Nick Heidfeld

Nick Heidfeld raced twelve seasons in Formula 1, stood on the podium thirteen times and never won a race. A German born in 1977, he made his debut in 2000 with Prost in a pointless year, and in 2001 moved to Sauber, where he finished third in Brazil and eighth in the championship alongside a rookie team-mate called Kimi Räikkönen.

His best car came late and did not last. In 2005, with Williams, he was second at Monaco and at the Nürburgring, where he also started from pole, the only one of his career. From 2006 to 2009 he drove for BMW Sauber, and that is where his best year is: 2007, fifth in the championship with 61 points. In 2008 he finished second four times (Australia, Canada, Britain and Belgium), but the win went to his team-mate Robert Kubica in Canada.

What came next were stand-in drives. In 2010 he returned to Sauber for the last five races, and in 2011 Renault called him to take the seat of Kubica, injured in a rally crash. He was third in Malaysia in his second race with the team, but after Hungary he was replaced by Bruno Senna and never came back.

Thirteen podiums without a win: the fact most often repeated about him, and also the one that best sums up a driver who was nearly always where he should be when the car had nothing more to give.