Pirelli motor sport boss Paul Hembery says that Nick Heidfeld was the ideal choice as test driver, and will do a “great job” for the Italian company.
Pirelli will use a Toyota TF109 for its initial testing. As previously reported the existing teams will get their chance to try the new rubber during the week after the Abu Dhabi GP.
In a statement Hembery said: “We’re delighted to welcome Nick into the Pirelli family, and we’re confident that he’ll do a great job for us. The role of test driver is a crucial one, so we were looking for a driver who had plenty of recent Formula One experience, the speed to push our new tyres as hard as possible, and the consistency to provide reliable simulations, as well as the analytical skills to relay information accurately to our engineers.
“Nick fits the bill in every respect and we’re very pleased to have secured his services and obviously thankful to Mercedes GP Petronas for agreeing to release Nick from his contract. As for the car, we have a policy of complete impartiality, so we did not want to favour any existing team. The Toyota was the perfect solution, as it is a contemporary racing machine with proven speed and reliability but without links to any of the manufacturers currently competing in Formula One. I’m confident that we have an extremely good package that will give us every opportunity to maximise the potential of our tyres prior to the start of next season.”
Meanwhile Heidfeld added: “It’s a great privilege for me to join Pirelli in order to carry out this vital work and I am very grateful to Mercedes GP Petronas for releasing me from my contract to take on this role. Through the experience I have built up over the years, I’m confident that I will be able to provide Pirelli with some important feedback regarding the development of next year’s tyres.
“I’ve got a lot to give but I haven’t been driving so much this year, so it is good to get started! Together, I’m sure that we can create a dynamic range of tyres that will make Formula One an even more exciting sport in the future.”
Adam Cooper F1 
Interesting that Nick left Mercedes so easily and quickly. Maybe things really are a mess there and Nick sees that no matter what Schumi does Schumi will keep his ride.
How much do you get to be a tire tester anyway? There’s no future there unless Nick can leave before next season, which I very much doubt.
Seems like he’ll have a major headstart on all the other drivers for 2011, so he will be very much wanted by a midfield team. He’s as fast as Kubica when he feels like it, so it’s not like they’d be getting a perennially slow tester like de la Rosa.
It’s more like Kubcia could be faster at times (when he felt like it), but on the whole Heidfeld seems to be the better/consistent driver (winning 2 of the 3 seasons they were together)
Heidfeld is one of the drivers with trouble heating up his tyres for qualifying. Like Button and Raikkonen. Perhaps that will be good news for drivers like that and less so for Hamilton and Alonso.
Probably even for Schumacher. He seems to be struggling to get heat in his tyres too, but in his case it could just be the poorly designed car with the wrong weight ratio for the tyres.
Ah, can’t wait to get Pirelli in the game again.
It just adds glamour the same way – argh, almost – that Monte Carlo does!
If you remember back to when Bridgestone entered F1 in 1997, they employed Damon Hill for the initial testing, after he won the championship in 1996. It was carried out at Suzuka, with TWR running the test in a 1995 Ligier chassis. I think he destroyed the car on the first day, and so the test schedule was abit disjointed afterwards. Can’t remember if he did anymore testing for them after that… Just a little comparison for anyone who didn’t remember..