Nick Heidfeld: 185 Races Not Won

During this year's Hungarian Grand Prix in July, Nick Heidfeld's race quite literally went up in smoke. Having just made his first pit-stop of the race, he was forced to park his Renault on the grass along the start-finish straight as a fiery inferno occurred as a result of the Renault's front-mounted exhaust overheating its bodywork. Weeks later, it was announced to the world that Bruno Senna would be taking the German's place for Spa. Heidfeld tried, ultimately to no avail, to wrest back what he perceived as his rightful place on the grid through the courts, and with precious few other berths available for 2012, he is facing something of an uncertain future.

At the Hungaroring ten years earlier, Heidfeld drove his Sauber to a commendable sixth place with the latest in a series of fine drives that were marking him out as one to watch. Coming off the back of a bitterly disappointing maiden campaign for Prost in 2000, Heidfeld enjoyed an excellent 2001 season that featured his first podium finish as well as six other points-scoring finishes. His tally of twelve points (a respectable figure bearing in mind the scoring system of the day) put him level with erstwhile champion Jacques Villeneuve and the highly-rated youngster Jarno Trulli, both of whom drove for far more lavishly funded teams in the form of BAR and Jordan respectively. So what's gone wrong in the meantime?

In the eyes of many, this form should have warranted Heidfeld the space at McLaren about to be vacated by Mika Hakkinen. After all, the Woking-based team had supported him in the junior categories, even going so far as to establish a Formula 3000 team with the sole remit of readying their latest protégé for F1. Instead, the McLaren top brass chose Heidfeld's Sauber teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, who despite having amassed fewer points had done so with vastly less experience, the Finn having made the gigantic step up to F1 from Formula Renault.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and looking back it's difficult to contend that McLaren made the wrong decision; Raikkonen turned out be arguably the fastest man of his generation, and finally secured an overdue first world championship for Ferrari in 2007 after taking it down to the wire on two earlier occasions for McLaren. It's debatable as to whether Heidfeld had a championship in him given the car, but it's certain that if he was given the same equipment as Raikkonen enjoyed, we would still be lamenting Stefan Johansson as the man with most podium finishes without a win – you don't finish second on eight occasions without being good enough to finish first.

Here we are in 2011 though, and Heidfeld has held this dubious record since his excellent drive to third place in Malaysia five months ago. At the time of writing, it seems probable that this statistic will haunt Heidfeld for the foreseeable future (Nico Rosberg is eight podiums behind, and by the time he racks up that many, few would bet against him having stood on the top step at least once). At the ripe old age of 34, he's hardly the fresh-faced newcomer he was at the turn of the millennium, and there appears besides to be no room at the inn even at any of the midfield teams for next year, let alone the race-winning ones.

Thus, not for the first time, Heidfeld now finds himself in dire need of a stroke of serendipity to revive his flagging F1 career. In 2005, BMW was instrumental in having Heidfeld plucked from the dead-end Jordan team and placed at Williams in 2005, where the German picked up his first pole position on home turf and featured on the podium on three occasions. Moderate success ensued as he drove for BMW's own team after the German manufacturer's acrimonious split with Williams, although the first win remained elusive – the closest he was able to get was when he was forced to give best to teammate Robert Kubica at Montreal in 2008.

When BMW called time on its F1 aspirations after a disastrous 2009 season, Heidfeld was on the sidelines once more. He occupied himself early in the year testing firstly for Mercedes, followed by incoming F1 tyre supplier Pirelli, but was handed an opportunity by former employer Peter Sauber mid-way through 2010 to race in the final five races of the season. This was only to be for a temporary basis however, as Sergio Perez's imminent arrival would leave Heidfeld in search of employment once more come 2011; it was therefore extremely fortunate that the injuries of his former teammate Kubica meant that Renault needed a replacement. This provided Heidfeld a sorely needed opportunity to re-establish his credentials as a top-line F1 driver, as well as to perhaps finally bag that first win he so deserved.

Unfortunately, Malaysia was a false dawn: the Renault thereafter never really looked like visiting the podium as it had done at the opening two rounds of the season, and Heidfeld's results tailed off accordingly. Granted, before his replacement by Senna he had outscored teammate Vitaly Petrov by two points, but this was regarded as just not good enough for a man of over ten year's experience against somebody entering their second season of F1. Combined with the so-called 'spiral of negativity' the team was experiencing according to Eric Bouillier, the Frenchman took the decision to drop Heidfeld while there was no constructor's championship position at stake.

Where does that leave Heidfeld for 2012? Barring another team needing a substitute in the same manner as Renault, his options as far as race seats go appear to be limited to a not-terribly-appealing choice between Virgin and HRT after Lotus team principal Tony Fernandes announced his intentions to retain both of his current drivers. Beyond that, he could always return to a testing role as he did for Mercedes at the start of 2010, or consider his options outside of F1. If he opted for the latter, the likelihood is that this would regrettably mark the end of an F1 career that was once full of promise.

Should this be the case, an obvious choice presents itself. I am, of course, referring to BMW's upcoming assault on the DTM championship. While neither party could reasonably expect instant success, the likes of Hakkinen, Jean Alesi and more recently David Coulthard have demonstrated that adapting to a touring car is far from an impossible task. BMW is currently in the process of assembling its driver line-up, having already confirmed former their former WTCC drivers Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus as well as current Mercedes star Bruno Spengler; what they could benefit from is a name well known in Germany with whom they have already established a good relationship.

For Heidfeld, it would be an unmissable opportunity to finally get back into the position to fight for race wins, and unlike what would probably be the case at Virgin or HRT, he would be paid handsomely for the privilege. Bear in mind that he hasn't tasted victory of any description since he won the Formula 3000 race at the A1 Ring in 1999, Heidfeld could do far worse than join the high-speed world of DTM and finally become the winner he so deserved to be in F1.