Nick Heidfeld

**Nick Lars Heidfeld** (born 10 May 1977) was a German Formula 1.5 driver, who won 2 world titles in 2001 and 2007.

## Early Life and Career

Heidfeld was born in Mönchengladbach, West Germany, to a German mother and a British father, on 10 May 1977, and began racing karts at the age of 11 in 1988. In 1994 he moved into the German Formula Ford series, gaining widespread attention by winning 8 of the 9 races to take the title that season. 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 Formula Three Championship for 1996, where he finished third overall, after taking 3 wins. He entered the end of the season Macau Grand Prix and won the first heat of the race, attracting the attention of compatriot Norbert Haug, who later signed him up for the West Competition team.

## F1.5 Career

### Prost (2000)

#### 2000 Season

Heidfeld was signed as a race driver for the Prost Grand Prix F1 team for the 2000 season, alongside Formula One veteran Jean Alesi. Heidfeld struggled with his new car and suffered a string of retirements, as well as colliding with his teammate on more than one occasion. Prost was a backmarker team, which saw Nick score 3 points in his rookie season.

### Sauber (2001-2003)

#### 2001 Season

He departed Prost at the end of 2000, before signing a three-year contract with Sauber for 2001. He was partnered with then rookie driver Kimi Räikkönen. Heidfeld won his maiden F1.5 World Title in 2001, beating Jacques Villeneuve by 5 points and Raikkonen by a further 1 point. Heidfeld took his maiden win at the start of the season in Australia, which was also his first podium in F1.5.

#### 2002 Season

2002 was another strong year for Heidfeld, finishing runners up in the championship to Jenson Button. Nick finished just 3 points short of his 2001 total points tally and missed out on the 2002 championship by 13 points. Heidfeld took 2 wins over the season at Spain and Germany.

#### 2003 Season

2003 was a weaker year than the previous two, finishing fourth in the championship on 63 points and failing to win any grand prix over the season. He did however beat his teammate by 10 points in fith place.

### Jordan (2004)

#### 2004 Season

At the end of the 2003 season, Heidfeld was replaced at the Sauber team by Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella and looked to be without a race seat for the 2004 season. However, after impressing during a series of preseason tests, it was announced that Heidfeld would race with the financially strapped Jordan team, alongside rookie Giorgio Pantano. The EJ14 was an upgrade of the previous season's uncompetitive EJ13 and proved slow. Despite this, Heidfeld often outperformed the car, finishing ahead of more competitive vehicles. His best finish in the season was fourth at Monaco. Nick finished the season with 19 points in 12th place in the drivers championship.

### Williams (2005)

#### 2005 Season

During the winter of 2004–2005, Heidfeld tested with the Williams team, in a 'shootout' against Antônio Pizzonia for the second race seat alongside Mark Webber. At the Williams launch on 31 January 2005, it was announced that Heidfeld would be the race driver for the team in 2005, replacing the McLaren-bound Juan Pablo Montoya. 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.

In the races that he did compete in, Heidfeld was strong winning 3 races and taking many more podiums. He was in the title fight during the part of the season where he took part.

### BMW Sauber (2006-2010)

#### 2006 Season

Heidfeld gained a contract with his then Williams' engine supplier, BMW, when they bought the Sauber team (BMW and Sauber merger) and entered Formula One as BMW Sauber for the 2006 season, replacing Felipe Massa who was bound for Ferrari.

Heidfeld had a strong season which saw him finish third in the drivers standings with 77 points. Whilst he may have only scored 1 win during the 2006 season, he did take a total of 8 podiums and 2 pole position's.

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 him.

#### 2007 Season

2007 was the year Heidfeld became a double F1.5 world champion, winning the championship over teammate Robert Kubica by 30 points. Heidfeld won the first three races of the season all from pole position. He would also win 4 more race's in a row later in the season between Hungary and Belgium. The season was dominant from Heidfeld with 8 wins and 12 podiums, as well as 8 pole positions.

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.

#### 2008 Season

BMW Sauber was promoted to F1.0 for the 2008 season, therefore Nick Heidfeld did not take part in the 2008 F1.5 season.

#### 2009 Season

2009 wasn't a particulary strong year for the German driver, finishing third with 78 points, finishing over 30 points off of the world champion. Heidfeld took two wins (Malaysia and Abu Dhabi) whilst taking 1 pole and 8 podiums. In Singapore, Heidfeld's run of 41 consecutive classified finishes was brought to an end due to a collision with Force India's Adrian Sutil.

### 2010 (Mercedes and Sauber)

#### Mercedes Test Driver

Following BMW's decision to withdraw from the sport at the end of the 2009 season, Heidfeld's future in Formula One was uncertain. It was mentioned that he was considered to drive for Mercedes GP alongside fellow German Nico Rosberg but the team signed another German in Michael Schumacher instead. McLaren was also a potential destination however these negotiations came to nothing as well. Heidfeld was then tipped for a seat at Sauber alongside Kamui Kobayashi but they decided to go with Pedro de la Rosa. Heidfeld was then in the running for a Renault seat alongside fellow BMW Sauber refugee Robert Kubica, but on 4 February, Heidfeld was confirmed as the test and reserve driver for Mercedes.

In August 2010, with Heidfeld not yet having driven the Mercedes MGP W01 car, the team released him from his contract so that he could become the Pirelli tyre company's test driver. Heidfeld tested a Toyota TF109 car fitted with Pirelli tyres on a number of occasions in 2010, ahead of the firm's replacement of Bridgestone as the sport's sole tyre supplier in 2011. Heidfeld completed three tests for Pirelli in Mugello, Paul Ricard and Jerez before being released from his duties to join Sauber, with his place being taken by Romain Grosjean.

#### Return to Sauber

In September 2010, Heidfeld returned to the Formula One grid, replacing Pedro de la Rosa at the Sauber team for the remainder of the 2010 season. This marked his third spell with them. On 4 October 2010, Sauber confirmed their driver line-up for 2011 as Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez, seemingly leaving Heidfeld without a drive for 2011, before replacing Robert Kubica at Renault, who was injured in a rally accident on 6 February 2011.

Heidfeld only competed in 5 race's for the season but did manage to take 1 podium and score 33 points.

### Lotus (2011)

#### 2011 Season

On 9 February, Lotus Renault GP confirmed that Heidfeld would be sharing testing duties with Bruno Senna on the Saturday and Sunday of the four-day test at Jerez, to evaluate the drivers in preparation of replacing the injured and former BMW Sauber teammate Robert Kubica, who had suffered long-term injuries to his arm and hand in a crash whilst rallying in Italy, for the 2011 season. On the Saturday, Heidfeld set the quickest time of the day, stating that he enjoyed his day's running – 86 laps – with the team, and had fun driving the car. Heidfeld was confirmed as Kubica's replacement on 16 February 2011. Heidfeld was replaced by Bruno Senna ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. Heidfeld officially parted company with the team on 2 September 2011.

In his time at Lotus during the season, Heidfeld scored 5 podiums including 1 win. Scoring 116 Points.