Wednesday, October 21, 2009

So Is Heidfeld Going to McLaren Or Not?

Which German Will End Up At McLaren-Mercedes?

There was a blurb today on motorsport.com about Heidfeld possibly going to McLaren. I will repost it below in bold. My commentary will be in italics.

Nick Heidfeld was the forgotten man of the 2010 silly-season, but he could be in the running for a coveted seat at McLaren or Renault.

The Abendzeitung newspaper reports that, with Lewis Hamilton pushing hard against the prospect of sharing a team with Nico Rosberg or Kimi Raikkonen next year, Germany's 32-year-old Heidfeld has emerged as a candidate.

See. I was right about Hamilton not wanting to share any of the attention. We saw what happened to Alonso and something very similar can happen again with a "star" like Kimi or Nico. What McLaren needs is a low-profile guy who can rack up the points for the constructors title. That perfect number two is Heidfeld.

"He is the most under rated driver in Formula One," McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh, likely to part with Hamilton's current teammate Heikki Kovalainen at the end of the season, is quoted as saying.

And Mercedes' Norbert Haug adds: "He (Heidfeld) brings over ten years of consistently strong performances."

See. I've said repeatedly that Heidfeld is the most underrated driver in F1, despite outperforming his "better" teammates consistently. All I got were snickers.

Germany's Bild newspaper said Heidfeld, who debuted for Prost in 2000 and also raced with Sauber, Jordan, Williams and BMW although never winning a race, is also in the running for the Renault seat currently occupied by Romain Grosjean.

Although I have to wonder why McLaren and Mercedes would want to praise Nick if they are indeed negotiating a contract with him right now. Wouldn't these accolades just push Nick to demand a higher salary? That wouldn't be smart. I just hope this isn't all a ploy on McLaren's part to get Kimi back to the bargaining table. Stay tuned.

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