Heidfeld confident of new BMW deal

The German has been under pressure to overcome problems he has with tyre management in qualifying - and BMW motorsport director Mario Theissen said after Valencia that Heidfeld needed to raise his game if he was to stay onboard.

And after answering those demands with fifth place on the grid at Spa-Francorchamps, equaling his best result of the season so far, Heidfeld is now more optimistic about his future than he was heading into the weekend.

When asked after qualifying how secure he felt his contract was, he said: "Well that means I would have to tell you my contractual situation, and I cannot do that. But, I am pretty confident - that is as much as I can say."

Heidfeld said his jump in pace in Spa was not the result of Theissen's insistence that he must improve - and instead came as a result of his own personal desire to do better.

"It was not a wake-up call at all," he said. "We have been speaking about the problem for a while, and it doesn't really matter what is written in the press.

"We speak amongst each other and I know it sounds stupid, but the most pressure I make is from myself. As a sportsman you have very high demands on yourself, and if it is not working I am not happy with myself. The rest does not have a big influence."

Heidfeld admitted, however, that his good performance came at the perfect time for him - with a fresh contract up for grabs.

"Well, I think it was important for me to show a good result here - especially after the Valencia race, which was very poor. I had the feeling that after the early problems I had in the season, I managed to change things and improve things a lot.

"After the Valencia performance, it was something that opened up again and people jumped on it immediately and said it was back to the old problems again - and tended to forget that I already improved.

"So therefore I think it was important to show that it was going in the right direction and, actually, I have found even more than I had before Valencia."