Nick Heidfeld – Slicks the Difference Not Aero

The new aero rules have for the most part centered our attention to the shovel like front wing and the high narrow rear wing and are what us fans are talking about the most. KERS is another new addition talked about quite a bit and rounding up the talk is slicks.

According to Nick Heidfeld, slicks are the biggest difference in handling of the car and not the new aero package. Tires have been a bit of a headache for teams so far during testing starting in Barcelona where just about every team had difficulty getting enough tire temperature with what they called the cooler temperatures. In Jerez the issue is higher than normal rear tire wear.

Heidfeld says that rear tire wear in Jerez is ‘very bad’ whereas in Barcelona nobody could heat them up. This brings up memories of Nicks tire temperature problems during qualifying last season and will he be able to overcome that. Barcelona wasn’t that cool with temperatures day one and two reaching 14c and on day three 18c and generating enough heat in those temperature was difficult.

“After testing at two different circuits I am starting to understand the tyres a lot more and we will not have the same problems,” said Heidfeld. “I think I understood quicker and easier with this year’s tyres than with last year’s.”

It’s very early in testing, but at least Nick sounds confident with respect to his tires, but we’ll have to wait and see if bad memories follow him with slicks.