Nick Heidfeld Q&A

"I was sure that this season would be better than last, because in 2000 we were the worst team, and it couldn't get worse. I hoped to score some points, but it's always difficult to judge how it's going to be, and I didn't think about it having such a good outcome in the end. We were fourth in the teams' championship, so I was a bit surprised how it worked out."



"I was sure after testing that we had a good car, but I was not sure how it would be until the first races and during the season. Sometimes you have a car which is only quick on cold conditions, like in winter testing, and then come the season you're not quick any more. So I was not too sure, because it all looked too good. So it was very nice to see than even in the race weekends it was that nice."



"Definitely. My goal for the season was to score points, because last year I had none. I had quite a good qualifying in Australia, and I put myself under quite a lot of pressure, because I knew it was a position where you could score some points, and I managed to do so, so it was a brilliant start."



"Brazil was definitely the highlight, my first and only podium so far. It was a good race, and I didn't do any mistakes. Obviously I was lucky that some people went off, but I think the team did a good job."



"Exactly. You can say some people went off, but you still have to stay on the track yourself. For example I didn't manage to do that in Malaysia, unfortunately! Budapest was also good. All top six cars finished, and I still managed to get a point."



"Especially in the beginning of the season it was reliability, and the speed was there as well. From the middle of the season we struggled a little bit. I didn't manage to start in Austria, which was my best position. In Budapest Kimi had a problem with the driveshaft, and in Monza we had a couple of problems, but we were still good compared to other teams. But in the end we just had a quick car from the beginning of the season, and we made very good progress."



"Monaco was a little disaster, the car wasn't good there at all, so we were not sure how it would be in Budapest. But it was very good, because we made a lot of progress with the car."



"Yes, I was a bit surprised, because I heard from everybody how it was in the past. Obviously I didn't have any comparisons to the years before, so I didn't know if anything was working differently or not. But I think Willi Rampf did a good job. We definitely had less money than other teams, but nearly everything that we built or every direction we went was good, and had a good outcome. I think the team did very well there."



"It was a low point, but it didn't really affect me. I had some form of headache in testing afterwards, but it was good for me to have a three week break from testing and racing, and everything was fine again. The Hockenheim crash with de la Rosa was really bad as well. The car there was great, and I think I would have managed to keep a good speed. It was very disappointing because there was so much space in front and at the back. I was on my own more or less. I braked quite late and got very close to the cars in front, so I thought I'm safe. And then there was a big crash. Pedro said he was sorry for that."



"They're all similar, but they're not the same. You can see by how successful they are which teams are organised the best, obviously. I can speak English and German so being with a French team was a little bit more difficult, but not a lot, because all the meetings were held in English. But it was not nice not being able to speak to the mechanics, because many of them didn't speak a lot of English. This year it was quite easy, and there was always a very good atmosphere in the team."



"It wasn't a big disappointment. Of course I wasn't very happy about it, but it didn't happen suddenly, because there were weeks or months where it did get obvious, so I was prepared for it. Although I was a bit surprised initially."



"I don't think I did anything wrong, and at least I feel happy for what I've done this year, I think I've had a good season. Unfortunately nobody [from the McLaren camp] spoke to me about the deal with Kimi, and I think that was not very nice. First of all obviously I would have liked to go there. OK, Kimi is there now, and it's not a big problem, but they should have at least told me."



"I have no idea, really. You have to ask them. The only thing really is that he's obviously a newcomer, and he definitely did a good job."



"I think it was a normal relationship between team mates, not especially bad, not especially good."



"I hope so. I'll try to push as much and in the same direction as now, and if we manage to improve, that will be good."



"I'm sure that next year's car will be better than this year's car. The only problem is going to be the other teams that have to improve more than us, like Jaguar or teams with a big manufacturer behind them. They should at least beat somebody without a big factory in their back. I'm confident that we'll make progress, but I am a bit worried that other teams will do an even bigger job."



"My profile is a bit higher and more people know me, but that's not so important."



"That's the only thing!"