Nick Heidfeld Q&A

"It is always nice to be in Australia. I arrived here last Thursday night and obviously the first race is always very special - seeing how you compare to all the others. I hope that we will finish the race. That is going to be very important. In testing it looked like a lot of teams had problems with reliability and, although it was the same for us, I think there is a good chance that we have sorted out all our problems."



"Yes, that was a very positive thing. In the beginning the car was very reliable and later on, with more mileage and pushing the car harder in better conditions than the rain at Silverstone, we found some problems but they should be better now. In terms of the car's handling, all the changes we have made really proved good and we could feel them well. The car was a bit difficult to drive in the beginning, the lap time was not there straightaway, but as you say we have improved the car in big steps each day which was really, really nice. We have done a lot of running with the car, although in the last few days we did not make as big a jumps as before, unfortunately that is normal."



"It feels like a big difference. The car definitely has better traction, more downforce and we are working on everything we have really, especially the electronics side, but on the other hand unfortunately last year was probably the worst one for Jordan and they needed to make a big step. That is what we did and let's hope it is enough."



"It looks like the top four, including Renault, and probably the top five now if what we saw in testing is true with BAR, it is not realistic to think that we can go there. So that already shows how difficult it is going to be to make points because that is 10 cars already. I just hope that we are more competitive than Jordan was last year. It is hard at the moment to say how we will finish up, but let's hope we are reliable in the beginning and then we can keep improving. Jordan has shown in the past that they can do that."



"Yes. I think it is. I think actually we can get closer than that, but with the new qualifying format, which I don't like, you never know really how much fuel the others have in. But I think it should be possible, yes."



"Really good. Already in the first tests I had with Jordan before I signed the contract I felt like part of the team - it was really strange testing with them knowing that I had not signed yet."



"He is a good guy. I have met him a few times now and we get on really well."



"I think first of all it is a good thing to try and reduce costs - and hopefully this is going to work out. But maybe the spectators will see less of the cars, especially on Friday and possibly on Saturday. This will be more at the beginning of the season when people have bigger problems with their engines to make them last 800km. But we have the third driver on Friday so hopefully that will help."



"Yes, quite good. I think it was not an easy start for him. I was testing at Jerez and he was there waiting for a couple of days and he only had two half day sessions before his contract was signed. But at Imola we tested together and he did most of the shakedown test at Silverstone last week, so I hope he is going to go well. I think we will work well together."



"Before Ferrari showed their new car I thought it would be Williams, but now I think it is going to be very close between Williams and Ferrari."