Nick Lars Heidfeld (born May 10, 1977 in Manchengladbach, West Germany) is a German Formula One racing driver, who is currently driving for the BMW Sauber team. Despite his recent success, Heidfeld is yet to win a race during his nine seasons in Formula One. This means that amongst the current drivers, he has had the most GP starts without standing at the top spot on the podium. Heidfeld has now started over 150 races, so if he were to eventually win a race he would break the record for most starts before a maiden victory. This is currently held by Rubens Barrichello, who claimed his first victory on his 123rd attempt. Heidfeld also currently holds two other dubious records; he is the driver who has scored the highest number of world championship points without a Grand Prix win, and shares the record for the most podium finishes without a Grand Prix win with Stefan Johansson. He also holds the record for the most consecutive race classifications with his current ongoing tally of 32, as well as the most finishes in a season when he finished 18 races in the 2008 season. This record is tied with Tiago Monteiro's 18 finishes in the 2005 season.

    Heidfeld was born in Manchengladbach, Germany, on May 10, 1977, and began racing karts at the age of 11 in 1988. In 1994 he moved into the German Formula Ford series, gaining widespread attention by winning 8 of the 9 races to take the title that season. In 1995 he won the German International Formula Ford 1800 Championship, and came second in the Zetec Cup. This led to a drive in the German Formula Three Championship championship for 1996, where he finished third overall, after taking 3 wins. The following year Heidfeld won the German F3 Championship, including a win at the Monaco Grand Prix Formula Three support race. In 1998, he won three races and was runner-up in the International Formula 3000 championship, with the West Junior Team. At the final race of the season he was demoted to the back of the grid from pole position, after his team used non-compliant fuel. He finished the race ninth and out of the points, losing the championship by seven points to Juan Pablo Montoya. During that season, he was also the official test driver for the McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team. In 1999, he won the International Formula 3000 Championship. that year he also took the official track record at the Goodwood Festival of Speed which still stands today.

    He was signed as a race driver for the Prost Grand Prix F1 team for the 2000 season, alongside Formula One veteran Jean Alesi. Heidfeld struggled with his new car and suffered a string of retirements, as well as colliding with his team mate on more than one occasion.

    He departed Prost at the end of that season, before signing a three-year contract with Sauber for 2001. He was partnered with then rookie driver Kimi Raikkonen. After the announcement of Mika Hakkinen's retirement, many thought that Heidfeld would replace him in the McLaren team, as he had outperformed Raikkonnen over the year, including a podium position in the Brazilian Grand Prix. However, the McLaren seat went to Raikkonnen, and Heidfeld stayed with Sauber for 2002 and 2003, where he raked up a small number of points finishes. In 2002 he outperformed another rookie team mate, Felipe Massa, but was then beaten by his more experienced fellow countryman, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, in 2003.

    At the end of the 2003 season, Heidfeld was dumped by the Sauber team and looked to be without a race seat for the 2004 season. However, after a number of moderately successful tests, it was announced that Heidfeld would race with the Jordan Grand Prix team, alongside rookie Giorgio Pantano. Heidfeld had a poor season because of the slow and unreliable EJ14. He finished seventh at the Monaco Grand Prix and eighth at the Canadian Grand Prix (where he was beaten by team mate Timo Glock on his F1 debut) and finished the season with three points.

    During the winter of 2004 and 2005, Heidfeld tested with the Williams team, in a 'shootout' against Antonio Pizzonia for the second race seat. At the Williams launch on January 31, 2005, it was announced that Heidfeld would be the race driver for the team in 2005. At the seventh race of the 2005 season at the Nuburgring circuit, his home Grand Prix, Heidfeld took his first ever pole position. He also achieved his best race position to-date in Monaco where he finished second, which he equalled at the Nurburgring. Heidfeld missed the Italian and Belgian Grands Prix due to injuries suffered in a testing accident. Scheduled to come back for Brazil, he was injured again when hit by a motorbike when out cycling, and therefore forced to sit out the rest of the season.

    Heidfeld gained a contract with his then Williams' engine supplier, BMW, when they bought the Sauber team and entered Formula One as BMW Sauber for the 2006 season. During 2006 Heidfeld scored points several times for his new team. At Melbourne he ran as high as second until the safety car came out. He eventually finished fourth. At Indianapolis, he was eliminated in a spectacular first lap accident which saw fellow drivers Scott Speed, Jenson Button, Kimi Raikkonnen and Juan Pablo Montoya also go out. Heidfeld's car was launched into a quadruple barrel roll, the first of his career and the second of the season, after Christijan Albers suffered one at the San Marino Grand Prix. He and the other drivers all walked away unharmed. The Hungarian Grand Prix saw Heidfeld give BMW Sauber their first podium finish and best result of the year, when he finished third, even though he had only qualified tenth on the grid. At the end of 2006, Heidfeld was quoted attacking the media's saturation coverage of his teammate Robert Kubica, who had scored fewer points than him. This has happened two other times in the German's career; in 2001 when he was teammates with Kimi Raikkonnen (whom he beat twelve points to nine) and in 2002, when he was teammates with Felipe Massa (whom he beat by seven points to four). Raikkonnen and Massa later formed the 2007 Ferrari line-up.

    Heidfeld started the 2007 season strongly. In Bahrain, he chased down and overtook reigning world champion Fernando Alonso around the outside, finishing half a minute ahead of his BMW teammate Kubica. He scored three fourth places in the opening three races, a sixth in Monaco, and a second place at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he also out-qualified both Ferraris, equalling his best ever Grand Prix finish. After retiring from fifth place at Indianapolis, he was outscored by team-mate Kubica at both Magny-Cours and Silverstone. At an eventful European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Heidfeld's home circuit, where he collided with Kubica on the opening lap, he recovered and overtook Kubica on the final lap to finish sixth, despite making six pitstops during the race. Heidfeld returned to form in Hungary, qualifying second and finishing third to score his and BMW's second podium of the season. He finished fourth at the Turkish and Italian Grand Prix, and fifth in the Belgian Grand Prix. He eventually finished a career-best fifth in the championship with 61 points, outpointing Kubica by 22. On 28 April 2007, Heidfeld drove three demonstration laps around the Nurburgring's legendary 14 mile Nordschleife track, which made him the first driver in 31 years to pilot a current F1 car there. About 45,000 spectators attended the event, which was held after a four hour VLN endurance race.

    Heidfeld began the 2008 season strongly, finishing second in Australia after qualifying fifth. In Malaysia, he qualified fifth but dropped down to tenth at the first corner after being pushed wide by Jarno Trulli. He got back up to sixth, also setting his first ever fastest lap in the process. In Bahrain he started from sixth place but he did not gain a place at the start, but passed Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen to climb up to fourth. He finished there and this fourth gave him second in the championship. After a few disappointing qualifying sessions and races in the following weeks (after which the German press started to call him "Leidfeld", with "Leid" meaning "misery" in German), Kubica and Heidfeld made BMW Sauber history by securing the third-year team's first victory, and first one-two finish respectively in Montreal, Canada on June 9, 2008. Heidfeld was positioned eighth on the grid and after losing a place at the start, before gaining it back, was sitting comfortably in eighth place once again before a safety car situation saw the top 7 cars enter the pits in what was to soon become a bizarre series of errors that left Heidfeld and Kubica battling for the top two places. Heidfeld was switched to a one stop fuel strategy and came out of his stop ahead of Kubica, but considerably heavier on fuel. Not long afterwards, Heidfeld moved off the racing line allowing Kubica to make an easy pass, which then allowed the lighter BMW Sauber to build up a considerable lead on Heidfeld, who was occupied with preventing Fernando Alonso, also in a lighter car, from chasing Kubica. The gap built by Kubica allowed him to rejoin the race comfortably in the lead after his final pitstop with no threats behind him. Heidfeld finished the race second, solidifying his fifth place position in the driver's points. Heidfeld had a disappointing race in France after failing to score any points. He came back strongly at the British Grand Prix, starting fifth and finishing second in the wet conditions. Another strong performance, where he set the fastest lap of the race for the second time this season, was his home grand prix at the Hockenheimring shows that, for the time being, he has reversed the performance deficit to his team mate. Another second place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix, followed by 5th and 6th place finishes in Italy and Singapore respectively put him just one point behind current World Champion Kimi Raikkonnen with just three races remaining.

    In the last three races Heidfeld scored four points, ending in sixth place in the standings after being passed by Fernando Alonso at the last round of the season. However, Heidfeld became the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2002 to finish every race of the season, and the first to do so in a season that contains at least eighteen races.

Heidfeld began 2009 in Australia by qualifying in 11th place and finishing 10th in the race. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Heidfeld again qualified in 11th, but started 10th as Sebastian Vettel was issued a 10 place drop (for an incident caused in Australia with Heidfeld's team-mate Kubica). The race was stopped due to torrential rain on the 33rd lap, when Heidfeld was third, but as set out in the regulations, the result was taken at the end of the penultimate completed lap, when Heidfeld had been running second.[9] Because less than 75% of the race distance had been covered, the drivers only received half points. He scored a further 2 points at the Spanish Grand Prix, and finished 5th at Spa to score another 4 points. A seventh place finish at the Italian Grand Prix added a further 2 points to his 2009 tally. Nevertheless, four points-scoring finishes in the final six races secured him thirteenth position in the Drivers' Championship, two points ahead of Kubica. In Singapore, Heidfeld’s run of 41 consecutive classified finishes was brought to an end due to a collision with Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

    Heidfeld's future in Formula One is currently uncertain, following BMW's decision to withdraw from the sport at the end of the 2009 season. He is still to sign a contract for 2010, but as of the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix remained confident that he will remain in the sport.

(c) Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2010