Nick Heidfeld Appointed New Chairman of the GPDA

After Pedro de la Rosa confirmed to the media and to his fellow F1 racers that he will not have the time to focus on his position within the Grand Prix Drivers Association (GPDA), where he was chairman until a few months ago, it became pretty clear that the person who'll replace him from 2010 onwards will have to be someone without a stable racing seat in the series.

And, considering the current test drivers of the Formula One teams, only Nick Heidfeld and Giancarlo Fisichella would have had the necessary experience to take De la Rosa's place as head of the drivers' body. With the latter focusing on sportscar commitments with Ferrari, the former was today confirmed as new president of the GPDA.

The safety-orientated drivers' body met in Melbourne on Friday and voted unanimously for Heidfeld, who is this season taking on test/reserve driver responsibilities within the Mercedes GP outfit. No other change in the organization of the drivers' body was announced, except for the replacement of its chairman.

The 32-year old German has so far started no less than 169 grands prix in Formula One, but is yet to score his first win in the series. When he was a Sauber BMW driver, Heidfeld set a new record in Formula One in terms of consecutive race classifications – with a tally of 41.

The information that he will become new chairman of the GPDA did not surface in the media via a press release, but through Finnish driver Heikki Kovalainen, while interviewed by Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat.