Driver In Focus: Rubens Barrichello

The Development Years

Rubens Gonçalves “Rubinho” Barrichello (born May 23, 1972 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver.

Both his father and paternal grandfather are also named Rubens, and Barrichello shares his father’s birthday: May 23. Therefore, Rubens Barrichello was known as Rubinho (Portuguese for “little Rubens”), which has become his nickname.

Barrichello won five karting titles in Brazil before going to Europe to race in the Formula Vauxhall Lotus series in 1990. In his first year, he won the championship, a feat he replicated the following year in the British Formula 3 Championship, beating David Coulthard. He very nearly joined Formula One, the highest category of single seater racing, at just 19 years of age. Instead he competed in Formula 3000 in 1992. He finished third in the championship, and joined the Jordan Formula One team for the 1993 Formula One season. During this time, and also early in his Formula One career, Barrichello lived in Banbury & Cumnor, Oxfordshire, UK.

Formula One Progression

As a young, aspiring driver, Barrichello looked up to the late Ayrton Senna, and when he joined Formula One, Senna in return considered him his protégé.

Barrichello had an effective rookie year. In his third race, the European Grand Prix, he started from 12th place in very wet conditions but was fourth by the end of the first lap. He ran as high as second and was running third, having passed the Williams of Damon Hill and Alain Prost, before encountering a fuel problem. His Jordan’s reliability in 1993 was poor, and he finished few races. Barrichello regularly outpaced his more experienced teammates, Ivan Capelli and Thierry Boutsen.

His only points finish of the season came at the Japanese Grand Prix with fifth place, ahead of his new teammate Eddie Irvine. These 2 points put him in 18th place in the 1993 standings.

1994 started well with a fourth place in Brazil and a third place at Aida, which earned him his maiden podium position. These results put Barrichello in second place in the drivers’ ranking at that moment, behind Michael Schumacher, who had won the two races. However, at the San Marino Grand Prix, Barrichello’s career nearly ended when he suffered a violent crash during Friday practice. His car hit the wall in Variante Bassa, turning him upside down. This accident knocked him unconscious and threatened his life, with his tongue blocking his airway. Quick action by officials ensured survival. Barichello was fortunate to have survived such a horrific crash.

Other drivers however, were not as lucky as him. Twenty minutes into Saturday’s final qualifying session, Roland Ratzenberger died when he crashed his Simtek at the Villeneuve curva; during the race, his mentor Ayrton Senna crashed his Williams at Tamburello and also died. Despite this deep personal loss, Barrichello recovered his confidence and raced strongly, having good races and taking pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix, and leading some laps at the Portuguese Grand Prix. His pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix set the record for the youngest driver to secure pole position at that time. He finished the 1994 season sixth overall in the Drivers’ Championship with 19 points.

Rubens Barichello was a talented driver ahead of his time, but the constant technical problems due to an unreliable Jordan chassis constantly bogged him down. In 1996, Barrichello’s relationship with team owner Eddie Jordan soured, and at the end of the year, after been linked to strong teams, he left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix.

His first two years in Stewart was disappointing as he had not managed to achieve any particularly great results again due to reliability problems of the Stewart chassis. However his performance was consistent in that he kept beating all of his team mates. 1999 was a much better year for the Stewart team. Barrichello qualified third at the Brazilian Grand Prix, outpacing Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari, and led some laps, to delight of the local fans, until his engine blew near ‘Subida dos Boxes’. He also took pole position in the wet qualifying session in France and three podium finishes, at the San Marino, French, and European Grands Prix. The latter race was won by teammate Johnny Herbert. Despite this, Barrichello again generally outpaced his teammate. Over the course of the year, he caught the eye of Ferrari boss Jean Todt, and he was signed for the 2000 season.

Advancement To The Top

Barrichello achieved his first grand prix victory at the 2000 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim demonstrating why he is rated as one of the best wet weather drivers, when he and the team choose to stay on slicks when it was raining on part of the circuit. This risky call saw him leap-frog the McLarens who chose to pit for wet weather tires, thus earning him a well deserved and emotional victory. This after starting the race from 18th place on the grid. This was the longest any driver in Formula One history has waited for a maiden grand prix win. Barrichello had a consistent debut season for Ferrari, finishing most races on the podium, but was outscored by the other three reliable drivers: Schumacher, Häkkinen and Coulthard. Barrichello finished the season ranked fourth after supporting Michael Schumacher as he battled and defeated Mika Häkkinen for the 2000 Formula One Championship, and helping Ferrari win the constructors’ championship.

Barrichello’s success at Ferrari continued in 2002, when he won four races for the team and finished a career best second place in the drivers’ championship, scoring 77 championship points. The year was marked by controversy, however, when the Ferrari team orders required Barrichello to allow the trailing Michael Schumacher to pass him at the final straight of the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix to take the victory. Schumacher exchanged podium places with Barrichello at the podium ceremony and gave Barrichello the winner’s trophy. The drivers were fined for disrupting podium protocol and Ferrari’s blatant team orders led to the FIA banning team orders beginning in 2003.

Barichello generally had a very good run at Ferrari, performing well almost every season. However in 2006, he decided that he needed to move on, and he signed up with Honda. His run in Honda however did not turn out very well for him. He was partnered with Jensen Button and was outpaced by him. He claimed that the car’s braking did not suit his driving style and after tweaks were made, he became more competitive. On 5 December 2008 Honda announced that they were quitting F1, due to the economic crisis. This lead to months of uncertainty as to whether a buyer could be found, and whether they would retain Barrichello.

Uncertainty Turned To Relief

Literally days before the season opener in Melbourne, veteran designer Ross Brawn, bought Honda and renamed it Brawn GP. On 6 March 2009, Brawn confirmed that both Barrichello and Jenson Button would remain for 2009. At Barcelona during the last pre-season test, both Barrichello and Button surprised the paddock with very quick lap times; Barrichello was nearly a second faster than anyone had been on day four.

In the 2009 Australian Grand Prix he was top in Q1 and Q2 but second on the grid, completing a front row lock out for Brawn, alongside team-mate Jenson Button, in pole position. Despite a poor start caused by his engine slipping into anti-stall, he did well to recover and lost only a couple of positions at the start. He further sustained damage to the front wing and rear diffuser in the first corner incident when he was bumped from behind by Heikki Kovalainen in his McLaren that saw him hit Mark Webber in the Red Bull damaging the home heroes car as well as any hopes of a good finish for the aussie. But he yet again managed to recover and was running 4th in the race but then ultimately finished the race in second place after Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica collided with just 2 laps remaining.

At Shanghai, he outpaced Button in qualifying, but struggled with his car’s brakes when one of them stopped working in the first stint and finished 4th even though with the fastest lap time, well behind winner Vettel.

In Bahrain, his front wing adjustor failed during his qualifying run thereby compromising his aggressive 3 pit-stop race strategy. He only managed 5th place.

He qualified third on the grid for the Spanish Grand Prix, and overtook leader Button and second place man Vettel on the first straight. He then lost the lead to Button due to not being able to capitalise on his three stop strategy because of a lack of pace caused by massive amounts of understeer on his third set of tyres in his third stint. Button, who changed to a 2 stop strategy during the race, won.

At Monaco, Barrichello was pipped for pole by a late-charging Button and Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen. A good start saw him leapfrog the Finn into Sainte Devote. Barrichello’s supersoft tyres did not last as well as Button’s in the first stint and he pitted earlier than planned, and Button took a commanding lead. The top three remained unchanged for the duration of the race, save some reshuffling during the pit stop windows. At the completion of lap 47, Barrichello became the driver who has completed most laps in Formula One history, surpassing former team-mate Michael Schumacher’s total of 13,909 laps.