Racing driver Nick Heidfeld: biography, results, statistics and interesting facts

Nick Heidfeld was born May 10, 1977 in Mönchengladbach (Germany) and from a young age was involved in motorcycling, dealing with his brothers motocross at the age of five. Later, he received his first card and participated in various regional, national and international championships. At the age of 17, Heidfeld began to perform in Formula Ford and made a great debut there. To get the title, he won eight races out of nine.

Nick Heidfeld: biography of the racer

The following year, the pilot spoke at the German international championship "Formula-Ford-1800", and then - at the championship "Formula-3" in 1996. Again, Heidfeld scored three victories, taking the third place overall. But if not the biggest, then, of course, the most important achievement for his future career was the victory in the Grand Prix of Macao. This success later helped Nick sign a contract with the West Sports team led by Norbert Haug.

German "Formula-3"

In 1997, Nick Heidfeld received the title of champion of Formula 3, and the following year he came second in the international series of Formula 3000, speaking for West Competing, losing the battle for the title of Juan Pablo Montoya. Good performance in 1999 helped him become a test pilot of the McLaren team, sponsored by West, and in the same year he won Formula 3000. At the same time, the driver debuted in the 24-hour race at the Le Mans track as part of the Mercedes team, but the car he shared with Mark Webber and Peter Dumbray could not finish the competition.

Nick Heidfeld: "Formula 1"

Nick will remember the year 2000 as the year of his debut at the Formula 1 Grand Prix. He was in favor of the "Simple Grand Prix", but he had an unreliable car with which the pilot could not score a single point. In 2001, Nick Heidfeld, racer F1, signed a three-year contract with the team "Sauber" and surprised many with good performances. He finished eighth and entered the podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, in 2002 Nick Heidfeld failed to repeat the results of the previous year and took 10th place, and in the 2003 championship he was 14th, for two years he never managed to climb the podium, but still gaining points With a small team and not enough competitive cars.

When his contract expired in 2004, Heidfeld was left without a job. Fortunately, he had noticeable results in the preseason period, and the Jordan team offered him a one-year contract. Nick again was not competitive enough car and he scored only three points to finish on the 18th place in the overall standings.

Despite the relatively weak results, Nick was still in demand with the beginning teams. In 2005, with Heidfeld decided to sign the contract "Williams", and the German driver coped well, often ahead of his team-mate Mark Webber, who was considered the main pilot. In the same year at the "Nurburgring" he also won the pole position for the first time and climbed three times on the podium - at the "Nurburgring" and in Monaco he finished second and third on the "Sepang" track. Unfortunately, due to injuries sustained during testing, Heidfeld was forced to miss the last three runs that year, and then after injuries sustained by a motorcycle collision while riding a bicycle. With 28 points in his account, Nick took 11th place in the championship of pilots.

Return to Sauber

Heidfeld signed a contract with the supplier of Williams BMW engines after the company acquired the "Sauber" team and began the performance in the "Formula-1" of the 2006 season under the name of "BMW Sauber", replacing Felipe Massa, who moved to "Ferrari".

In 2006, Nick repeatedly scored points for his new team. In Melbourne, he walked second, until the safety car left the track. In the end, he finished fourth. In Indianapolis, Nick was out of the fight in a spectacular accident on the first lap, which also included pilots Scott Speed, Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya. Heidfeld's car made four full turns, but the driver and other drivers remained unharmed. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, Nick provided BMW the first podium and the best result of the year, when he finished third, despite the fact that he started the race in the tenth.

In late 2006, Heidfeld opposed criticism in the media, directed against his team-mate Robert Kubica, who scored less points than he did. This happened twice already in the career of the rider: in 2001, when he competed with Kimi Raikkonen, which he beat with 12 points against 9, and in 2002, speaking with Felipe Massa, whom he won with a score of 7 to 4. Raikkonen and Massa Later, they played in the "Ferrari" in 2007.

With "Sauber" he spent four seasons and proved that he deserves a place in the most popular racing series. In his first year with the new team racing driver was the ninth. The third place in the "Hungaroring" was the best result that Heidfeld could achieve. Nick in 2007 performed even better. He regularly scored points, entering the top five in eight of the 17 races. The most notable results were the second place in Canada and the third place in Hungary.

2 records of "Formula 1"

Nick Heidfeld, whose results statistics continued to improve in 2008, took sixth place in the overall standings. He went very well and proved himself a controversial pilot who completed all 18 races, just once without entering the top ten. He came second in four Grand Prix - in Australia, Canada, Britain and Belgium. The last years in the "BMW-Sauber" team were not what Heidfeld could have boasted. Nick only once climbed to the podium and became the 13th in the final standings. In the same year, a continuous sequence of 41 finishes was interrupted in Singapore after a clash with Adrian Sutil, but this number still remains a record for F1.

BMW withdrew from the "Formula 1" in 2010, leaving Nick with nothing. This year he became a test driver for the Mercedes, but by the end of the season he took part in five races again as a driver of the "Sauber". The Swiss team, now with the Ferrari engine, again signed a contract with Heidfeld, but he could not make an impression.

His last year in the "Formula-1" he held in the "Lotus Renault". The driver was third in Malaysia, which was the 13th podium in his career, and is still a record number of podium finish in never winning drivers. In the middle of the season, Nick Heidfeld was replaced by Bruno Senna.

Endurance race and victory in Le Mans

After leaving Formula 1, the German turned his attention to the endurance race. He signed a contract with the famous company "Rebellyon Racing" to participate in the World Championship in endurance racing. He had successful performances, the most notable of which was his victory in the class LMP1-L in a 24-hour race in Le Mans in 2014, along with Nicolas Prost and Matias Behe.

In 2013, Heidfeld participated in the American Le Mans Series, where he took second place, taking part in only four races. He was the winner on the "Petit-Lehman" track, the second on "Long Beach" and "Laguna Seca" and the third on "Sebring".

"Formula E": a new challenge

Heidfeld was lucky to become one of the pioneers of the new racing series - "Formula E". As part of the Venturi Grand Prix team, he steamed against Stefan Sarrazin in the Beijing e-Prix in 2014, and only the incident with Nicolas Prost did not allow him to win the race. Heidfeld was disqualified at Putrajay e-Prix in 2014 and expelled from the qualification at the Miami e-Pri in 2015, which cost the racer valuable points.

In addition, Nick was fined when leading the Buenos Aires e-at 2015, but finally luck smiled at him in Berlin, where he came in fifth. Fortune followed him to Moscow, where the German pilot earned his first podium before he failed again. The season ended with the fact that Heidfeld sent his car to the pit lane due to problems during the final race of 2015, the London e-Prix, which threw him to the twelfth place in the championship.

In the second season, Nick moved to the Indian team "Mahindra Racing", where he played along with former Lotus pilot Bruno Senna. After taking the first podium at the beginning of 2015 at the Beijing e-Heidfeld, he injured his arm in Putrajaya, which required surgical intervention. Oliver Rowland replaced the rider at e-Prix in Punta del Este, when it became clear that after the operation he would have to miss the third race of the season.

Personal life

Nick Heidfeld lives in Stefan, Switzerland, with his fiancee Patricia Papen, daughter of Juni (2005) and two sons Yoda (2007) and Justus (2010). He has an older brother, Tim, and the younger Sven, a former racer, and now a commentator on motor racing on German television.

Interesting Facts

• Nick started karting from the age of 11.
• Once decided to ride a bike, the racing driver got under a motorcycle.
• In 2014, during the race "Formula E" in Beijing, there was a terrible accident, which, fortunately, did without serious consequences. Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost did not share the track. As a result, there was a collision, the car of a German racing driver flew into a bump.

Statistics

• Seasons in the "Formula 1": 12.
• Years in the "Formula-1": 12.
• Grand Prix: 186.
• Victory: 0.
• Podiums: 13 (in a row: 2).
• Pole positions: 1.
• First row: 2.
• Quick circles: 2.
• Dubbers: 0.
• Leading start / finish: 0.
• Circles: 9701.
• Leading Circle: 25.
• Kilometers: 47,163.27.
• KM leading: 118.09.
• Hat-tricks: 0.
• Large helmets: 0.
• Points: 259.
• Points for the 1st season: 61.