	GER 13	HUN 14	TUR 17	ITA 17	BRA 16	URU Ret	JPN 16	CHN 15	23rd	0
2007	Honda Racing F1 Team	Honda RA107	Honda RA807E 2.4 V8	BHR 11	MAL 14	AUS Ret	JPN 14	SMR 15	GER Ret	ESP 7	MON 13	CAN 13	USA 14	GBR 12	EUR 14	FRA Ret	HUN 10	TUR 12	ITA 11	BEL Ret	CHN 10	URU 12	BRA 17	18th	2
2008	Honda Racing F1 Team	Honda RA108	Honda RA808E 2.4 V8	BHR 11	MAL 12	AUS 8	JPN Ret	TUR 10	EUR 9	MON 13	CAN Ret	USA 7	FRA 12	GBR 13	GER 10	HUN Ret	ESP 13	BEL 11	ITA 18†	SIN 3	CHN 14	URU 12	BRA 12	16th	9
2009	Brawn GP	Brawn BGP 001	Honda RA809E 2.4 V8	BHR 2	AUS 3	MAL‡ 4	USA 11	JPN 11	ESP 2	TUR Ret	EUR DNA	MON	GBR	IRE	GER	BEL	ITA	HUN	SIN	CHN	BRA	URU	ABU	13th	26.5

F1RWRS Results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Pts
2010	Rosenforth Engineering	GER 15	LUX 4	SAX 2	CHN 3	TAS 3	BHR 8	BEL 10	GBR 6	AUS 1								2nd	51
2011	Rosenforth Engineering	BAV 6	GER 9	SAX 3	LUX Ret	BEL 14												=4th	44
	NAB-Holden Racing Team						GBR 10	ENG Ret	KEN 3	NED 17	TAS 2	AUS DNPQ	NSW 3	SUR Ret	CHN 9	USA 4
2012	NAB-Holden Racing Team	BAV Ret	SAX 13	GER 15	LUX DNPQ	BEL DNPQ	NED DNPQ	GBR 3	KEN 7	ENG 6	TAS 2	SUR	NSW	AUS	CHN	USA		=15th	27
	O'Lauchlan Motorsport																500 7
2013	Shell Horizon Motorsport	TAS DNPQ	AUS DNPQ	MEX DNPQ	USA DNPQ	MON DNPQ	FRA DNPQ	GBR										11th	14
	Garry Rogers Motorsport								GER 2	NED 7	BEL Ret	POR 5	MED 2	MAC Ret	CHN 12	JPN 20*	BRA
2014	Garry Rogers Motorsport	TAS Ret	AUS 4	BRA	MEX 7	USA Ret	MON 5	FRA 4	GBR 9	GER 16	BEL EX	ITA EX	MED Ret	SEA 11	MAC Ret	CHN 9	JPN 17	17th	8
2015	Valvoline Holden Racing Team	TAS 7	AUS Ret	MED 7	MON 6	MEX 12*	USA Ret	CAN Ret	GBR DNQ	GER DNPQ	BEL 16	AUT DNPQ	ITA DNPQ	SEA DNPQ	CHN 9*	JPN DNPQ	BRA	=23rd	1
2016	Mobil Holden Racing Team	AUS DNPQ	NSW 11	GBR Ret	ITA 8	AUT 7	CAN	USS	USN	GER	SEA	MON	BEL	MEX	ARG	CHN	JPN	=16th*	0*

IRDU Rejects Cup Results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	DC	Pts
2011 (as F1RLFS)	Rosenforth Engineering	SCL 18	KRO 7	WES 19	AST 11	BLA 10	FER 17	17th	3

REECCS Results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	DC	Pts
2011	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Skoda 110R	BSP 6	TGT 9	KNO 4	LRN 3	LYD 4	ROC 6	F8T Ret	SAN 6	SAO 22	ORA	LYN Ret	MON 26	PAU 13	BKM 4	MNZ 19	LIE 5	NOR 21	BAT 35		11th	107
2012	Garry Rogers Motorsport	Dacia 1300	BSP DNQ	ARM 35	TGT 17	VAN Ret	MON 19	LIE 33	KIC 15	CXS 9	USC	MIS	BAT	RAB	OPA	LYN	NOR	ADE	SUR	MIA	F8T	29th	14

Career summary

Year	Series	Team	Position
1999	Australian Formula Ford	ZimSport	5th
2000	Australian Formula Ford	ZimSport	3rd
2001	Australian Formula Ford	ZimSport	1st
2002	Konica V8 Supercar Series	MW Motorsport	6th
2003	Konica V8 Supercar Series	Holden Young Lions	2nd
	V8 Supercar Championship Series	Garry Rogers Motorsport	56th
2004	V8 Supercar Championship Series	Garry Rogers Motorsport	11th
2005	V8 Supercar Championship Series	Garry Rogers Motorsport	1st
2006	GP2 Series	iSport International	7th
	V8 Supercar Championship Series	Garry Rogers Motorsport	40th
2007	Formula One	Super Aguri	26th
2008	Formula One	Honda F1	14th
2009	Formula One	Brawn GP	5th
	V8 Supercars Championship Series	Garry Rogers Motorsport	35th
2010	F1RWRS	Rosenforth Engineering	2nd
2011	F1RWRS	Rosenforth Engineering	5th
		NAB-Holden Racing Team
	F1RLFS	Rosenforth Engineering	17th*
	REECCS	Garry Rogers Motorsport	11th
2012	F1RWRS	NAB-Holden Racing Team	15th
		O'Lauchlan Motorsport
2013	F1RWRS	Shell Horizon Motorsport	12th*
		Garry Rogers Motorsport
2014	F1RWRS	Garry Rogers Motorsport	17th
2015	F1RWRS	Valvoline Holden Racing Team	=13th