EvilWhippet
Slyboogy
RasputinLives
Three incidents during his career stands out that made people look away
1) Despite being Mercedes tester Ron did not pick him for Mclaren - sponsor friendly was the apparent reasons that hurt him bad
2) He stuck with Sauber for too long when no one else came calling and in the end got sacked losing to Frentzen as well who could not hold down a drive in F1
3) People said he beat Kubica 2 years out of 3
1st year you would expect him too given it was Kubica's first full season
2nd year Kubica was leading the championship and the team opted for a bizarre decision to support Heidfeld up to speed and concentrate for 2009 .... for your information his performance to Kubica post Canada was 33pts Kubica to 32 pts Heidfeld which included him benefiting from Hamilton's demotion
3rd year ...name a race where Heidfeld made people grab attention then?
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That Jordan season where he drove .. he did not have sponsors... Pantano had to bring sponsors into the team to earn his drive and part fund Heidfeld's wages as well
As for his season at Lotus Renault - he's been talking up himself that he was still good enough to be world champion.
So here's a lifeline at being the team leader which he failed to deliver because he was up against Kubica as the benchmark from previous season to PEtrov
EvilWhippet
Heidfeld beat Kimi right and he was the Mclaren test driver and supposedly had MErcedes supporting his case and that was not enough to convince Ron despite having seen him from F3000 to F1 for a few years
Slyboogy
10 years right - he's not exactly driven some

cars apart from Prost 2000 and Jordan 2004
I still think if he was not German right BMW would not have made the bizarre decision to sort him out rather than back Kubica who was championship leader in 2008
He had MArio Thiessen to thank for resurrecting his career briefly from Jordan first to get him to Williams and then signing him up to BMW
I remember when Villeneuve was his teammate and then they threw Kubica a chance and the word was Heidfeld has suddenly found 0.5 seconds a lap..where was the speed previously
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In terms of similarities to Button's career... well Button did not have Mercedes backing to get into F1 and his root was not as smooth
Button obviously did not handle the BAR /Williams mess well but then who does when they put their name to paper and realise they may be sued. His career appeared to be going up until people realised Honda were in a lot more mess than
but he did show his abilities when it was wet
he had his one chance/ lifeline and seized his opportunity
I am sure if Heidfeld was hussling the other 4 teams regularly like Kubica did in 2010 he might have been on the grid still
I should add despite initial rejections by Ron at Mclaren for 2002... he was promised that may drive for the team in future...and who did Ron pick next to replace DC....Juan Montoya
Slyboogy
Not sponsor friendly was Ron's reasons and it seems to be one of his achilles heel that he is a sponsors nightmare
If you compare to Mika Hakkinen the iceman somehow fitted with Mercedes appeal in Germany