Heidfeld Holds No Regrets over Mercedes Move

Nick Heidfeld insisted that he feels no remorse over the fact that he'll take a sabbatical from F1 racing during the 2010 season. As confirmed by Mercedes GP last week, the German driver will not be making a single appearance in a Mercedes car on the track this year, as his role with the team will be to develop the car based on data from F1 simulators.

Consequently, after becoming the driver to finish the most consecutive grand prix on the list of classified racers (41), the Mönchengladbach-born driver failed to secure a racing spot for the 2010 campaign of Formula One. So he chose to test for Mercedes GP, but only for a single year, as his plans are obviously to return to racing in 2011.

“I do not want to be reserve driver for ever, so I can learn something by working with a seven time world champion and Ross Brawn. That was one reason why I signed with the team. Recently, many test drivers have gone back to their racing jobs. Without wanting to sound presumptuous, I think I am in a good position (to do the same),” said Heidfeld, according to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

While insisting that switching to a career in the DTM series is certainly not a possibility for him in the future (at least not for now), the 167-grand prix starter insisted that he could have continued his career in F1 as a race driver, but with a low-rated team.

“I could have signed with some teams, but my priority was simply to be with a top team. I would do it the same way again,” added the 32-year old German, who also expressed no regrets over passing out on the chance to partner Lewis Hamilton at McLaren (as rumored in the media a few weeks before the Woking based team signed Jenson Button for the job.