Question: A home Grand Prix is special for every driver, with lots of cheering fans in attendance and the added pressure to do well. Did your home crowd help you along?
Nick Heidfeld: It’s all true except for the pressure. I don’t feel more pressure. In fact, it is more fun to drive there, even if my home race is the busiest of the season in terms of commitments. The fans make it all worthwhile.
Question: The team’s expectations have obviously skyrocketed. Whilst last season, with three second-place finishes under your belt, you would have been a hero, this year, if it doesn’t happen all the time, there’s talk of a crisis. How do you cope?
Nick Heidfeld: Well, you always change the targets depending on the car you have. We are achieving more but sometimes you have to adjust your targets. Like in Magny-Cours, where the car wasn’t too good, we would have been extremely happy with a podium.
Question: How much motivation do you get from Robert Kubica’s performances?
Nick Heidfeld: At times in the season it has shown me that I did not get the best out of the car. But it is beneficial having the data and knowing that he gets on very well with the car. And it is also good seeing that in the races my performances have been similar to Robert’s quite often. I would call it a good benchmark at the moment.
Question: What about your future? Will you stay with BMW Sauber next season? When will the team make a decision?
Nick Heidfeld: With BMW Sauber we are not allowed to speak about contracts so I can’t talk about next year. But what I can say is that I feel very confident in the team. I have a lot of backing, even when I had problems, which was really helpful. And as we have achieved all the targets that we have set ourselves so far, our target for next year is to fight for the championship, and of course I would like to stay with the team for that.
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