On the Daily News and Analysis website, the IANS news agency quotes Frentzen as saying: "As you grow older, you tend to hesitate and become indecisive whether or not to push and take risks. You lose precious tenths of a second. I think, Michael is at that stage in his career."
Frentzen and fellow German Schumacher were rivals from their early days in karting and were later partners in Mercedes' junior sports car racing programme, where they were equally competitive, but in Formula One, Schumacher went on to dominate the sport with seven world championships, whereas Frentzen only ever achieved three wins.
“I think, I took the wrong decisions while Michael (Schumacher) took the right ones,” said Frentzen.
“In 1994, I joined Sauber and later that year, I had an offer from Williams as a replacement for Ayrton Senna who died in a crash. I rejected the offer as Sauber had given me a break into Formula One, but when I eventually joined Williams in 1997, things had changed in the team. I had some good races and bad, but after I retired in 2003, I have never really missed Formula One."