Heidfield - Official Pirelli tyre tester.

mickdw

It seems Nick Heidfield has signed up with Pirelli to do tyre testing duties for the foreseeable future. Mercedes released him from his test driver job to take up the new job.
This is me is a very crafty move by Mercedes gp. Its typical of brawn & schumacher, always looking for an edge from every possible angle. It surely cannot harm them to have a very close relationship with the the guy who is doing the development work on next years tyres.
This development must also surely mean that schumi is hanging around for a while yet as heidfield wouldnt be going anywhere if there was a drive available in the team

Ghost Train

might help Heidfield to get a drive next year if he gets a lot of running on them

if Fisichella had got the drive probably would have been a bit more made of Ferrari getting some advantage from it

hard to know if mercedes will get any advantage from it, doubt it will matter much

thegoth

If I were Renault, I'd sign Heidfield

EvilMonkey

At least with Pirelli Heidfield gets to do a few laps in an F1 car. He had no chance at Merc. And will improve his chances of a 2011 race drive.

thegoth wrote: »

If I were Renault, I'd sign Heidfield

I don't see why Renault would change their current drivers.

thegoth

Either do I as Petrov brings about €20 - 25 million is sponsorship plus he is Russian which helps other sponsors like Lads, but were serious noises coming from Renault that they were not happy with his performance and wanted to replace him for next year ( although his last few drives may help change their minds ). If they are changing drivers, I'd go for Heidfield.

On a related note, here are teams I think Heidfield would be well suited to as he is better than their current driver.

Virgin - DiGrassi
HRT - All 3 of their drivers
Lotus - Kovalainen
Tora Rossa - Alguersuari
Sauber - De La Rosa
Williams - Hulkenberg
Force India - Luzzi
Renault - Petrov ( Although he seems to be improving )

Ghost Train

thegoth wrote: »

Either do I as Petrov brings about €20 - 25 million is sponsorship plus he is Russian which helps other sponsors like Lads, but were serious noises coming from Renault that they were not happy with his performance and wanted to replace him for next year ( although his last few drives may help change their minds ). If they are changing drivers, I'd go for Heidfield.

On a related note, here are teams I think Heidfield would be well suited to as he is better than their current driver.

Virgin - DiGrassi
HRT - All 3 of their drivers
Lotus - Kovalainen
Tora Rossa - Alguersuari
Sauber - De La Rosa
Williams - Hulkenberg
Force India - Luzzi
Renault - Petrov ( Although he seems to be improving )

I think Sauber - De La Rosa
or maybe Williams - Rubens
or
lotus - trulli

muckwarrior

What car is heidfeld driving for testing?

Grim.

the car toyota built for this year

EvilMonkey

Grim. wrote: »

the car toyota built for this year

Its the 09 Toyota, They weren't aloud to us this years Toyota in case someone buys it for next year.

losthorizon

Unlike what some posters are saying I think Rubens is a fine driver and has really done a great job this season. You dont get to drive 300 grand prixs by being average. I also think hes helped to develop Hulkenburg as the season has progressed.

I would love to see Maldonado driving in F1 next year. Its about time he got a go. I've read though that Sauber might be getting some mexican sponsorship for next season and that in return Perez the talented mexican driver might be employed. Sauber already have a mexican GP3 driver with a contract called Gutiirrez who might be in the picture as well. De la Rosas days could be numbered in F1.

losthorizon

Heidfeld confirmed by Sauber to replace De La Rosa for the rest of the season. I kind of feel sorry for De la Rosa - hasn't had the best of luck.

EvilMonkey

Was never a fan of De La Rosa, i guess he will get the Pirelli gig.

Ghost Train

Pirelli have announced that Romain Grosjean is to take over from Nick Heidfeld in testing its 2011 Formula One tyres at Monza next week.

Heidfeld had been released from his contract with Mercedes GP to test for the Italian company, which is taking over from Bridgestone as F1's sole supplier next year.

However, it was announced earlier this week that the German is to replace Pedro de la Rosa at Sauber, beginning at next weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

Swiss-born Grosjean, who competes with a French licence, drove for Renault as a replacement for axed Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr. for the final seven races of last year without scoring a point.

He was not retained after the end of the season and has most recently featured in the GP2 support series.

Pirelli thanked Heidfeld for his contribution after the German completed some 200 laps over a two day test at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain at the wheel of last year's Toyota TF109 car.

He also tested for them at Mugello in Italy last month.

"The tests here at Jerez have gone extremely well and we completed all the work that we planned over the two days," said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

"Now we move on to Monza where our task will be to finalise the (tyre) construction before we focus further on compounds."

http://www.planetf1.com/news/3213/6381738/Grosjean-replaces-Heidfeld-as-Pirelli-tester

Grosjean is to take over the testing

I'm happy to see Heidfeld back, will be interesting to see how he does in Singapore

Cookie_Monster

Grosjean?

How can you test tyres if the car is in pieces against a wall somewhere all the time?