Heidfeld Moves Closer to 2009 Seat

The GP on Sunday probably couldn’t have gone better for Nick Heidfeld, but it didn’t seem that way for much of the race. However, by the end of the day getting on the podium had to be a huge relief and only a couple of hours later he climbed up one notch on the podium to 2nd. Nick’s troubled year needed something like that and it should help his confidence somewhat given that Mario Theissen is praising his race to everyone who will listen.

The decision to come in to the pits with only 2 laps to go to switch to intermediate tires appears to have been Nick’s call and really that shows just how savvy a driver he is. It turned out to be a great call as Nick passed 4 cars on his way to 3rd place before being bumped up one to second.

“It tells you something about racecraft and about racing experience to judge a situation like this within a few seconds,” Theissen said.

When thinking about 2009 and the drastic changes there will be to the cars, it makes perfect sense to go into 2009 with 2 good drivers, something I believe the team has right now. No one knows how different the new cars will drive and there will be a lot of important testing and development of these virgin autos.

The drivers market is shaping up once again to revolve around Fernando Alonso just like it did at the end of last season and when you analyze the different scenarios (and there are many), who will be available to BMW Sauber that is better than Nick Heidfeld? Right now the answer seems to be no one and given the importance of the drivers for this new era of F1 cars in 2009, the obvious answer I see is to keep Nick and move on.

My choice for 2009 is Nick Heidfeld hands down.