Nick Heidfeld

Birthdate: May 10th 1977   Country: Germany   Gender: M

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History: 2003 -  Formula 1: Sauber Petronas, 14th, 6 points 2004 -  Formula 1: Jordan Ford, 18th, 3 points

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Quick Nick, as he is known, has never really had the chance to prove himself in a top Formula One car until this year, and he is making the most of his opportunity.

The German burst onto the international stage in the 1998 FIA Formula 3000 championship, where he went toe to toe with Juan Pablo Montoya all season, just losing out to the Colombian in the end. Montoya left for Champ Cars in North America and so Nick had the opportunity to take the F3000 championship in 1999 driving for the McLaren Junior Team, it appeared the unassuming German was on his way to greatness with McLaren Formula one, having won seven races in two F3000 seasons. However McLaren F1 were already equipped with two time World Champion Mika Hakkinen, and loyal teammate David Coulthard, so there were no immediate openings on the senior team.

However McLaren were still very interested in Heidfeld and they wanted Nick to get some F1 experience, they convinced former McLaren man Alain Prost to take him on to Prost Grand Prix? for the 2000 season to partner veteran Jean Alesi. However the 2000 season was unkind to both Heidfeld and Prost GP as the car was slow and the Peugeot engines were painfully unreliable, Heidfeld and Prost GP went the season pointless and on the edge of bankruptcy, Heidfeld had only finished 5 of 17 races in 2000 but he had impressed enough to be signed by a slightly better team, Sauber for 2001.

If 2000 was a terrible season for Heidfeld, 2001 was a great one, he finished eighth in the driver's championship and got his maiden podium in only his third race with Sauber. He and rookie Kimi Raikkonen led Sauber to a fourth place finish with Heidfeld outpointing Raikkonen 12-9. With the retirement of Mika Hakkinen at the end of 2001 there was a vacancy at McLaren, and Heidfeld looked to be in pole position for the ride, however Ron Dennis opted for Heidfeld's teammate, Kimi Raikkonen instead, Heidfeld was not pleased, but he stayed on at Sauber and in 2002 he became team leader and again outpointed his teammate, rookie Felipe Massa, 7-4. Heidfeld was determined to keep his chances alive, but Raikkonen kept his job at McLaren, and Heidfeld was forced to keep his.

Sensing his career was on the brink, Heidfeld tried to be more aggressive in 2003, but he ended up only making more mistakes and being outperformed by veteran teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen, this didn't impress Peter Sauber and he was fired at the end of 2003. It appeared that Quick Nick's dreams were over, but Eddie Jordan threw him a life preserver and gave him a ride for 2004. However Jordan were in all sorts in 2004 and Heidfeld was miserable, the team was going nowhere and neither was Heidfeld's career, he only scored three points in 18 races.

2005 looked to be doomed for Heidfeld, but with BMW Williams needing a driver, and with Heidfeld being German, to appease the folks at BMW, Heidfeld was offered a chance at the Williams ride, and he didn't dissapoint, outpacing Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia to earn the right to line up in Melbourne. Heidfeld hasn't dissapointed this season scoring three podiums and one pole position and ouptacing his teammate Mark Webber. After six long years it appears that Heidfeld's potential has finally shown itself, and at only 28 he has alot of F1 left in front of him.

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Statistics

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Statistic	#	Percentage	First	Last
Number of Grand Prix	145	100%	2000	2008
Number of starts	145	100.00%	2000	2008
Number of finishes	104	71.72%	2000	2008
Number of finishes on podium	10	6.90%	2001	2008
Number of finishes in points	52	35.86%	2001	2008
Number of retirements	42	28.97%	2000	2007
Number of pole positions	1	0.69%	2005	2005

Seasons:	9 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
Leading:	3 times during 4 laps in 3 Grand Prix with a total of 19.943 Km
Points:	181 (Average per start: 1.25)
	Points per season - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 0 12 7 6 3 28 23 61 41 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Team:	Gauloises Prost Peugeot (2000), Red Bull Sauber Petronas (2001), Sauber Petronas (2002), Sauber Petronas (2003), Jordan Ford (2004), BMW WilliamsF1 Team (2005), BMW Sauber F1 Team (2006), BMW Sauber F1 Team (2007), BMW Sauber F1 Team (2008)
Chassis:	Prost AP03 (2000), Sauber C20 (2001), Sauber C21 (2002), Sauber C22 (2003), Jordan EJ14 (2004), Williams FW27 (2005), BMW F1.06 (2006), BMW Sauber F1.07 (2007), BMW Sauber F1.08 (2008)
Engine:	Peugeot 3.0 V10 (A18) (2000), Petronas 01A (2001), Petronas 02A (2002), Petronas 03A (2003), Ford Cosworth (2004), BMW P85 (2005), BMW F1.06 (2006), BMW P86/7 (2007), BMW P86/8 (2008)