Mark Hughes: F1's Inside Line

Interviewed at Mercedes' end of season celebration last week, Lewis Hamilton let something interesting slip about McLaren's possible choices of replacement for Fernando Alonso. He mentioned Nico Rosberg and Adrian Sutil - both names that were bandied around long before it was even confirmed that Alonso was leaving - before then mentioning Nick Heidfeld. Lewis said it in a way that suggested he assumed the rumour was already out there - but it wasn't.

This is not to suggest that Nick is the hot favourite for the drive; he has a contract with BMW that would need buying out for one thing. But it's interesting that within McLaren he is considered a possibility. He is, of course, a McLaren protege; a recipient of the same young driver support scheme that was largely responsible for Hamilton's career.

Heidfeld was at a much more senior level - in F3000, with Lewis in junior karting - when the scheme was launched, but both were among the five original drivers singled out. He was very highly thought of within the team and it was widely assumed he would eventually find his way there once he'd served out his apprenticeship for a couple of years with smaller outfits.

But there was a complication to that plan; by the time Mika Hakkinen had informed Ron Dennis of his intention to retire, there was a phenomenon on the scene - driving alongside Heidfeld at Sauber and creating a sensation. It was largely because McLaren rated Heidfeld so highly that they were so bedazzled by Kimi Raikkonen, straight into F1 from a season of Formula Renault. So it was that Kimi became a McLaren driver and his managers and Peter Sauber became considerably richer - and Heidfeld looked on bemused.

He's since admitted it took a lot of coming to terms with that he wasn't the automatic McLaren choice when a vacancy arose. It hurt even more that he was passed over in favour of his team-mate.

For a time, as Sauber became less competitive and he then transferred to the declining Jordan team, Nick's F1 career looked to be on the skids. It was a gross injustice, because he really was extremely good - and that point was made in these pages. If he had a team-mate that was a little too easy to beat, then he would occasionally go off the boil and not dig deep.

But when he was doing his best stuff, he was formidable. His career was rescued by Williams, for whom he drove through 2005 - but even then he only got in by the skin of his teeth. Even by mid-season 2004, when it was clear Williams would be taking on Mark Webber but there was going to be a vacancy alongside him, they were not unduly interested in Nick.

I clearly recall a senior Williams guy saying he was only a 'slight possibility' and that there were plenty of others higher on their shortlist. That all changed when he got a test with them. And when BMW split with Williams at the end of that year, they had seen enough to know Nick was someone they wanted on their side.

It's easy to see why it took him so long to get proper recognition. He's got a quiet, verging on weedy, demeanour. There is nothing remotely swashbuckling about him. He's never going to be someone with a buzz of energy around him, the sort who inspires a team to follow his lead; that's just not in his personality. But on a good day he's got all the speed of those sort of guys - and when the opportunity presents itself, has the ballsy racecraft too.

He certainly gave Alonso a message at Bahrain this year when he passed him around the outside of turn four. Yet in the next stint, when Alonso was faster, Heidfeld held his nerve and his line and left not a single chink of light. With a slower car, he beat Fernando Alonso. There are not many guys on the grid capable of doing that, even on a good day.

So now thinking back to everything that went wrong with the Alonso/Hamilton pair-up at McLaren this year, what lessons have been learned? That Hamilton is every bit as strong-willed and warrior-like as Alonso, is someone who, like Alonso, is even prepared to render the team's interests as subservient to his own in the heat of a fight for a world championship.

He is a guy who, just like Alonso, dominates a team, lends it a tone, has everyone fall in with him. In fact he did it so well this year that it left Alonso for the first time in his career standing on the outside looking in. It is not possible to adequately contain all the ambition and sheer desire of two guys like that in the same team when that team is fielding a car capable of winning the world title.

So a number two is needed? Not really. He needs to be more than a number two. He needs to be someone who can step up to fill the breach if the number one is out of the picture - struggling with a technical problem, unable to find a set-up or simply off-colour. A guy quick enough to keep the lead driver under pressure, but who makes no waves whatsoever when the other guy seems to be getting all the attention, who is not emotionally needy, who doesn't require nursing to get the best performances from him, who is fully capable of winning grands prix if you give him a quick enough car.

Who will not be destroyed when the superstar goes a few tenths quicker than him in qualifying - as Mark Webber habitually did at Williams. No matter how many times Webber did that to him, Heidfeld would be there on race day, as strong as ever, a thumping bass line that never missed a beat, that could instinctively feel when aggression or circumspection was the appropriate approach of the moment.

That would sound like the perfect job description of what McLaren needs to pair up alongside Hamilton next year. McLaren have in the past been over-ambitious in configuring their cars. Last year, for the first time ever, they took a more pragmatic view - and were rewarded with their best car in ages, and their most reliable ever.

But last year - and only with the hindsight of just how brilliant Hamilton was - they remained too ambitious in their driver pairing. Apply their newly-enlightened technical approach to that of driver choice, and you end up with Hamilton/Heidfeld.