It's easy to forget sometimes, that many of the drivers are still young men who love to party and don't always know how to handle the immediate attention they receive in the limelight of Formula One. Some become stars, others leave the sport with bruised egos and bitter memories. Nick Heidfeld nearly became one of the latter, after a daunting season at Prost. But now, in his second season at the Sauber team, he is quickly becoming the star many predicted he'd become. Will Gray talked to the bashful German about the challenges on track and in the paddock, but also about his life as a youngster outside the realm of Formula One

Nick Heidfeld quietly sneaked into Formula One at the age of 22, when he joined the Prost team in 2000. Since then, he has kept his head low, got on with the job, and, basically, been ignored by the sport's top bosses. But now, having just turned 25 during the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, he is making people sit up and take notice.

His performances so far, for the tough fighting and continually successful Sauber team, have been sensational. But he knows that Sauber is just a stepping point to bigger things. It just remains to be seen when those bigger things come his way.

Heidfeld arrived on the Grand Prix grid as 'the next German hope', with Schumacher brothers Ralf and Michael and Heinz-Harald Frentzen all happily ensconced as front-runners already. He was the man to continue the German dynasty.

But a tough debut at Prost, which he still shudders to talk about, formed opinions which tarnished the start to his time at Sauber, where he moved last year. He was not out-performed but rather overshadowed by young teammate Kimi Raikkonen, the young Finnish sensation who had competed in 23 previous car races and left at the end of the year, for an apparently plum drive with McLaren-Mercedes.

But there is a certain family feeling about Sauber that Heidfeld likes. It is less talked about than the apparently close-knit team at Jordan but, at least at the moment, it is something Heidfeld is quite happy with even though he is always looking towards a future away from them.

"Definitely there is always thoughts about moving on and for the last two years it looks like Sauber has been able to develop good young drivers," said Heidfeld. "They are approaching new drivers in a good way and I think everyone at the team are doing a great job."

But with Raikkonen gone and his new teammate Felipe Massa, just 21 years of age, grabbing more headlines than him, he has, it seems, become the forgotten man of Formula One. Not according to Heidfeld. He is still pushing as hard as ever to be noticed, and he likes to let his driving do the talking.

"I am a bit introverted," he said of his off-track character. "I don't go along to a lot of people and say 'hello, here I am', this is not my thing and I am not so good at it. But I am sure that the team bosses know me. Being on the track is the main thing for me, that is the thing I love most."

The latest Sauber machine is providing him with the opportunity to do exactly that and, with a mature approach, he is comfortably on-par with - if not out-pacing - Massa, the Brazilian described in his fanatical homeland as 'the next Senna'. But Heidfeld's experience in the team, and his clear liking of the car, has seen him up at the sharp end of the grid most of the year.

The team finished fourth in the Championship last year, a fact Heidfeld puts down to efficient budgeting which enabled Sauber to get the most out of their limited resources and beat some of the big boys. But he is already feeling the pressure and knows they face a strong fight with Renault to hold onto that position this year.

"Speed wise, I am happy with the car and we have made good progress from last year," he said. "But it is a bit different to last year because now everyone expects us to be that strong and we ourselves have also said we want to be fourth, but we know that is going to be hard.

"I think we are really fighting for fourth place with the Renaults and I think and hope that Renault cannot keep up the progress they are doing right now. Last year they jumped forward with steps of maybe half a second, it was incredible, but now obviously the quicker they get the more difficult it is going to be for them to develop.

"We are also progressing but it is more difficult for us because we have less money. I think that is a key point. I think Sauber is quite straightforward. I think they are not gambling and not making so many debts like some other teams, just from hearing they have millions of money to pay back and I think Sauber is really good and maybe it is going to pay off in the next few years. We still have new parts all the time and you can still do it."

Heidfeld talks about the top four, but so far this year they have even been taking on and beating the McLaren-Mercedes cars in some races and, so far, it seems Heidfeld is having the last laugh on Raikkonen. The young Finn effectively stole a place at McLaren-Mercedes from under Heidfeld's nose because the team, which finished second in the Championship last season, has Heidfeld on a "long-term" contract. He, you would have thought, would have been their first choice, but they did not see it that way. Raikkonen, they decided, was their future, not Heidfeld.

But Raikkonen is suffering in a disappointing year, not personally, but for his McLaren-Mercedes team. Heidfeld out-qualified the Finn in the last race, at the A1-Ring, to give himself a nice little present for his landmark birthday. But although he currently has one point more than his former teammate, Heidfeld is still disappointed the Finn took away his chance with a big team.

"Obviously I am not happy that he went there," said Heidfeld. "But also it is not a big problem for me. I did lots of interviews about that and one idiot did a story that was completely wrong, saying that I was really upset, claiming I thought it was bad that Mercedes took him and why didn't they take me. But I never said that and then everybody writes the same bullshit.

"I am just trying to push but I never said Mercedes are stupid or they should have taken me. It is not my job to get into the politics. If they would take me and there was a chance then I would go because they are a top team although they are struggling at the moment."

Right now, however, he is happy to continue with the Sauber family, and is getting on "really well" with his new teammate Massa. The young Brazilian is, it seems, Heidfeld's alter ego. He is outgoing, confident, and, some would say, slightly crazy. But Heidfeld claims he himself can party with the best of them.

Six months ago, Heidfeld moved from his old Monaco home to a place near Zurich, in Switzerland. Now, he is closer to the team's factory, and also closer to party-mate Massa. It is, for the German, a different world to life with Raikkonen last year.

"Felipe is very open, very extroverted," said Heidfeld. "When we are in Switzerland we go out for dinner, we go out to party and it is a really good relationship. Kimi was completely different. Kimi, as he is from Finland, is very quiet, cool. They are completely different characters. I didn't have huge problems with him, we got along quite well but more off track than on track - although we didn't have any major problems."

Although time in Formula One is limited, Heidfeld makes the most of his 'downtime' and admitted he can be partial to the odd drink or two. But his biggest love in life is Formula One, and although he likes to party, there is always restrictions.

"We have nice parties and have a lot of fun," he said. "We can drink during the season but it is in my own interest not to be too mad. I like to drink something and just have a good time, but then you have to see that you are not home a lot, even in the weekends in-between races. You have a lot to do and you also have to do fitness training so it doesn't happen very often, but I like to do it, I like to go out to clubs and stuff."

So the quiet man is actually wild at heart. Although he has never been to a rock concert, his range of music interests runs throughout the genres. From dance to armchair, with a few heavy guitars thrown in, there are plenty of things that rock Heidfeld's world. So what tracks would you hear playing on his stereo?

"Chill-out, I really like chill out," he began. "But also other things, like, I really like Outkast, I like Jamiroquai, a lot of the stuff that is in the charts, not all of it, but quite a lot. Techno I don't like, it is too hard for me. Most of the time when you go out now you hear house music, that's a bit of a problem in Zurich, it is mainly house music."

Heidfeld also enjoys the movies, and cites the Matrix and the Fifth Element as two of his favourite films. But he admits he is also partial to a bit of trash television when he wants to put his feet up at home between races. "Just to relax," he explained. "Not so much difficult stuff where you have to really go inside, it is more to relax."

But come summer, and Heidfeld will certainly not be wanting to put his feet up. His new house overlooks the lake just outside Zurich, and there is nothing he would like better than for his water skiing teammate Massa to give him a few tips on a wakeboard. He hopes he can transfer skills from an old pastime.

"When I was younger I used to do skateboarding," Heidfeld said. "I was normal." So what was his best trick? "I would just go to a quite high place and then jump down with the board underneath so I could just jump quite high and keep the board underneath," he continued. "It always worked."

He still meets up with his old skateboarding pals, even though his busy schedule gives him little space to find the time. They got together for a special birthday meal in the week after his disaster-struck Austrian Grand Prix, where he survived with aches and bruises after a high-speed crash with Takuma Sato.

"I would say I only have friends from home," he said when asked if he still keeps in touch with old pals. "For me I think a real friend is something special and I only have a handful. Most of them, or all of them, I know from back at school.

"One is in Australia now, studying some economics-type subject. Another is in Japan and he is working in finance, so it is difficult to get all together. In the last two years I went to a little apartment where we all met for a winter holiday, and it is really nice to see everybody."

But that is the problem with life in Formula One. Week after week goes by with Heidfeld having to race, then test, then see sponsors and then go to the next race. It is a never-ending circle of work. But then again, that is what you have to do, and, in the end, you can take your films, music and meeting up with pals - at the moment there is only one thing that can satisfy Nick Heidfeld.

"When I am at the circuit I am concentrated on it 100 percent and when I am away from it I think I can turn off most of the time," said Heidfeld. "Of course it is never that you are away from it completely, you always think about it. I would like more free time because it is quite busy. The most important thing for me is to be happy and at the moment Formula One is a huge part of that."