Q&A with Nick Heidfeld

The Nürburgring is a track Nick knows well having cycled, sledged in the snow and achieved his first and only pole position at the venue. As he explains, it is this familiarity that he hopes will lead to more points at the weekend.

You scored four points for the team at Silverstone, a reasonable result considering it was a difficult weekend for the team ?

It is definitely not what we were hoping for, but if you look at the problems we faced on Friday and then Saturday when I qualified 16th, I managed to finish 8th on Sunday which is I think the best I could have done. It was actually a fun race, with some nice battles out there, and we faced some interesting weather conditions going from a wet part of the track to a dry part. But, four points is not what we’re aiming for – we need more, deserve more and we must be proactive in making that happen. I really believe that we will be able to score a greater number of points over the next few races as we have some more interesting developments to bolt onto the car.

At the Nürburgring you will be in front of your home crowd - is it always special for you to race in Germany ?

Yes, it is always special to be in Germany, there’s no doubt about that. There are obviously a lot more fans supporting me there, and especially at the Nürburgring - I have so many nice memories from racing at this track. Learning how to ride a bike, driving a go kart and sledging in the snow are all things I did at the Nürburgring. I also won some races in junior categories there, and of course got my first pole position in Formula One at the track, so coming back is like a trip down memory lane.

How enthusiastic are the German fans ?

They are very enthusiastic and they have every reason to be because firstly Sebastian (Vettel) is leading and fighting for the championship, and secondly we have a number of German drivers in the championship giving it their best shot. I’m proud to be one of those drivers and proud to be representing Lotus Renault GP on the grid.

What do you expect from the car at this race ?

I know, as James Allison has confirmed, that there are some bigger developments coming than we had at the last couple of races. There has been a tremendous amount of work going on in the wind tunnel so I am very hopeful that we will take a significant step forward. We have had to demonstrate our patience during what were a couple of challenging races recently (Valencia and Silverstone), but now is the time for us to take that step forward and compete with the top teams again, which is where we belong.

What are your targets for this race ?

Well, my objective is always to perform the very best that I can. I hope that the car is strong, so that we can go back to qualifying in the top 10 (which is exactly where we should be) and then get even stronger in the constructors’ championship ; we will need to take the fight to Mercedes who just overtook us but we know we are more than capable of a fourth placed finish this season.