Q & A with Nick Heidfeld

Autosport.com caught up the BMW Sauber driver ahead of the start of testing at Barcelona on Tuesday to find out how developments are going - and whether he was any closer to putting pen to paper on a new contract for 2008.

Q: How did the first day go here in Barcelona?

Nick Heidfeld: We tested a lot of new things. There were some new aero parts, new systems and new mechanical parts. Some of these may be very useful in the race. All went okay without any problems, but we did not manage to finish the programme so we have to continue with that.

I have not started on the tyre evaluation either, so once the other bits are done we can get on with that. We hoped to be able to do the tyres on Tuesday, but the weather forecast is not too good.

Q: How does the circuit compare to the last test when we came here during the winter?

NH: Well, there is more wind - and it has changed direction. It is also colder than normal. In fact, the maximum temperature was not as high as it should be, so it took longer in the morning to heat the tyres up. Things were much better in the afternoon.

I think by the time we come back here it will be a lot warmer. However, the car balance was okay straight away.

Q: How do you see your prospects for this race?

NH: It is too early to say, as things are more difficult to predict. Like I said before, I did not finish the programme so maybe I can tell you more once I have finished the test. We are expecting more parts to come just before the race, so it is an ongoing process for us. I really don't know how it will be at the moment.

Q: Now that we are back in Europe, do you think BMW Sauber can keep up with the development programme?

NH: That is something I am very curious to find out. The progress we have made in the last two years and also over the winter has been very good. And in the last season we actually made a big improvement from mid-season until the end, so if we can keep that up then it will be great.

But the opposition now is different. Here we are dealing with Ferrari and McLaren. This is a different ballgame altogether. They are proper big boys. But of course it is exciting to find out how well we do.

Q: Is there any news on your plans for next year yet?

NH: Nothing new. There's no news at the moment, but I am pretty confident. Like Mario (Theissen) officially said, there should not be any big change in the future. So we will see.