Nick Heidfeld is keeping his options open for the 2011 season
Nick Heidfeld recently joined Sauber for the last five races of the 2010 season but still has not made a decision regarding the 2011 season.
The German will return to the grid at this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix after signing a deal to replace Pedro de la Rosa’s for the remainder of the 2011 season. Nick became a significant attraction for many teams this summer after testing next year’s Pirelli
tyres gaining access to valuable data. The 33-year-old stated that he is still assessing his options for next year.
Heidfeld believes that his period with Pirelli will help him a lot and he is eager to race once again. Even though some people would argue that it would have been better for him to test Pirelli’s next year’s tyres in order to gain more advantage, the German
just did not want to reject an offer to come back on the Formula 1 grid. Therefore, he signed with Sauber for this year.
“I want to race; I believe I can do a good job. I've signed only for this season, the situation for next year is completely open with Sauber but also with other teams with which I have already been in talks over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
He stated that Pirelli has done a good job so far and will not disappoint F1 team’s expectations in terms of grip level.
“It was very interesting; obviously, starting to test with Pirelli and helping them develop the tyres. First of all, I think they've done a very good job until now because there wasn't much time for them after they basically learned that they would supply
tyres for next season,” Heidfeld added.
Pirelli initially focused on working on constructions and then briefly came towards compounds, made some good and vital steps in order to progress and Nick believes that Pirelli will offer a good tyre next year. However, Pirelli still have to run a couple
of tests and it is quite unpredictable what the outcome will be after those tests. But up until now, it seems that they have been reliable and have no technical problems. The grip level is good and the teams should not worry about the tyres performance according
to Heidfeld.
Nevertheless, he warned that he will have to get used to the required pace on this year’s Bridgestone tyres as he returns to the Formula 1 grid at the Singapore Grand Prix.
“I want to get the most out of the car but especially for the first weekend it is going to be important to get into a rhythm with the cars and with the tyres as I have not driven this car one kilometre yet,” Heidfeld said.
He added that he is not aware of the characteristics of this year’s tyres as they have changed from last year and it will be quite important to learn things quickly.
Sauber has been struggling this year a lot since BMW left the team and now, Ferrari is supplying their engines for 2010. The team has scored just 27 points ahead of Toro Rosso in 8th place. Nick Heidfeld will team up with Kamui Kobayashi and try
his best to score some good points in the final 5 races of the 2010 season in order to ensure a good result by the end of the season.
The team hopes to challenge Williams for the 7th place in the constructors’ standings. Williams is 20 points ahead of Sauber with 47 points and the team has been constantly outperforming Sauber throughout the season. Pedro de la Rosa was able
to score only 6 points since the beginning of the season and Kamui Kobayashi scored 21 points, giving the team more than half of the team’s total points. Nick hopes to change that and work side by side with Kamui in order to score some decent points this season.
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