Slow Burn: Interview with Nick Heidfeld

BMW Sauber has long made its mission clear - the team wants to win its first race in 2008, and with podiums, a pole and fastest lap already in the pocket, such an eventuality cannot be discounted.

There is certainly a feeling in the team that Monaco is a race where it just might happen, if everything falls into place. Whether it's next weekend or a little further down the line, Nick Heidfeld wouldn't mind being the man to claim the maiden victory. But he has other ambitions too.

"Of course, the first win would be great, but I hope more to have a good result in the championship," he says.

"It's hard to say what I would be happy with at the end of the season. Our target is to fight for the championship next year, but you never know what happens, maybe we can find something big, something great, and we can fight with Ferrari ..."

It's been something of a mixed year thus far for the German. He's got his hands on the best package he's ever had in a career that is now in its ninth season. He's already had a second place and a fastest lap, and along with Lewis Hamilton he's one of only two drivers to have seen the chequered flag at all five races, although both men have had an expensive finish outside the points.

And yet for the most part he's been overshadowed by Robert Kubica, the team-mate he shaded last season. It's inevitable perhaps, given that the Pole is from the Hamilton generation, a great white hope for the future who arrived at the top with bang, and Heidfeld is saddled with the baggage of having driven some very average cars over the years.

Robert Kubica leads Nick Heidfeld in Barcelona © XPB/LAT

It's easy to get the impression that things are beginning to slip away from Nick, as Kubica continues to shine.

"I think I'm still OK," he says. "I think Robert is doing a great job at the moment. I think he's getting on with the car better than he did last year. It will be a tougher season for me, that's what it looks like at the moment. I will keep working hard."

During the winter it looked as though it might be a tough season for all at BMW, since in its initial guise the F1.08 did not set the world alight. With so many teams apparently making progress, it seemed that BMW would not only lose touch with Ferrari and McLaren, but be overtaken.

However, progress during testing was surprisingly rapid, although no one knew how much gain had been made until Melbourne.

"It was really extremely difficult in the beginning, and then we improved the car relatively quickly," he says.

"When I was driving, it seemed to be too slow. We made big chunks [of time], but we were still behind. We changed some things on the set-up which helped, we changed a couple of things on the aerodynamic side and also something on the mechanical side.

"Obviously that doesn't happen overnight, but they came one after each other, and before the first race started we knew that we had improved the car a lot. Honestly, I hoped that we would be the third-strongest team, and it turned out to be even better than that."

Indeed BMW surprised everyone (perhaps including themselves) at the first race in Melbourne, where Heidfeld finished an excellent second.

"It's a lot better than last year," he says.

"Last year we did need a mistake from the others, and now we can fight against them, especially against McLaren. Ferrari basically messed it up in Melbourne and had whatever problems, so you cannot take them into consideration. After that Ferrari was a little quicker, but we could fight with McLaren.

"I think we are definitely always in a position to get good points. And I hope that we will never be far away from scoring a podium. But you can never take it for granted."

Since that opening race in Australia, Heidfeld has not had a lot of luck. Kubica has regularly been ahead in qualifying, but there has often been a significant weight differential between them, and if several cars get into that gap, it doesn't look very flattering.

Nick Heidfeld battles with Fernando Alonso and David Coulthard in Sepang © LAT

In Malaysia, Heidfeld's qualifying session was spoiled by the McLarens not getting out of the way in time, costing him several positions and leaving him seventh. Penalties pushed him up to fifth, but didn't make up for the disappointment.

After a first lap tangle with Jarno Trulli, he recovered to sixth, finishing just over three seconds behind his team-mate and setting a career-first fastest lap along the way.

"It's a nice result as it was my first-ever quickest lap, and it showed again the potential of our car," he says.

"I think last year there was nearly no Grands Prix where we were in the top ten of the quickest lap, if you take all the quickest laps - it might have been that it was ten times Lewis or whoever in the top ten - and this time I think we've usually been in the top ten, once having the quickest, or second or third quickest lap, and Robert had his pole. It's a big step forward that we've done."

In Bahrain Kubica was rightly in the man in the spotlight as he secured pole, while Heidfeld was a less eye-catching sixth, a fair chunk of the difference (though not all) accounted for by fuel.

Come the race he moved up to fourth, this time finishing 3.5s down on Kubica, and within sight of winner Massa, who had admittedly backed off.

Heidfeld's most disappointing outing this year was undoubtedly in Spain, where he became one of the unfortunate handful of drivers to fall foul of the safety car rules introduced last year.

Running longer than anyone else in the top ten, he was forced to refuel when the pitlane was closed. Stuck with a stop and go penalty, and dropped way out of the points, he still managed to recover to ninth, thanks to high attrition ahead, although it wasn't easy to cut through the midfield.

"It is frustrating because it's just unlucky," he says.

"If you're lucky like I was in Melbourne, you win a position. If you're unlucky, you ruin your race. I was quite happy after the start, I gained two positions, which was my ideal plan that I had in my head - get two positions at the start, and then maybe overtake somebody at the pit stop.

Nick Heidfeld qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix © LAT

"But I was unlucky with the timing of the safety car. They called me just slightly too late, they called me when I was past the pit entry.

"After that the pace was not too bad. We did call me in a little early when I was stuck behind the Toyota and some other cars, but the plan was to do my own pace, but then unfortunately I was stuck behind Fisi, and it's so difficult to overtake even if you're lot quicker.

"He did a bit of a mistake on the exit of the chicane, and still it was tight in the first corner. So the race was finished after the unlucky penalty.

"There's not much more than we can do now, we are all flat out on it [with the FIA], all the drivers, I don't know anybody who likes it. We're all working very hard to change it."

Heidfeld's luck didn't improve much for Turkey, where things didn't go his way in qualifying. It was always going to be tough to make much progress from ninth, but helped by Heikki Kovalainen's problem he moved up to fifth, once again finishing behind his team-mate.

"I made one position at the start, as we hoped," he says. "And then I jumped Alonso and Webber at the pit stop, also as hoped and planned, as I was stopping quite late.

"After that I was doing the race pretty much on my own. In the end I had quite some space forwards and backwards, and I backed off the rpms. It was not a fantastic result, but I can live with it. More of a problem was the qualifying, but I think going from ninth to fifth is what we expected and hoped for."

Although they filled familiar positions, the BMWs did seem to drop off the McLaren pace in Turkey. The team insists that it was a one-off glitch, a legacy of unexpectedly cool temperatures creating a tyre management issue that spoiled the weekend. As in 2007, the team's consistency has been impressive.

"It was quite good last year," Heidfeld says. "Before that and in previous years Sauber tended to be quick on high-speed circuits, but the approach was changed a bit, and so far we have been quite good everywhere. We have not had a test at a fairly quick circuit like Monza or Canada, so I don't know."

As ever, the opposition hasn't stopped working. Renault is not yet a direct threat, but it is the team most likely to threaten BMW.

"At least now it looks like that," he says. "As you say Renault have come closer, or at least it looks like they are strong. They seem to have made a good step."

Nick Heidfeld leading the 1999 F3000 race at Monaco for West Competition © LAT

The big novelty this year has been the lack of traction control, something that has found favour with Heidfeld.

"I do like it a lot, and I hope it suits me. It was a bit difficult in Bahrain, there was quite some low grip there, but normally I enjoy it, especially in wet conditions when it's even more difficult but also more fun."'

The other big change is the lack of engine braking, but oddly enough it's been suggested that BMW off is actually better without it.

"I think Robert said that! And for me it's true on some occasions," Heidfeld says.

"Last year with the system we had, I felt that the system overreacted, or didn't react at the right time. And the benefit this year is at least it's consistent, and you know what to expect. It's better."

The lack of both those driver aids will be keenly felt this weekend. Heidfeld has a good record in the principality - he won there in F3000 exactly a decade ago, and finished second with Williams in 2005 - and the race represents an opportunity to redress the balance with Kubica. It's in his hands.

"Monte Carlo is always very difficult to predict. It's a circuit I enjoy very much, I think it's going to be very different this year without traction control, because we have so many low speed corners there, and we will be able to turn the car more on the throttle. I'm looking forward to it."