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Nick Heidfeld

Heidfeld at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
Nationality German
Formula One World Championship career
Current team	BMW Sauber
Car #	3
Races	146 (144 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	10
Career points	181
Pole positions	1
Fastest laps	2
First race	2000 Australian Grand Prix
Last race	2008 European Grand Prix
2007 position	5th (61 pts)

Nick Lars Heidfeld, frequently referred to as Quick Nick,^[1] (born May 10, 1977 in Mönchengladbach, West Germany) is a German Formula One auto racing driver for the BMW Sauber team.

Despite his recent success Heidfeld is yet to win a race during his nine seasons in Formula One. Should he break his duck he will hold the record for most Grands Prix contested before doing so. The record is currently held by Rubens Barrichello who won his first race at the 123rd attempt. Heidfeld also currently holds the record for the highest number of world championship points scored by a driver who has not won a Grand Prix.

Early career

Heidfeld was born in Mönchengladbach, Germany, and began racing in 1988. In 1994, he moved into the German Formula Ford series, and gained widespread attention by winning 8 of the 9 races to take the title. In 1995, he won the German International Formula Ford 1800 Championship, and came second in the Zetec Cup. This led to a drive in the German International Formula 3 championship for 1996, where he finished third after taking 3 wins. The following year, Heidfeld won the German F3 Championship, including a win at the prestigious Monaco event. In 1998, he won three races and was runner-up in the European Formula 3000 Championship with the West Junior Team. At the final race of the season he was demoted to the back of the grid from pole position, after his team used non-compliant fuel.^[2] He finished the race ninth and out of the points, losing the championship by seven points to Juan Pablo Montoya. During that season, he was also the official test driver for the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team. In 1999, he won the International Formula 3000 Championship. He also holds the official track record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which he took in 1999.^[3]

Formula One career

2000: Prost

Heidfeld was signed as a race driver for the Prost Grand Prix F1 team for the 2000 season, alongside Jean Alesi. Heidfeld struggled with his new car. He suffered a string of retirements and collided with team mate Jean Alesi on more than one occasion.

2001-2003: Sauber

He departed Prost at the end of that season. Shortly after he signed a three-year contract with Sauber for 2001, partnered with rookie driver Kimi Räikkönen. After the announcement of Mika Häkkinen's retirement, many thought that Heidfeld would replace him in the McLaren team,^[4] as he had outperformed Räikkönen over the year, including a podium position in the Brazilian Grand Prix. However, the seat went to Räikkönen, and Heidfeld stayed with Sauber for 2002 and 2003.

Heidfeld at the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix

2004: Jordan

At the end of 2003, Heidfeld was dumped from the team and looked to be without a race seat for the 2004 season. However, after a number of moderately successful tests, it was announced that Heidfeld would race with the Jordan Grand Prix team, alongside rookie Giorgio Pantano.

During the winter of 2004–2005, Heidfeld tested with the Williams team, in a 'shootout' against Antônio Pizzonia for the second race seat. At the Williams launch on January 31, it was announced that Heidfeld would be a race driver for the team in 2005.^[5]

2005: BMW Williams

Heidfeld driving for Williams at the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix.

At the seventh race of the 2005 season at the Nürburgring circuit, his home Grand Prix, Heidfeld took his first ever pole position. He also achieved his best position to-date (2nd) with Williams in Monaco, which he equalled at the Nürburgring.

Heidfeld missed the Italian and Belgian Grands Prix due to injuries suffered in a testing accident. Scheduled to come back for Brazil, he was injured again when hit by a motorbike when out cycling, and therefore forced to sit out the rest of the season.

2006 onwards: BMW Sauber

Heidfeld gained a contract with his then current team's (Williams) engine supplier, BMW, who bought the Sauber team and entered Formula One as BMW Sauber for the 2006 Formula One season.

Heidfeld driving for BMW Sauber at the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix.

During 2006 Heidfeld scored points several times for his new team. At Melbourne he ran as high as second until the safety car came out. He eventually finished fourth. At Indianapolis, he was eliminated in a spectacular first lap accident which saw fellow drivers, Scott Speed, Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya also go out. Heidfeld's car was launched into a triple barrel roll, the first of his career and the second of the season (Christijan Albers suffered one at the 2006 San Marino Grand Prix). He and the other drivers all walked away unharmed. The Hungarian Grand Prix saw Heidfeld give BMW Sauber their first podium and best result of the year when he finished third. He drove from 10th on the grid to finish on the podium.

At the end of 2006, Heidfeld was quoted attacking the media's saturation coverage of his teammate Robert Kubica, who had scored fewer points than Heidfeld.^[6] This has happened three times in the German's career, in 2001 when he was teammates with Kimi Räikkönen (by season's end he beat the Finn by 12 points to 9) and in 2002 when he was teammates with Felipe Massa (beating Massa by 7 points to 4); Räikkönen and Massa formed the 2007 Ferrari line-up.

Heidfeld driving for BMW Sauber at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, where he took his best result of the season by finishing in second place.

Heidfeld took second place at the 2008 Australian Grand Prix.

Nick Heidfeld who finished second in 2008 Australian Grand Prix with race winner Lewis Hamilton on the podium

Heidfeld started the 2007 Formula One season strongly. In Bahrain, he chased down and overtook reigning world champion Fernando Alonso around the outside, finishing half a minute ahead of his BMW teammate Kubica. He scored three fourth places in the opening three races, a sixth at Monaco, and a second place at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he also out-qualified both Ferraris, equalling his best ever finish at a Formula One race. After retiring from fifth place at Indianapolis, he was outscored by team-mate Kubica at both Magny-Cours and Silverstone. At an eventful European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Heidfeld's home circuit, where he collided with Kubica on the opening lap, he recovered and overtook Kubica on the final lap to finish sixth, despite making six pitstops during the race. Heidfeld returned to form in Hungary, qualifying second and finishing third to score his and BMW's second podium of the season. He finished fourth at the Turkish and Italian Grand Prix, and fifth in the Belgian Grand Prix. He eventually finished a career-best fifth in the championship, with 61 points, 22 clear of nearest rival Kubica.

On 28 April 2007, Heidfeld drove three demonstration laps around the Nürburgring's legendary 14 mile Nordschleife track, which made him the first driver in 31 years to pilot a current F1 car there. About 45,000 spectators attended the event, which was held after a four hour VLN endurance race.

After several months of negotiations, BMW confirmed that Heidfeld would stay with the team for 2008.^[7]

Heidfeld began the 2008 season strongly, finishing 2nd in Australia after qualifying 5th. In Malaysia, he qualified fifth but dropped down to 10th at the first corner after being pushed wide by Jarno Trulli. He got back up to sixth, also setting his first ever fastest lap in the process. In Bahrain starting from 6th place he did not gain a place but passed Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen to climb up to fourth. He finished there and this fourth gave him second in the championship.

After a few disappointing qualifying sessions and races in the following weeks (after which the German press started to call him "Leidfeld" (from "Leid" meaning "misery" in German))^{citation needed}, Kubica and Heidfeld made BMW Sauber history by securing the third-year team's first victory, and first one-two finish respectively in Montreal, Canada on June 9, 2008. Heidfeld was positioned eighth on the grid, and after losing a place at the start before clawing it back, was sitting comfortably in eighth place once again before a safety car situation saw the top 7 cars enter the pits in what was to soon become a bizarre series of errors that left Heidfeld and Kubica battling for the top two places. Heidfeld was switched to a 1 stop fuel strategy and came out of his stop ahead of Kubica, but considerably heavier on fuel. Not long afterwards, Heidfeld moved off the racing line allowing Kubica to make an easy pass, which then allowed the lighter BMW Sauber to build up a considerable lead on Heidfeld, who was occupied with preventing Fernando Alonso, also in a lighter car, from chasing Kubica. The gap built by Kubica allowed him to rejoin the race comfortably in the lead after his final pitstop with no threats behind him. Heidfeld finished the race second, solidifying his fifth place position in the driver's points. Heidfeld had a disappointing French Grand Prix after failing to score any points. He came back strongly at the British Grand Prix, starting 5th and finishing second in the wet conditions. Another strong performance, where he set the fastest lap of the race for the second time this season, in his home grand prix at the Hockenheimring shows that, for the time being, he has reversed the performance deficit to his team mate.

Racing record

Career summary

* Season in progress

Complete Formula One results

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

* Season in progress

Personal life

Heidfeld lives in Stäfa, Switzerland with his wife Patricia, daughter Juni (born July 2005) and son Joda (born July 2007).^[8] He has an elder brother, Tim and a younger brother, Sven, who is also a racing driver.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Nick Heidfeld

• Nick Heidfeld official website (German)/(English)
• Unofficial Nick Heidfeld Fansite (English)/(Portuguese)
• Nick Heidfeld career early career to F1
• Nick Heidfeld profile and statistics
• Nick Heidfeld statistics
• BMW Sauber F1 Team homepage

v • d • e BMW Sauber Personnel: Mario Theissen | Peter Sauber | Willy Rampf Current drivers: Nick Heidfeld | Robert Kubica | Christian Klien | Marko Asmer Formula One cars: F1.06 | F1.07 | F1.08