Skip to main content

Quick Nick in, Pedro a go-go

Good bit of news today.

Well, I say good. Good if you're Nick Heidfeld. Not very good at all if you're Pedro de la Rosa.

Heidfeld has been twiddling his thumbs this season whilst being Mercedes Test Driver, which in real terms means he's done rugger ball since the start of the year except for wearing headphone at races and generally looking as cool as possible without actually being in an F1 car. A bit of excitement (not to mention a bit of driving and some dosh probably) came his way recently when new-for-next-year tyre suppliers Pirelli wanted someone to drive the completed Toyota that didn't get a run this year with their new rubber on the corners, to see how it all went.

It's unclear if this helped him get the seat at Sauber for the rest of the year, if it was his undoubted talent, the fact that he's driven for them before or (and this seems most likely) because Pedro de la Rosa was a bit crap. Kobayashi has substantially outperformed him this season, and he was pretty hopeless when he did a few races for McLaren.

Heidfeld on the other hand is a reliable driver who largely slipped under the radar in his career. Regular podiums and some quality drives, but he remains in that range of drivers including Fisichella, Frentzen and many more. Give them a decent car and they'll do a fine job, but they'll rarely set the world alight. Nick also holds the record for most podiums without a win, and he'll be unlikely to alter that unfortunate stat in a Sauber.

But I'm pleased to have him back - I always hoped he could have achieved more and he still deserves a place on the grid.

In a similar vein, Kimi Monsosyllabic Raikkonen has apparently be talking to Renault about driving for them next year. If he can be bothered, I guess.

How many more ex-drivers can we get back? Villeneuve hasn't made it but Schumi is back. How about Damon Hill? Alain Prost? Gerhard Berger? Ralph Schumacher?! Maybe not....

(Cassette of the night: Jean Michel Jarre's "Jarremix" from 95. Funnnnnky!)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Making an exhibition of yourself

Now and again, it’s good to reaffirm that you’re a (relatively) normal human being. One excellent way of doing this is to go to a business exhibition. Despite what you might have surmised from reading my previous columns, I am employable, and even capable of acting like a regular person most of the time, even joining in the Monday morning conversation about the weather over the weekend, and why (insert name of footyballs manager here) should be fired immediately. The mug! True, there are times, often involving a caffeine deficiency, where it is like having the distilled essence of ten moody teenagers in the room, but I try and get that out of the way when people I genuinely like aren’t around to see it. As part of my ongoing experiment with what others call ‘working’, my ‘job’ involves me occasionally needing to go and see what some of my colleagues get up to outside the office, and what our competitors do to try and make sure that they do whatever my colleagues do better than ...

Suffering from natural obsolescence

You know you’re getting old when it dawns on you that you’re outliving technological breakthroughs. You know the sort of thing – something revolutionary, that heralds a seismic shift it the way the modern world operates. Clever, time-saving, breathtaking and life-changing (and featuring a circuit board). It’s the future, baby! Until it isn’t any more. I got to pondering this when we laughed heartily in the office about someone asking if our camcorder used “tape”. Tape? Get with the times, Daddy-o! If it ain’t digital then for-get-it! I then attempted to explain to an impossibly young colleague that video tape in a camcorder was indeed once a “thing”, requiring the carrying of something the size of a briefcase around on your shoulder, containing batteries normally reserved for a bus, and a start-up time from pressing ‘Record’ so lengthy, couples were already getting divorced by the time it was ready to record them saying “I do”. After explaining what tape was, I realised I’d ...

A fisful of change at the shops

A recent day out reminded me how much the retail experience has altered during my lifetime – and it’s not all good. I could stop typing this, and buy a fridge, in a matter of seconds. The shops are shut and it’s 9pm, but I could still place the order and arrange delivery. I haven’t got to wander round a white-goods retail emporium trying to work out which slightly different version of something that keeps my cider cold is better. It’ll be cheaper, too. But in amongst the convenience, endless choice and bargains, we’ve lost some of the personal, human, touches that used to make a trip to the shops something more than just a daily chore. Last weekend, we visited a local coastal town. Amongst the shops selling over-priced imported home accessories (who doesn’t need another roughly-hewn wooden heart, poorly painted and a bargain at £10?) was one that looked different. It’s window allowed you to see in, rather than being plastered with stick-on graphics and special offers calling ...