If you’ve got an interview appointment with Nick Heidfeld, you can bet he’ll roll up right on the edge of the time envelope, radiating an imperturbable calm – before turning his attention one hundred percent to his interviewer. Whatever this man does, he does well. Not yet five, he would race his brothers Sven and Tim in Motocross. His parents, Angelika and Wolfgang, lived a fast, fun-filled life with their sons. “I had a wonderful childhood,” says “Quick Nick”, who still loves to bring his parents and siblings with him to the race track. Even his grandmother comes along from time to time. Nick is the smallest of the Heidfeld clan at 1.67 metres. “If I had designed myself, I would have made myself a bit bigger,” he admits, but in motor racing it was always an advantage being small.” Almost always. It was a long haul before he reached the minimum height to be able to ride hire karts. When he finally got there, he immediately left his father trailing at the Nürburgring kart track. At the age of eight he was given his first kart and began entering club championships in Kerpen-Manheim, races at national level and European and World Championship events. In formula racing the triumphs were not long in coming either. At 17, Nick won the German Formula Ford 1600 Championship after taking eight wins in nine races. A year later he claimed the title in Formula Ford 1800. In 1996, aged 19, he was the youngest driver on the grid of German Formula 3. It was a strong debut with three wins and third place overall. He also claimed a pole position and a race win in the Formula 3 World Final on the challenging Macau street circuit, which remains his favourite track to this day, as well as third place in Formula 3’s showdown in Zandvoort. It was in 1997 that Nick got his first taste of the pressures of being in the public eye. His first Formula One test drive with McLaren Mercedes had aroused interest and before the season even got underway he was already being heralded as the forthcoming Formula 3 champion. Indeed, Nick secured a commanding championship title with five wins, including the prestigious Formula 3 Grand Prix in Monaco. In 1998 and 1999 he continued along his path in International Formula 3000. After three wins to finish as championship runner-up in the first year, the second saw him dominate and claim four wins to secure the title. In parallel with this he was testing for Formula One. In 2000 he gained his first driver’s contract in motorsport’s crowning discipline, though the prospects for the new team established by Alain Prost were far from promising. When he joined Peter Sauber’s team in 2001, his team-mate was to be Kimi Räikkönen. In 2002 it was Felipe Massa. He surpassed both of them – and learnt how to live with the inevitable comparisons newcomers were subjected to: “If you’re faster than some wunderkind, it’s normal. If you’re slower, you’re an idiot. It’s a no-win situation, so you just have to carry on working in a focused way.” He claimed his first podium place for Sauber at the 2001 Brazil Grand Prix. He drove for the team for three years. “It was a good time,” recalls Nick, who had swapped his Monaco apartment for a house in Stäfa, Switzerland at the time. Since 2005 he has been able to spend the winter knowing at the outset where his career would take him the following. That wasn’t always the case. When his contract with Sauber was not renewed at the end of 2003 he just managed to climb on board with Jordan at a late stage. One winter on and he was battling for a place in the BMW WilliamsF1 Team in a shootout with Antonio Pizzonia that went on for months. Not until the January presentation did Team Principal, Frank Williams, tell him that the decision had been made in his favour. In 2005 Nick put himself on the map in the Williams with strong races, bold passing manoeuvres, a pole position, three podium places and his analytical work with the engineers. BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen had already earmarked him as the driver of choice for the new BMW Sauber F1 Team. “I’m in this project body and soul,” says Nick. “Each new team comes along with a five-year plan and wants to be world champion at the end of it. In 2006 and 2007, in parallel with the team’s development work, we managed to exceed our targets. We’re on the right path and we’re a good team.”
