Heidfeld replaces De La Rosa at Sauber

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This season Sauber have scored a total of 27 points so far this season. 25 of them coming from Kamui Kobayashi 2 from Pedro De La Rosa. Pedro said the following about the team replacing him "I am surprised by the team's decision but I respect it and would like to wish everyone good luck for the remainder of the season." How can you be surprised if a rookie has scored 12x more points than you?!

Full story here..

I think this is a great move for Sauber, I see them gaining more points from now on.
Is Heidfeld still the Pirelli driver? If so huge advantage for Sauber, backfired for Mercedes I'm sure they wanted that advantage.
 
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Congratulations Nick!

I was wishing for Nick to drive for Mercedes but that didn't happen. Anyway, I'm very happy for him to get his seat and this is the only chance for him to show what he can do. His seat for next year is yet to be confirmed but it is very likely Peter Sauber will retain him alongside Kamui. This is why Peter didn't announce his second driver last month...

It seems like Heidfeld is no longer with Pirelli as a test driver instead rumours saying Pedro is going there to replace Nick... Sauber has already got an advantage ;)👍
 
DC9990
This season Sauber have scored a total of 27 points so far this season. 25 of them coming from Kamui Kobayashi :D 2 from Pedro De La Rosa. Pedro said the following about the team replacing him "I am surprised by the team's decision but I respect it and would like to wish everyone good luck for the remainder of the season." How can you be surprised if a rookie has scored 12x more points than you?!
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Because Pedro was doing a decent job anyway, he wasn't miles behind Kobayashi, in qualifying he's equal and in the races he's only a little bit behind. He was hired not because he's blazingly fast, but because he's reliable, gives great test feedback and won't make silly mistakes. He wasn't expected to beat Kobayashi.

Pedro's comeback has gone far better than Schumacher's in my opinion.

Heidfeld is a welcome return though, hopefully he keeps the seat for 2011, it also gives us an even better benchmark for Kobayashi's performances.
 
To be honest I've been wanting Pedro out of that Sauber since he was announced to be it in.
I know the guy has a huge amount of experience & is great with feedback for testing etc but I'm definately glad Heidfeld has joined.
Hopefully he'll stay for 2011 Heidfeld definately deserves a race seat.
I think Pedro is better suited to the Pirelli job anyway for the reasons above.
 
Meh, Heidfeld's usesless. Worse, he has a cult following. He's never done anything, never gone anywhere. Sure, he's beaten team mate, but at the same time, those team mates have gone on to other, better teams whilst Heidfeld stays static. i can't see him being on the 2011 grid at all.
 
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Meh, Heidfeld's usesless. Worse, he has a cult following. He's never done anything, never gone anywhere. Sure, he's beaten team mate, but at the same time, those team mates have gone on to other, better teams whilst Heidfeld stays static. i can't see him being on the 2011 grid at all.
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Pre 2009 could easily have replaced Heidfeld's name with Button.
 
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Meh, Heidfeld's usesless. Worse, he has a cult following. He's never done anything, never gone anywhere. Sure, he's beaten team mate, but at the same time, those team mates have gone on to other, better teams whilst Heidfeld stays static. i can't see him being on the 2011 grid at all.
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Nick pretty much has beaten all his team mates over the years, team-mates that have gone on to bigger and better things (including world champions).. it would appear that nick not progressing to the same things is not based on results, but bad decisions/management. Quick Nick was passed over for a race drive at Mclaren Mercedes in favour of Kimi Raikonnen, had that not happened Nick would have been a much higher profile driver and would probably have had quite a different career. He appears to be fast, capable, experienced, very consistent and a definate team player. I wish BMW hadn't cocked up the F1.09 like they did because 2009 could have been a big year for Nick, and he would have been on the grid in 2010 with MercedesGP had Schuey not come back from the dead at the last minute.

But this is F1.. plenty of drivers have a mediocre career, then hit the big time when they get a decent car... Jenson Button and Mark Webber would be good examples. I would like to see Nick get a better seat than a Sauber one.. it unfortunatley means more years of obscurity.

I had my fingers crossed he would end up as a works driver for BMW if they do enter the DTM.. who knows!
 
Quick Nick is back...nice...

But like I agreed with a buddy yesterday while we were watching old videos of Senna, Prost, Mansell, Hill (G+D) -> "the best times in F1 are over"....
 
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Meh, Heidfeld's usesless. Worse, he has a cult following. He's never done anything, never gone anywhere. Sure, he's beaten team mate, but at the same time, those team mates have gone on to other, better teams whilst Heidfeld stays static. i can't see him being on the 2011 grid at all.
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He's done a lot actually. As J-PaP said, his career is very similar to Button's.

Just like Button, I think he could win races given the right car and team. He is still ultra-useful to the midfield teams.

What's wrong with a cult following? He's a good driver who has never been given the chance. Fisichella got his chance, I think Heidfeld deserves his.
 
I think Kobayashi is supremely underestimated and has the talent to be a world champ. His debut drive was epic and he's smashed his ex Mclaren teammate all year.

Heidfeld, De La Rosa, Rosberg, Kovalainen mehhh. Not interested in the sleightest.
 
Guess there aren't too many fans here of the old days of Panis, Brundle, Herbert, Irvine, Katayama, Salo, Frentzen, Alesi, Berger and so on? Where's the love for the good drivers, who aren't spectacular?
 
Reims_
I think Kobayashi is supremely underestimated and has the talent to be a world champ. His debut drive was epic and he's smashed his ex Mclaren teammate all year.
Heidfeld, De La Rosa, Rosberg, Kovalainen mehhh. Not interested in the sleightest.
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I dont think he'll ever get into a top team for some reason.
I've been following Kamui for a while, he really is talented & we all know he can overtake almost anyone even in a midfield car.
I dont agree with the second part though, Heidfeld & Rosberg are both amazing drivers.

Ardius
Guess there aren't too many fans here of the old days of Panis, Brundle, Herbert, Irvine, Katayama, Salo, Frentzen, Alesi, Berger and so on? Where's the love for the good drivers, who aren't spectacular?
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I remember Panis winning Monaco xD Great memories. I always loved Salo too for some reason :) (maybe because on F1 Manager he was really cheap but really fast)
 
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I remember Panis at one point being tipped for the title in 1997, even Villenueve said he was worried about him more than Schumacher. A big what if, if he hadn't had that crash at Canada, could he have taken another win that year in the Prost?
He might of even won at Spain 1997 if he hadn't been held up in his charge to the front (I think it was Irvine holding him up while being lapped?).
 
Ardius
Guess there aren't too many fans here of the old days of Panis, Brundle, Herbert, Irvine, Katayama, Salo, Frentzen, Alesi, Berger and so on? Where's the love for the good drivers, who aren't spectacular?
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When was Alesi not spectactular?
 
Ardius
Guess there aren't too many fans here of the old days of Panis, Brundle, Herbert, Irvine, Katayama, Salo, Frentzen, Alesi, Berger and so on? Where's the love for the good drivers, who aren't spectacular?
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They can be useful at times...
 
Good on him. I think Sauber have made a very good decision on bringing him back.

Did he jump ship to Mercedes in order to get a drive in a more competitive team or did BMW push him out? I get the feeling it was because the 2009 car was so bad and he wanted a switch, but Schumi took his place. 2009 must have been a very tough year for him, but not quite as tough as the start of this year. Glad he's back in :)

EDIT: How many German drivers on the grid now, 7? :p
 
Only_in_f1
When was Alesi not spectactular?
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Well he only won 1 race and "only" displayed his aggression on a few occasions, mostly when he was at Tyrrell.
I was referring to all the drivers who get forgotten just because they either didn't win the world championship or didn't win a lot of races, yet were fan favourites for reasons other than wins. Alesi is one of the best of that bunch, but he too gets forgotten and was somewhat forgotten in his last few seasons.

I would never call Alesi spectacular, his debut was spectacular, his whole career wasn't. He was never in the right team in my opinion, always one step behind. One wonders what would have happened if he had gone to Williams in 1991 rather than Ferrari.
 
Seismica
Good on him. I think Sauber have made a very good decision on bringing him back.

Did he jump ship to Mercedes in order to get a drive in a more competitive team or did BMW push him out? I get the feeling it was because the 2009 car was so bad and he wanted a switch, but Schumi took his place. 2009 must have been a very tough year for him, but not quite as tough as the start of this year. Glad he's back in :)

EDIT: How many German drivers on the grid now, 7? :p
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BMW pulled out of F1, therefore Heidfeld had no drive to keep, I am sure he would have been with BMW in 2010 had they carried on, what with schuey being at Mercedes and all.
 
MatskiMonk
BMW pulled out of F1, therefore Heidfeld had no drive to keep, I am sure he would have been with BMW in 2010 had they carried on, what with schuey being at Mercedes and all.
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According to his wiki page, he almost secured a seat at Marcedes, but then got turned down when they signed Schumacher. With Kobayashi and De La Rosa already been given the seats at Sauber he had nowhere to go back to.

I'm glad the guy got a racing seat again so soon. Sauber may be a bit more competitive next season, who knows? Maybe Sauber want a bit of extra feedback on what the new tyres are like compared to the current ones? There must be some usefullness there.

Or maybe they just want to maximise their chances of beating Williams and/or Force India in the constructors.
 
Seismica
According to his wiki page, he almost secured a seat at Marcedes, but then got turned down when they signed Schumacher. With Kobayashi and De La Rosa already been given the seats at Sauber he had nowhere to go back to.

I'm glad the guy got a racing seat again so soon. Sauber may be a bit more competitive next season, who knows? Maybe Sauber want a bit of extra feedback on what the new tyres are like compared to the current ones? There must be some usefullness there.

Or maybe they just want to maximise their chances of beating Williams and/or Force India in the constructors.
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I could be wrong, but BMW's decision to pull out of F1 was announced long before Mercedes signed the deal to buy Brawn GP, so yes, Nick was working on a deal to race for Mercedes, which was scuppered by MS, but this would all be after the BMW announcement of no more F1.
 
Question. If Heidfield is replacing De la Rosa, and De la Rosa has already gone past the allowed engines, will Nick have to incur the penalties? Or will he get a clean slate?
 
Peter
Question. If Heidfield is replacing De la Rosa, and De la Rosa has already gone past the allowed engines, will Nick have to incur the penalties? Or will he get a clean slate?
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The engine limits apply to the car, not the driver.
Same happened earlier this season with Yamamoto and Senna/Chandhok and last year with Massa/Badoer/Fisichella and Fisichella/Liuzzi.

So in other words, car number 22 has used a 9th engine, not De La Rosa.
 
So, Nick's gonna have 5-place grid penalties for the rest of the season?
 
Not necessarily, if Sauber manage to keep those remaining engines going. He's likely to incur one for a 10th engine though. I think the 8th engine for Pedro's car has to be used at Abu Dhabi (as it was only used in the qualifying for Spa). His previous seven can be re-used at will.
You only get a penalty for the 1st race of each new (post-8th) engine. Not for every race.
 

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