A consistent but not spectacular driver is how best to describe Nick Heidfeld a veteran of 175 Formula One Grand Prix. Despite the nickname ‘Quick Nick’ Mr Heidfeld always seems quick yet not quick enough. Following a disappointing debut for Lotus-Renault in Australia where he qualified 17th and clearly lacked any real pace during the race, one wonders if Heidfeld really is the right replacement for the injured Robert Kubica.
Despite Lotus-Renault having a number of choices to fill in for the injured Kubica, with five reserve drivers, they went for good, old, reliable Heidfeld. Much of this decision was based on Vitaly Petrov who with just one year’s experience of Formula One was deemed not ready to lead the team. This has left Heidfeld with big Kubica sized boots to fill. Kubica showed himself to be an outstanding driver in 2010 consistently beating team-mate Petrov and challenging the front runners. Heidfeld now needs to live up to the huge expectations on him from his team who hoped for Grand Prix victories this year, yet without a Grand Prix win to his name is this really asking too much?
Heidfeld has not had the best of luck in F1; he began his career at Prost in 2000 where he was regarded crash prone, he failed to make an impact over the next few years moving from Sauber to Jordan and then to Williams, where he sat out most of the season due to injury, before finding himself back at Sauber under its new guise BMW Sauber in 2006. At BMW Sauber he thrived beating his team-mate Kubica consistently and finishing a career best fifth in the drivers’ standings in 2007 and sixth the following year. However a lack-lustre 2009 left Heidfeld without a drive for 2010. This saw him become the Mercedes GP test driver before moving on to test for new tyre supplier Pirelli. Late in the season he replaced Pedro De La Rosa at BMW Sauber but was not retained for the 2011 season.
His misfortune is further reflected in the records he holds as the driver who has scored the most Grand Prix points without a victory, he shares the record for the most podium finishes without a Grand Prix win and he holds the most second place finishes without a Grand Prix win. These records could purely be down to bad luck but some may question if Heidfeld really has the talent and ability to win an F1 race.
This leads us to question why Lotus-Renault has chosen Heidfeld, yes he is a consistent, reliable driver and has experience with the Pirelli tyres but does he really have the same pizazz that Kubica does? His dubious performance in Australia raised further questions about his ability but I suppose that if what Lotus Renault are searching for is a generally consistent but not spectacular driver then they have found the man to fill the Kubica shaped hole at Lotus-Renault.