On the road to London: Nick Heidfeld

Nobody was entirely sure what to expect in Beijing, the first race of a new era in Formula E. Heidfeld immediately proved that his switch from Venturi to Mahindra was the right one, when he managed to get through to the new Super Pole shoot out in qualifying. His shoot out lap saw him start third on the grid, behind only the e.dams pair.

Started third and finished third, but the race was far from simple for the German. Heidfeld overtook Prost at the start of the race and defended hard against him and Lucas Di Grassi, only to lose both places in the mid race car swap. Heidfeld tried to challenge for the podium but it was a retirement from Prost ahead of him that ultimately gained him the place.

Heidfeld couldn’t repeat his P3 start in the Putrajaya qualifying, taking eleventh.

The race was also not as kind to the German, when contact with Jean-Eric Vergne sent him even further down the field on the opening lap. Heidfeld was able to recover in the pit stops, only to be handed a drive through penalty when it was discovered he’d been released early from the pit. Despite dropping back to eleventh and suffering from an overheating battery in the second stint of the race, Heidfeld was still able to make up a couple of places and finished inside the points. Just.

Injury ruled Heidfeld out of the third round of the championship, but the German overcame the damaged wrist ligaments to race in the Buenos Aires ePrix. Again, it wasn’t a fantastic qualifying session for Heidfeld, who took thirteenth on the grid.

Heidfeld wasn’t gifted an easy race for his return, dropping back to sixteenth on the fourth lap. From there, he began to climb back up through the field again, managing to slowly but sure climb up to seventh by the end of the race.

It was a difficult race for Heidfeld in Mexico. The German qualified ninth and finished there, though Lucas Di Grassi’s disqualification moved him up a place into ninth.

Energy management proved a problem for the Mahindra driver, who had to coast and had trouble battling with the drivers around him.

After the difficult race in Mexico, Long Beach was just what Heidfeld and Mahindra needed. The German made it into the Super Pole for the second time this season, and qualified fifth, but Antonio Felix Da Costa’s disqualification meant he would start the race in fourth.

After Heidfeld tried to push forwards, including by using the FanBoost he had been awarded, but couldn’t make any progress against the cars ahead of him. Still the German finished fourth, his best finish since Beijing nearly five months ago.

Qualifying in Paris didn’t go quite to plan. Heidfeld collided with Mike Conway on his qualifying lap, ending the session for both of them. It meant the German would be starting the Paris ePrix at the very back of the grid.

Heidfeld slowly crept up the field during the race, boosted when drivers ahead of him dropped out, but he could only manage to finish twelfth. It wasn’t a totally pointless race for the German, though, as he set the fastest lap of the race, taking two points for his effort. It meant he continued his record of leaving every race he’d competed in that season with points.

It looked like it was going to be a best ever qualifying for Mahindra when both cars made it into the Super Pole shoot out. A mistake at the end of his shoot out lap meant he only qualified fifth, but even that was taken away from him when both he and Bruno Senna were disqualified from the session due to the tyre pressure on their cars.

Heidfeld started the race sixteenth, but was quick to recover and made up places on the opening lap. He was soon running inside the points and, having been awarded FanBoost for his second car, he was aiming to make up even more places in the second stint, but a late safety car cut his race short, and he had to settle for seventh.