This German racer is one of five men on the current grid from the European nation. He was born on May 10, 1977 in Monchengladbach. Just like many other German kids, Heidfeld got his first kart when he was just eight. After having raced successfully in many karting championships, he won the German International Formula Ford 1800 Championship in 1995. In 1997, he won the German F3 Championship and soon got his test driver position with McLaren. He then won the International Formula 3000 Championship in 1999. Also known as “Quick Nick”, Heidfeld got his first break in F1 when he raced for the Prost team alongside Jean Alesi in 2000. Though he could not produce any results for Prost, he was signed on by Sauber till 2003. He gave teammate Kimi Räikkönen stiff competition throughout the year and won podium in the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2001. In 2002, he dominated rookie Felipe Massa, his new teammate at Sauber that season and stayed ahead of him for most of the year. Always known to be the first one on the dance floor, Heidfeld can very much shake a leg and he doesn’t care to be less bothered whether he has two left feet or twenty! A person who enjoys what he does, he did not let his morale down when he scored just three points in 2004 while racing for Jordan. The following year he moved to BMW-Williams and went on to achieve his first pole position at Nürburgring. Thereafter, he stood second in Monaco and Europe. Ever since 2006, Heidfeld has been racing for BMW-Sauber and has more or less negotiated his learning curve to drive for victory. In 2006, he secured 23 points with a podium finish in the Hungarian Grand Prix. 2007 turned out to be much better with two podium finishes at second and third place in Canada and Hungary respectively. Till then, BMW-Sauber had all their aspirations vested in Heidfeld to put up a good show in the 2008 edition of the F1 Championship and he obliged by bringing in 60 points and by finishing at the second place for four times. In 2009, coming after a decent run in the previous season, Heidfeld failed to produce better results for the BMW Sauber team. His best finish was a second place in Malaysia, after which he did not see the podium again. Too add to his misfortunes, BMW had decided to pull out of the team for the 2010 season and the German was left stranded. Heidfeld is known to be one of the most underrated drivers in F1 and whether or not he races in 2010, he can never be denied the respect he deserves in the sport of F1.