Heidfeld insists: 2008 has not been all bad.

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 M?nchengladbach 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."

The most troubling aspect for Heidfeld this year has been in adapting his driving to suit Bridgestone's new Potenza tyres, with his smooth style not warming the rubber up as quickly as does the more aggressive manner of Kubica, with the disparity in the pair's qualifying performances - when in 2007 Heidfeld had comfortably led the way on that score, twelve-four - the result.

"Yes, they are," he responded, when asked if his difficulties have been tyre-related. "That's what I believe, and we've been working on it. Magny-Cours I think was the first step forward, but obviously one race is not enough to be sure and to understand 100 per cent what's going on. I'm looking forward to the next couple of races, and hoping it will get better still."

As to his hopes for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the 31-year-old was circumspect, acknowledging that last week's test around the Northants circuit had been a successful one, but insisting that Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes remain ahead, even if he is positive that BMW has now got to the bottom of its Magny-Cours malaise.

"[The one-two in Canada] was a great boost," he acknowledged, "but at the same time it also creates a bit of pressure. I think most people in our team are realistic enough to know that we cannot simply win each race from then on, but as much as Canada was a boost, Magny-Cours was a bit of a wake-up call. It wasn't like people in the team were sleeping, but that was not what we had expected.

"We knew it would be more difficult for us there, but it was really a tough weekend. The first difficult thing is that if you struggle at Magny-Cours, I think you pay a higher price than at most other circuits, because the lap times are always very close together; if you lose a bit of time there, you have to pay for it. We just didn't have the speed there, but I hope Magny-Cours will stay our weakest race of the season.

"We know what we did wrong - one or two issues which I cannot go into detail about - but we've changed some things for Silverstone and tried a couple of new things in the test, and the car is definitely better.

"Although it was only testing - which makes it difficult to judge - it looks again like we are quicker than most of the other cars except Ferrari and McLaren, which are a bit quicker. I expect there to be four cars quicker than us, so fifth would be great, but it all depends on how the opposition are in the race."

by Russell Atkins