By Nick Heidfeld
December 12 2009

In what was a first for Nick and his fans, the traditional Christmas party was held at the Borussia Mönchengladbach stadium.

It was that time of year again last weekend. It has become something of a tradition for me to meet up with my fans in my home town for a Christmas get-together and a review of the past F1 season. The venue was rather unusual this year: it’s the first time we’ve held the event at Borussiapark – more precisely, in the Sportsbar. That was an interesting change of scenery for me because, although I’m Mönchengladbach born and bred, it was my first visit to the new stadium.

A lot of new buildings have gone up around the ground. I also took the chance to look around inside the stadium. It was night time and the stands were empty, but I still found the atmosphere very impressive under the floodlights, and I can well imagine what it must be like when they have a crowd of 54,000 for a big fixture. I hope that I get the opportunity to watch my home team play a match here some time.

As always, the evening was a huge success, nevertheless I have some improvements in my mind for next year. I’ve known many of my fans for a long time and we always enjoy meeting up with each other at events of this kind. I really appreciate having this level of support and the vibes are very easy, so I always find the occasion quite relaxing.

This year as always, we chose our ‘Fan of the Year’. For the first time ever, the fan club committee selected a female – my longstanding supporter Katja Ittner. She’s been with us right from the start and has been on numerous journeys with us and attended many of our events. So a special “thank you” to Katja, but also to all my other fans who have stood by me through the years.

Yours

Nick