Heidfeld biography
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Heidfeld publicly admitted that Kubica had forced him to raise his game and as 2007 got under way it certainly looked as though he had.
With BMW comfortably the third quickest team Heidfeld was regularly chasing the McLarens and Ferraris and occasionally claiming a scalp – as when he passed Alonso at Bahrain to take fourth place off the McLaren driver.
The following year he was International German Formula Ford champion and moved up to Formula Three.
He spent two years in the German F3 series with Opel Team BSR. The first season saw him take three wins and finish third overall, the title being won by future F1 driver Jarno Trulli Heidfeld returned in 1997 and went into the final two races at the Nurburgring three points behind Timo Scheider.
They should know what they are doing, but I don’t know – I don’t think I’ve done a lot wrong.
Jordan (2004)
At the end of the 2003 season, Heidfeld was replaced at the Sauber team by Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella and looked to be without a race seat for the 2004 season. In 1999, he won the International Formula 3000 Championship.
The gap built by Kubica allowed him to rejoin the race comfortably in the lead after his final pitstop with no threats behind him. Expectations were high for Heidfeld to continue with McLaren, but he joined Prost GP in 2000.
Sauber and Jordan Interludes
After a disappointing season with Prost GP, Heidfeld moved to Sauber in 2001 and partnered with rising star Kimi Räikkönen.
After retiring from fifth place at Indianapolis, he was outscored by teammate Kubica at both Magny-Cours and Silverstone. This marked his third spell with them.
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.
He finished eighth in the championship, scoring 12 points. He also won the Monaco Formula Three race.
He got his first Formula 1 test the same year with McLaren-Mercedes and moved up to Formula 3000 with the team’s support. It was another team on the verge of being taken over but Heidfeld managed to claim a pair of points finishes.
Williams
That attracted the attention of Williams and engine partners BMW, who tested Heidfeld alongside Antonio Pizzonia for a 2005 race seat.
He has an elder brother, Tim, and a younger brother, Sven, a former racing driver who is now a motorsport commentator for German television. However, after impressing during a series of preseason tests, it was announced that Heidfeld would race with the financially strapped Jordan team, alongside rookie Giorgio Pantano.
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. 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.
Heidfeld was then in the running for a Renault seat alongside fellow BMW Sauber refugee Robert Kubica, but on 4 February, Heidfeld was confirmed as the test and reserve driver for Mercedes. But the team were slipping down the field and Heidfeld found himself at Jordan in 2004. At Le Mans, Heidfeld and his teammates went one better by finishing fourth, splitting the Audis after a fast and problem-free run.
About 45,000 spectators attended the event, which was held after a four-hour VLN endurance race.