Nick Heidfeld

Heidfeld was born in Mönchengladbach, West Germany, on 10 May 1977, and began racing karts at the age of 11 in 1988. In 1994 he moved into the German Formula Ford series, gaining widespread attention by winning 8 of the 9 races to take the title that season. In 1995 he won the German International Formula Ford 1800 Championship, and came second in the Zetec Cup. This led to a drive in the German Formula Three Championship for 1996, where he finished third overall, after taking 3 wins. He entered the end of the season Macau Grand Prix and won the first heat of the race, attracting the attention of compatriot Norbert Haug, who later signed him up for the West Competition team.

The following year Heidfeld won the German F3 Championship for Bertram Schäfer Racing, with support from McLaren/West, including a win at the Monaco Grand Prix Formula Three support race. In 1998, he won three races and was runner-up in the International Formula 3000 championship, with the West Competition team. At the final race of the season he was demoted to the back of the grid from pole position, after his team used non-compliant fuel. He finished the race ninth and out of the points, losing the championship by seven points to Juan Pablo Montoya. During that season, he was also the official test driver for the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team. In 1999, he won the International Formula 3000 Championship. That year he also took the official track record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed which stood for 20 years. He was also a member of the Mercedes squad that raced at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, but the team withdrew after the Mercedes-Benz CLR back-flipped on the Mulsanne Straight while Mark Webber and Peter Dumbreck were driving.

At the end of 2006, Heidfeld was quoted attacking the media's saturation coverage of his teammate Robert Kubica, who had scored fewer points than him. This has happened two other times in the German's career; in 2001 when he was teammates with Kimi Räikkönen (whom he beat twelve points to nine) and in 2002, when he was teammates with Felipe Massa (whom he beat by seven points to four). Räikkönen and Massa later formed the 2007 Ferrari driver line-up.

He departed Prost at the end of that season, before signing a three-year contract with Sauber for 2001. He was partnered with then rookie driver Kimi Räikkönen. Heidfeld scored his first podium with a third place finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix. After the announcement of Mika Häkkinen's retirement, many thought that Heidfeld would replace him in the McLaren-Mercedes team, as he had Mercedes backing and had outscored the much more inexperienced Räikkönen by three points over the year. However, the McLaren seat went to Räikkönen, and Heidfeld stayed with Sauber for 2002 and 2003, where he racked up a number of points finishes. In 2002 he outperformed another rookie teammate, Felipe Massa, but was then beaten by his more experienced fellow countryman, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, in 2003.

During the winter of 2004–2005, Heidfeld tested with the Williams team, in a 'shootout' against Antônio Pizzonia for the second race seat alongside Mark Webber. At the Williams launch on 31 January 2005, it was announced that Heidfeld would be the race driver for the team in 2005.

In the last three races Heidfeld scored four points, ending in sixth place in the standings after being passed by Fernando Alonso at the last round of the season. However, Heidfeld became only the second driver to finish 18 races in a single season, after Tiago Monteiro completed the same feat with Jordan in 2005. Heidfeld also became the first driver to finish every single race in a season since Michael Schumacher in 2002.

His nickname to Formula One fans is "Quick Nick", which he got while driving for Williams in 2005.

During 2006 Heidfeld scored points several times for his new team. At Melbourne he ran as high as second until the safety car came out. He eventually finished fourth. At Indianapolis, he was eliminated in a spectacular first lap accident which saw fellow drivers Scott Speed, Jenson Button, Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya also go out. Heidfeld's car was launched into a quadruple barrel roll, but he and the other drivers all walked away unharmed. The Hungarian Grand Prix saw Heidfeld give BMW Sauber their first podium finish and best result of the year, when he finished third, even though he had only qualified tenth on the grid.

On 28 April 2007, Heidfeld drove three demonstration laps around the Nürburgring's legendary 14 mile Nordschleife track, which made him the first driver in 31 years to pilot a current F1 car there. About 45,000 spectators attended the event, which was held after a four-hour VLN endurance race.

Heidfeld began 2009 in Australia by qualifying in 11th place and finishing 10th in the race. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Heidfeld again qualified in 11th, but started 10th as Sebastian Vettel was issued a 10 place drop (for an incident caused in Australia with Heidfeld's teammate Kubica). The race was stopped due to torrential rain on the 33rd lap, when Heidfeld was third, but as set out in the regulations, the result was taken at the end of the penultimate completed lap, when Heidfeld had been running second. Because less than 75% of the race distance had been covered, the drivers only received half points. He scored a further 2 points at the Spanish Grand Prix, and finished 5th at Spa to score another 4 points. A seventh-place finish at Monza added a further 2 points to his 2009 tally. Nevertheless, four points-scoring finishes in the final six races secured him thirteenth position in the Drivers' Championship, two points ahead of Kubica.

In August 2010, with Heidfeld not yet having driven the Mercedes MGP W01 car, the team released him from his contract so that he could become the Pirelli tyre company's test driver. Heidfeld tested a Toyota TF109 car fitted with Pirelli tyres on a number of occasions in 2010, ahead of the firm's replacement of Bridgestone as the sport's sole tyre supplier in 2011. Heidfeld completed three tests for Pirelli in Mugello, Paul Ricard and Jerez before being released from his duties to join Sauber, with his place being taken by Romain Grosjean.

In September 2010, Heidfeld returned to the Formula One grid, replacing Pedro de la Rosa at the Sauber team for the remainder of the 2010 season. This marked his third spell with them. On 4 October 2010, Sauber confirmed their driver line-up for 2011 as Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez, seemingly leaving Heidfeld without a drive for 2011, before replacing Robert Kubica at Renault, who was injured in a rally accident on 6 February 2011.

On 9 February, Lotus Renault GP confirmed that Heidfeld would be sharing testing duties with Bruno Senna on the Saturday and Sunday of the four-day test at Jerez, to evaluate the drivers in preparation of replacing the injured and former BMW Sauber teammate Robert Kubica, who had suffered long term injuries to his arm and hand in a crash whilst rallying in Italy, for the 2011 season. On the Saturday, Heidfeld set the quickest time of the day, stating that he enjoyed his day's running – 86 laps – with the team, and had fun driving the car. Heidfeld was confirmed as Kubica's replacement on 16 February 2011. In Australia, the first race of the season following the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Heidfeld qualified 18th and ended 12th after suffering significant damage to his car due to another competitor driving into him at the start of race. On 10 April 2011, Heidfeld finished third, after starting sixth, in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, breaking Stefan Johansson's record of 12 podiums without a win. He added another 12th place in China, before a seventh-place finish in Turkey after a close battle with teammate Petrov. Two eighth places in Spain and Monaco were followed by a retirement at the Canadian Grand Prix, after running into the back of Kamui Kobayashi and causing damage to his front wing, which broke under acceleration and collapsed under the car. He was forced to retire after his car caught fire after exiting the pit lane on lap 25 in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Heidfeld was replaced by Bruno Senna ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. Heidfeld officially parted company with the team on 2 September 2011.

On 1 February 2012, it was confirmed that Heidfeld would join the Rebellion Racing team to contest both the Le Mans 24 Hours and selected races of the FIA World Endurance Championship. In addition to Le Mans, he also raced at the Sebring 12 Hours and Spa 6 Hours, sharing a Lola-Toyota LMP1 car with teammates Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost. The car finished 32nd overall and seventh in class at Sebring after encountering problems, before leading home a Rebellion one-two in the unofficial privateer class at Spa, finishing fifth overall behind the four works Audis. At Le Mans, Heidfeld and his teammates went one better by finishing fourth, splitting the Audis after a fast and problem-free run.

On 26 June 2014, Heidfeld signed up for the inaugural season of Formula E for Venturi Grand Prix. In the first race at the 2014 Beijing ePrix, he had a spectacular accident at the final corner on the final lap with e.Dams Renault driver Nicolas Prost whilst fighting for the lead. Prost later accepted the blame for the accident. At the 2014 Putrajaya ePrix, he retired from the race after a collision this time with Franck Montagny but to add insult to injury, he was excluded from the 19th position finish for changing his car outside the permitted area during his pit stop, meaning he cannot count the race as a round where he drops a score.

In 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modeling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Heidfeld was ranked the 23rd best Formula One driver of all time.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK HEIDFELD DETI CREDI CREDIT wtf1 Happy 40th birthday to Quick Nick! f1 nickheidfeld formula1 wtf1 from Instagram tagged as Birthday Meme