Nick Heidfeld

As the list of potential Williams drivers for 2005 gets ever longer, the name of Nick Heidfeld doesn't seem to have figured very strongly. Not so long ago, the German was tipped as the next big thing - he was so favoured by McLaren and Mercedes that they built an F3000 team around him.

Then he went off the boil, mainly thanks to his season as Kimi Raikkonen's team-mate in 2001. Although Nick held his own against the rookie, the Finn's overall lack of experience meant that he created a lot more headlines and earned a McLaren seat. Heidfeld stayed with Sauber for another two years until becoming surplus to requirements at the end of 2004.

He's now joined forces with Jordan in a marriage of convenience that suits both parties. The team gets a motivated driver who combines youth and experience, and Nick gets to perform in front of the F1 circus rather than sit on the sidelines. Everyone knows that Jordan is on the ropes, so almost anything he achieves will work in his favour. He certainly looked good in Melbourne, where he put in a feisty performance. But has his plan worked out?

"I think it has been quite a good start of the season so far, at least from the feedback I get," says Nick. "I think a lot of people realise I did a good job in the first couple of races, and from that perspective, I have to say it worked out."

On the face of it Jordan has hardly made spectacular progress since the start of the year, and form has been partly obscured by a poor finishing record. When a team is short of funds development inevitably takes a back seat, but in fact Heidfeld says he's happy with the way things have been moving along.

"Actually I'm a bit surprised about the rate of change that we're doing, and how many changes we have. I think we are already making a lot of progress. For Imola we had a couple of changes on the aerodynamic side. I was very happy with the new parts, and we had so much more downforce. I was not 100 per cent satisfied with our qualifying performance, but our race pace was very good for what we have, and showed the progress we've made. I was just about half a second off a Sauber and a McLaren, which I think is very promising.

"In Spain we had a couple of new parts on the aerodynamic side, including a wing similar to Ferrari and BAR, which helped. I hoped we'd have one change, but again it was several things, and it was a lot better. So I'm impressed at the moment, and I hope that we can carry on like this. For sure it's going to be more and more difficult, because it's getting tighter."

The grid positions may not be dramatically different, but the gap to the rest has closed.

"Definitely it's looking better. I think the goal should be to get into the midfield, because at the moment we're just behind the midfield, and to score the points is nearly impossible. It's incredible how reliable all the cars have got, even since last year. The midfield is usually quite tight, but at least you have the chance to get some points."

With the new one per weekend rules Jordan was able to get a better spec of engine than might otherwise have been the case. The teams are supposed to have parity of equipment.

"You always want to improve each part you have, but on the engine side there's not a lot we can do. Fortunately or unfortunately we have exactly the same engine as Jaguar, and you see that they are better, usually. First we have to concentrate on that. It's the best benchmark we have."

Heidfeld has faced some tough team-mates over the past four years - Jean Alesi, Kimi Raikkonen, Felipe Massa and Heinz-Harald Frentzen - and he's fared pretty well against all of them. This year he's alongside rookie Giorgio Pantano, and generally he's left the Italian far behind. Considering the winning form that Giorgio showed in F3000, that's done Nick no harm.

"Yes, but as usual I would prefer to have an experienced team-mate. Nothing against Giorgio, but I would like to have the best regarded driver by my side, so I can show what I can do. I'm sure that Giorgio will get stronger over the season, and I've already seen in some tests what speed he is able to do."

Heidfeld did his schooling as a McLaren test driver, but after four years with French and Swiss organisations, this is the first time he's raced in F1 for a British team. He says there have been no big surprises.

"It's quite similar, the way all the teams work. The big difference was at McLaren, because the team is so much bigger, and there's so much more money. They put in a lot of effort and change the cars a lot more quickly. But the general way it's structured is not so different."

Back in 1997 Nick won the Monaco F3 race, and a year later he won the F3000 event in the principality. Will the street circuit give the little guys a chance, and provide his best chance of the year to really prove his point?