F1Weekly Podcast # 1004
Play Podcast: 08-08-23f1weekly1004mp3
NO SUMMER BREAK FOR F1WEEKLY! AS WE PREPARE FOR MONTEREY CAR WEEK, WE WANT TO INVITE ALL THE LISTENERS TO LAGUNA SECA BECAUSE IT’S FUN! THIS WEEKS MOTORSPORTS MONDIAL IS A FULL GOODY BAG INCLUDING OUR DIVE INTO THE F1W ARCHIVES BRINGING YOU ONE OF OUR FAVORITES…NICK HEIDFELD!
Formula 1 with Prost and Sauber
Much in demand, Heidfeld tested for both the McLaren and Prost F1 teams during 1999. He graduated to GP racing in 2000 with the French outfit but it was a disastrous season as the team floundered. Heidfeld’s confidence took a battering before he moved to Sauber-Petronas for 2001 as team-mate for precocious youngster Kimi Räikkönen.
An excellent campaign included third position in the wet Brazilian GP as Heidfeld shared seventh in the championship.
Despite out-qualifying and out-scoring Räikkönen, it was the Finn who was chosen by McLaren for 2002. Heidfeld continued with Sauber but suffered a huge accident in Austria when he T-boned Takuma Satō’s Jordan.
Podium finishes for Williams and BMW Sauber.
A move to the underfunded Jordan Grand Prix for 2004 proved little better but Heidfeld found refuge for the following season with Williams-BMW after a testing “shoot-out” with Antônio Pizzonia. Third in Malaysia at the start of 2005, the German scored successive second place finishes in Monaco and at the Nürburgring – the latter from a maiden pole position. He crashed in testing before the Italian GP and was forced to miss the rest of the season but his F1 reputation had been restored somewhat.
He remained with BMW when the company bought Sauber that close season but he continued to be a frustrated “nearly man”. His four years with the BMW Sauber F1 Team yielded another eight podium finishes but no victory. He compared favourably with team-mate Jacques Villeneuve in 2006 and finished fifth in the 2007 World Championship with a succession of points finishes that included second in Canada. But when BMW Sauber finally won its first race – the 2008 Canadian GP – it was team-mate Robert Kubica who led a 1-2 for the team.
Life after BMW
BMW withdrew from F1 at the end of 2009 and Heidfeld was left without a drive so he joined the newly rebranded Mercedes GP as reserve driver for 2010. He also tested for Pirelli as it prepared to return to F1 and drove a Sauber C29-Ferrari in the last five GPs after replacing Pedro de la Rosa.
When Kubica was injured in a rally accident on the eve of the 2011 season, Heidfeld was chosen by Renault as his replacement. Again he finished third in Malaysia but that proved the highlight of an increasingly disappointing campaign and he was eventually replaced by Bruno Senna for the Belgian GP.