F1’s Underrated heroes, ep.1: Nick Heidfeld

As a driver with 183 race starts in F1, the name Nick Heidfeld will be familiar to most, but ‘Quick Nick’ never got all the accolades he deserved, despite the time spent in the series.

Heidfeld began his F1 affiliation in 1998, serving as a test driver for the then West McLaren team, before a joint role with McLaren again 1999 alongside the same duty for the Prost team for whom he’d make his Formula 1 bow in 2000.

📸Heidfeld for Prost.

The German driver impressed for the French team racing alongside multiple race winner Jean Alesi. Heidfeld would end the season pointless, but outperformed his veteran teammate despite just six race finishes due to an unreliable car, plus an exclusion from his home race due an underweight car, for which his team took responsibility.

Heidfeld departed Prost for a stint at Sauber, where in 2001 he was partnered with Kimi Räikkönen, who he’d go onto beat in the championship as he did with Alesi the previous season, including taking his first podium of his F1 career. Heidfeld was again partnered with a rookie - Felipe Massa - in 2002, and once again beat his teammate in the championship, for a third successive season. 2003 was more of a struggle for Sauber, and alongside a new teammate, experienced Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and Heidfeld departed the team at the end of the season in favour of Jordan.

📸The German made a name for himself with Sauber.

His stint with Jordan saw the team struggle again, and he was Jordan’s only consistent driver as they rotated compatriot Timo Glock & Giorgio Pantano.

2005 to 2009 saw the most fruitful spell of Heidfeld’s career, where as a BMW driver he moved from Williams and back to Sauber, gathering 11 podiums along the way, and the ‘Quick Nick’ moniker associated with him to this day.

📸Heidfeld shares the podium with Fernando Alonso (centre) and Rubens Barrichello (right).

The door looked closed to Heidfeld after serving as test driver for the new Mercedes team in 2010 alongside a tyre test role for Pirelli before a five race comeback with Sauber as a late season replacement for Pedro De La Rosa.

Ex-Sauber teammate Robert Kubica’s horrific off season rally accident saw Heidfeld given a final chance in F1 for Lotus, racing 11 out of 19 Grands Prix before being replaced by Bruno Senna, walking away with his head held high and an F1 career to be proud of.

📸Heidfeld leaps clear of his stricken Lotus car.

Post F1 saw him compete in Formula E and multiple sports car series, and was still a Formula E reserve as recently as 2021.

His F1 legacy sees him spoken highly of and the German holds a somewhat unwanted record of being the driver with the most F1 podiums without ever winning a race (13). The chances to race for Mercedes never came up and he remained sadly winless, you certainly cannot say he wasn’t deserving of that elusive win.

📸Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Sky Sports.