Nick Heidfeld: Special Events
[return] Special events Nick took part at during his career


2007: Nordschleife Run
28 April, 2007
After 30 years, on 28th April 2007, Nick Heidfeld was the first driver to go back to this track on a F1, managing to make 275km/h on the ‘Döttinger Höhe’ in front of 45,000 people and having a best lap of 8:34 minutes, since BMW team didn't allow him to speed as much as he could, and only provided demo-tires for the car. Nick also had to slow down for photography cars, to make promotional movies for BMW. "The drive was simply incredible...it was even better than I had expected," said Heidfeld.


2007: St. Moritz Turf Event
4 February, 2007
On the 100th anniversary of the White Turf, that is hosted in the first three sundays of every February in the frozen lake of St. Moritz, Nick Heidfeld made a demonstration with his BMW-Sauber F1.06, in front of 15,000 people. The event was made possible by the team's sponsor, the also swiss Credit Suisse. The presentation took place in February 4th, 2007. An eight-man crew came earlier to begin the preparations for this special event, and Bridgestone had to prepare special spiked tires, because of the unusual condition in which Nick would drive. They were produced in the Bridgestone Motorsport’s Technical Centre in Tokyo by two technicians, who worked 16 hours to put manually all the 2,016 studs into the double layer of tread compound of the set of tired. Each front tire had 420 studs, while the rear ones has 588 studs each. These stud were made to stand the low temperatures and provide some grip to the hard snow and ice. Similar tires had been used previously by Ferrari in a event on the slopes of Madonna di Campiglio, Italy. The car engine had to be warmed-up every half an hour, otherwise it would freeze. "That was quite a unique experience – just seeing the magnificent mountain scenery surrounding the lake is really impressive. The frozen track was of course much rougher than what I’m used to in Formula One. Although it was by no means easy to apply force on such a surface, I enjoyed the drive immensely," said Nick.


2002: Race of Champions
29 November - 1 December, 2002
The 2002 Michelin Race of Champions Nations Cup had teams from the USA, France, UK, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Brazil and Italy, including two F1 driver, Nick Heidfeld (Germany) and Fernando Alonso (Spain). The idea of the event is allowing drivers from different series to compete with same cars and equipament, so they can be able to prove their talent. The german team had Pit Beirer, 250 cc Motocross World Championship rider, Walter Rorhl, 1980 & 1982 World Rally Champion and Nick Heidfeld, Sauber Formula 1 driver, but couldn't manage to win in Group B, where were also Italy and France. Italy won the group after 5 wins, while France had 3. The only german win belonged to Nick Heidfeld, who succeded against french Sebastién Bourdais.


1999: Goodwood Festival of Speed
19 June, 1999
Also in 1999, Ron Dennis decided McLaren Mercedes should do a try to catch the 1997 hill record, with Nick Heidfeld and his MP4/13. Nick was then leading the F3000 championship. In the saturday 'practice run', Nick could only make a 44s lap, and assumed he had streched his limits in a couple of turns, being told to rest and leave it for another day by the team doctor. On his sunday attempt, Nick failed again on the morning to make a better lap, because of the heavy rain, but on the afternoon, ignoring the doctor's suggestions, Nick could finally make a better lap. Nick not only had a faster lap than the previous record of 45s, that belonged to Jonathan Palmer and his Williams, but was almost 4s faster than it. Nick's time was 41.6, ten seconds faster than the second best time, from Marc Surer. However, Nick already knew it was difficult to control a F1 car in that track, and said after setting the new record, "This hill wasn't built for a Formula One car.” As if Nick had forsaw it with his quote, F1 cars would be after that year no longer allowed to have official times, so even though Heikki Kovalainen had a lap faster than 40s in 2006 with a Renault R25, Nick will always have the record lap.


1999: Le Mans 24 Houres
12-13 June, 1999
Mercedes used The 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans to test their new CLR LMGTP, with three cars, numbers 4, 5 and 6. Nick joined Christophe Bouchut and Peter Dumbreck for car #5. During the weekend, was found out that these cars had a mistake on their aerodynamic project, which caused incredible accidents during qualifying and race. The aerodynamics of it, let a huge amount of air pass under the car's nose, especially when cars where on top of hills or fighting for positions. During the qualifying, Mark Webber’s car #4 became airborne and flew out of track, but was repaired in time for the warm-up, when the same had another accident, flying again and this time landing over another car, then to be withdrawn. The other two cars continued the race, but after a few hours, Nick gave his race seat to Peter Dumbreck, who would have same problem with his #5 Mercedes car in lap 75, also flying out of track, landing over some trees, in an accident that was shown live by worldwide TV channels. In the next lap, the team decided to withdrawn their remaining car out of the race, and quit the CLR project. The remaining car wasn't even shown at Mercedes' Museum.


1996: Macau F3 GP
Date: ??
Nick's 1996 results put him in the grid for the F3 finals in Macau. Nick had the pole for the race, and won the first heat, becoming a favourite for the win, but he got an illness in the eve of he race and even though he was told not to race, he tried it and could only get the sixth place.