With some in the grand prix paddock suggesting he is embroiled in a battle to save his seat at BMW-Sauber beyond the end of the 2008
Formula 1 campaign,
Nick Heidfeld has come out fighting, underlining his belief that his form over the early stages of the season has been portrayed as being worse than it has realistically been.
Indeed, the experienced German's first eight races of 2008 have been something of a tale of two halves, with a brace of rostrum finishes – taking the runner-up spot in both Australia and Canada – fastest lap in Malaysia and an average score of 3.5 points per grand prix. So far, so good, but then when you compare those statistics to the performances of team-mate
Robert Kubica – who has out-qualified Heidfeld by the distinctly unflattering margin of eight-nil so far – the problem becomes more apparent.
In France, for example, Heidfeld trailed Kubica by the narrowest margin of just five hundredths of a second in Q2 – ultimately the difference between starting fifth…and starting eleventh.
“I'm not totally satisfied,” the man from Mönchengladbach reflected of his season to-date, speaking exclusively to
Crash.net. “I think the first couple of races were good, but then I started to have problems, especially in qualifying, which proved quite costly a couple of times at the end of the weekend. My race pace has usually been good – I've had some podiums, I've had a quickest lap – so it has not all been bad, but it could have been better.
“I put pressure on myself. I want to maximise the potential of the car always, and I haven't done that on all the occasions this year. Last year, for example, was great and I was a lot closer to achieving that, but also my other years in
F1 – and I've been here a while – have been most of the time really good I think. Luckily the team and other people know that, so they know that I can do it.”
