“Not Fair on the Circuit”: Former F1 Driver Talks About Competing With Michael Schumacher in F1

The latest F1 beyond the grid podcast features the German driver Nick Heidfeld. He was one of the snappiest and most reliable drivers of the 2000s. Quick Nick talks to Tom Clarkson about his 183-race F1 vocation; the vehicles, the groups and the opponents who intrigued him most. Also what it resembled to experience childhood in the shadow of driving ability encompassing the home kart track of Michael Schumacher.

Nick Heidfeld achieved 13 podium finishes, which is the most any driver has in history without winning a race. He was a man who went head to head in equivalent cars with any semblance of Robert Kubica, Mark Webber, and Kimi Raikkonen and often dominated the competition.

In spite of scoring regular podium finishes in 2005 with Williams, and in 2007 and 2008 with BMW Sauber, Heidfeld always lost a race in the wake of appearing in Formula One out of 2000. Heidfeld at present holds three Formula One records; most podium without a Grand Prix win (13), most runner up completes without a success (8), and the most back to back race classifications (41).

In 2011, Heidfeld raced in Formula One for the Renault group as a substitution for the injured Robert Kubica, his previous BMW Sauber teammate, before being supplanted by Bruno Senna.

Nick won the F3 championship and the Formula 3000 series. He was seen as Germany’s next Michael Schumacher.

Nick’s views on Michael Schumacher

A driver from Germany has a lot riding on him. Why, because of the benchmarks set by the great Michael Schumacher. When asked about Michael Schumacher, Nick said ” Well, at the beginning of my career when he was winning world championships. I never was in a car where I could fight him.”

“When I was in Monaco for Formula 3000, I was watching the race. He was the most outstanding driver of all,” he adds.

He was also a fan of the great German but said he could never compete with the seven-times world champion.

“His fitness capacities, his engineering capacities, his pure driving was just phenomenal.”

When asked about his nature and whether he provided any support, Nick said ” Yes, he is ruthless, aggressive, sometimes not fair on the circuit. Whereas completely different off circuit he is the most lovely person.”