And then, in Bahrain:
MSC: Punk'd!

Hope so for Nick,... Hope so...

And then Nick Hiedfeld finishes the next 19 races in 26th and last place.

It shouldn't be to hard beating a Campos F1 car in a Brawn/Mercedes GP. So maybe 24th

that's a shame. for me, heidfeld is better than many on the grid and one of the best overtakers in f1. a great guy and a fantastic driver, wasted in the motorhome.

Nick 'go with the flow' Heidfeld everybody!

That's how I see it. Hopefully, though, this will set him up for a racing seat with Merc either next season or the following.

It was a gamble worth taking. I don't think there were any silly mistakes. It's frustrating that it seems that Renault don't have the money to run two top cars and strange that Lotus felt that a driver decision had to be made so early but the it's only the Sauber situation that I find a bit annoying. I must presume that there's a financial reason for that, too, or think that Peter Sauber was feeling poorly in the head for a while.

Well, I think that this cements Nick's reputation.
Heikki and Jarno were selected to drive Lotus, not Nick Heidfeld.

Not that we know what went on behind the scenes but I think it's as certain as anything in the silly season that Lotus wanted Nick but also wanted to have their drivers signed very early. He had the possibility of the Mercedes seat and turned them down and they signed Heikki.

You´ll see...when we talking about the troll...it did happend today (announcment).
Good for Nick, at least he got something...See you at Jerez next week Quick Nick if you are testing.

I think, if they overlooked Nick (unlikely), it says more about their poor judgement than Nicks driving ability.

SAD

What a bummer.

Nick needs a new manager.

I think he's been badly advised about the shifting sands of Formula One this winter.

With so many pay drivers emerging, Nick's position of hanging out for decent money has ended killing his chance of a decent race drive.

I don't for a second say that Nick is quite at the level of Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, Button and Kubica.

But he's certainly an extremely reliable driver on the second tier, I'd argue that he's every bit as good as guys like Webber, Barrichello, Glock and Trulli.

What's more I honestly believe he is superior to Rosberg, de La Rosa, Sutil, Liuzzi, Kovalainen.

That Nick doesn't have a race seat can only be because he'd massively overplayed his hand.

And that's a huge shame because Nick has many fans, and is at the point in his career where his experience and speed could really benefit a team.

I'd love to hear a detailed story on what happened as I can't imagine him not getting a race seat option, but I also can't see why he would turn one down if he is motivated enough to stay in F1 as a test driver. Rejecting one in hope for a better option in future and not getting one sounds reasonably enough, but that doesn't mean it's the case. What a shame.

I bet he is getting more ca$h at Mercedes that he could earn at Sauber.

Nick took the Fisi way.

Rubens left the easy life at Ferrari to go to Honda.

Without starting a flame war, I think he's proven that he's on the same level as Kubica, hasn't he? The two drivers were very closely matched while at BMW. Anyway, Nick should have got a drive, but unfortunately he's a wasted talent. Had he got the McLaren drive in 2002 or maybe the Williams drive earlier (replacing Ralf), his career may have been a totally different story.

but TRUE.

Neither.

I'd like to hear a really frank interview with Nick on the subject, especially teh Sauber deal.

I think he's as good as Kubica but for different reasons.

Not a chance, IMO. Even lowest deal for a guy with more than one season in F1 would be a lot, lot bigger than what any test driver gets. Damn Piquet Jr was earning 2 mlns for his second season and one could wonder why wasn't he sacked in the middle of his rookie one in the first place. Especially these days when 'test driver' is a code for 'checking out the simulator once in a while and flying everywhere with the team in case something happens and but it never does".

Mercedes has found a way to guarantee Nick Heidfeld some track time

He rolled for the hard six and didn't get.

That's life.

In retrospect, I would have taken one of the other drives earlier, he was clearly in the picture with a few teams.

TBH, Merc aren't even looking that great, so I don't know why he is so taken by them.

What a waste of a great driver

Maybe a DTM drive.

Definitely, that's not the first time he was on the brink, though ...

I don't get it.

The question for Nick now is one of relevance.
Can you he stay relevant to F1 as a test driver with the of restricted regulations around testing and all the changes going on?

There is always the chance that one of the other new drivers fail miserably and he is seconded in as a replacedment.
That said I somehow feel a 1 year deal with a mid/backmarker team would have better for his long term race drive prospects.

I think he'll hang out to get back into F1.

Surely an opportunity will reopen.

F1 is done with him. See you at Le Mans Nick. Or IRL.

I think he has a reasonable chance of racing for Mercedes at some point either this year or next. If Schumacher beats Rosberg then they might decide they need a stronger number two. If Rosberg beats Schumacher then they might think about replacing Schumacher.

You got that back to front.

Rubens was proably paid plently to drive for the hugely rich works Honda squad, hardly a second-rate f1 team even if the car performance was not so good.

Fisi went to drive for the poor Force India team.

Idd. Looking at the guys who got a race seat this year... but taking into account what we heard during the last weeks and months, Heidfeld is not interested in driving for their teams in case one of them gets fired during the season or next year.

A shame - but what does this mean for Ant?

I'd really like to see an interview with Nick on his negotiations this winter.

And I honestly says I've never been this disappointed in all my years following F1.

He will return, yea, and lay waste.

I doubt the big audience will even notice Heidfeld is missing when the season starts.

He can work for RTL now, I think he would be quite good at that.

His brother Sven is a TV commentator.

http://www.heidfeld-racing.de/tv-kommentator.html

I don't think Nick is out of racing in F1 for good.
If Nico or MS don't perform as expected Nick will have a good shot at a good seat.

I think it's now over for Nick. I can't see Mercedes promoting him, unless something unexpected happens during season (that is MSC's neck, obviously, but, honestly, I don't think it'll happen). But off-season promotion would be very unconventional for a seasoned test driver (it would be slightly more credible for a young test driver) in a top team. Brawn will, I think, rather look for a top driver elsewhence from the paddock should he drop MS, if he just can't return to top. NR won't be replaced before the end of his current contract, trust me. He won't suck that bad.

There's not much to cheer about when a good driver is sidelined, but it was partially his own fault. I've understood he was in frame for Lotus seat, but declined. It's possible that he will join a backmarker or even a midfielder in 2011, but I consider that unlikely, as he wasn't chosen this year, and 1 year as so called "test driver" (i.e. off) will hardly elevate his stock.

Heidfeld is a lot better than Button. And he is certainly as good as Kubica.

A losing schumacher gets more publicity than a winning any other driver. Merc would be crazy to fire Schumacher (and he is already faster than Rosberg).

http://twitter.com/adamcooperf1/status/8628733282

The Pope gets more publicity than Schumacher, but that's not much of a reason to put him in a car is it?

You have a point there about Merc not replacing its drivers with Nick.
But if he does impress Merc some way he might be a good choice for other teams. Maybe some of the new teams who want a good driver with lots of experience.
I think Wurz is a good example of a test driver who got a shot at a race seat.

The question is whether Nick wants to drive for "lesser" teams in the future. After a year of testing he might be tempted to return to racing, even as a backmarker.

I highly doubt it.

Wurz... not exactly the career Nick would like to copy.

The grid will pretty much look for the next best thing if they are looking to replace a single driver. Merc has 2 talented drivers so even they chose to replace one, i doubt very highly they'd go for experience vs. youth and development along side an experienced driver. Pretty much ever team in the top half of the grid solid.

The only option would be to join a new team and see drive the heck out of the car and make team bosses up the road take notice.

He's been around to long and accomplished to little to have a top 5 team look at him now that he is out of a competitive drive unless he pulled some miracle drives.. for which i don't think he ever has so the odds of it happening are low.

I find it very, very strange that a driver of the experience and skill of Nick Heidfeld hasn't managed to find a race seat. Unless one of the Mercedes drivers is very likely to drop out. That is the only explanation I can think of.