1,000 Greatest Drivers: Nick Heidfeld

He isn't the best non-winner ever, but still had a respectable career.

Heidfeld is probably the most popular choice as the best driver to never win a Formula One race as he routinely performs well on various statistical models based on finishes. I believe those models overrate him (including probably mine) mainly because he was the teammates for a lot of good drivers when they were rookies (Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe Massa, Timo Glock - I insist Glock was good although I know that’s going to be a hard sell, and Robert Kubica). Additionally, merely having the most podium finishes doesn’t make you the best non-winner when you hardly factor for the win. I realize he arguably never had a team capable of it for the most part despite Kubica’s one win and if he had such a team, he probably would have won, but the same can be said for a number of other drivers. The main reason Heidfeld had the most podiums among a non-winner was simply because F1 in the 21st century had significantly more reliability than F1 in the 20th, but I think I would at best rate Heidfeld third behind Chris Amon and Jean Behra. Nonetheless, he had a respectable career worthy of recognition.

A couple months ago on a whim, I contacted the producers of the new CW show Scrabble to see if they’d have me on. I haven’t done much of anything with Scrabble since I quit playing tournaments eight years ago. I was surprised to hear back from them today and they’re interested in talking to me in a few days, but the odds of me actually getting on are unlikely. I believe it is filmed in England for one thing and they’d probably expect me to pay my way and I’d need to have somebody watch my cat, but I’ll still to talk to them and see if something happens. Worth a shot. If there’s any game show that would have me on, that could be the most likely one. So thanks for letting me know about it, Will Anderson.