The racer’s instinct: Nick Heidfeld takes it to the edge to score the fastest ever time on the hill
See Nick blitz the Goodwood hill at
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THE SUN WAS FINALLY SHINING DOWN ON GOODWOOD PARK after a couple of days of wet weather. The McLaren MP4/13 with a young Nick Heidfeld on board sat with tyre warmers on, ready to climb the 1.16-mile course.
“I was down at the bottom of the Hill with Nick,” remembers former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, “and I think I was the last one to speak to him. He was young [only 22 years old at the time], trying to make his way into Formula 1, and I remember it distinctly because I did something that was pretty irresponsible. I leant in to speak into his visor and said, ‘look Nick, this is more dangerous than it looks – there’s a crowd, some straw bales, some flint walls, take it easy’. And then, just before he flicked his visor shut, I said, ‘but make sure you don’t get beaten’.”
Seconds later, the marshals pushed him onto the startline, the revs rose on the Mercedes-Benz V10 power plant and the young German disappeared down to the first corner. “As he went round that first corner,” says Whitmarsh, “I remember shuddering, and thinking, ‘what have I done?’”
That 1999 record run is unbeaten, but this summer at the Festival of Speed ( July 4- 7) VW is returning to try and take his crown. Having done a 43.86-second run with Romain Dumas at the wheel last year, the team has been away and developed its electric ID R car further.