Rubens Barrichello

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Rubens Barrichello at the USGP in 2002
Rubens Barrichello 22px-Flag of Brazil.png
Car number 11
Team Honda
Races 208
Championships 0
Wins 9
Podiums 61
Poles 13
Fastest laps 15
First race 1993 South African Grand Prix
First win 2000 German Grand Prix
Last season 2005
Last position 8th (35 pts)


Rubens Gonçalves Barrichello, born May 23 1972 in São Paulo, Brazil, is a Formula One race driver.

Barrichello was an extremely promising driver in his youth, winning five karting titles in Brazil before going to Europe to race the Formula 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 a young Briton named David Coulthard. He very nearly joined Formula One at just 19 years of age but joined Formula 3000 instead. There would be no title, but a solid third place did little to hurt his value, joined the Jordan Formula One team for the 1993 season.

Barrichello had an effective rookie year. He earned only two championship points, but he was running third in the European Grand Prix (in just his third race) before encountering a fuel problem. He regularly outpaced his more experienced teammates. While he improved in 1994, his career was very nearly curtailed at the tragic San Marino Grand Prix, where a violent crash during practice knocked him unconscious, nearly killing him. Medical teams saved his life, but his spirits weren't any better after his mentor Ayrton Senna's death at the race two days later. Barrichello never truly recovered that season, but he did manage to earn a pole position at Spa-Francorchamps, the youngest driver at the time to earn one. He finished a respectable sixth in the Drivers' Championship.

Two similar years with the team followed, but after his relationship with team owner Eddie Jordan soured, he left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix in 1997. He struggled in his first two years with Jackie Stewart's team, but impressively managed to finish seventh in the 1999 Championship. This was enough for Scuderia Ferrari to sign Barrichello as their "number two" driver behind Michael Schumacher in the 2000 season; he has been with the prancing horse since. Barrichello called himself "1b".

File:Barrichello.jpg
Rubens Barrichello in his Ferrari in 2003

Barrichello was more than capable of being Schumacher's "1b". He achieved his first victory in Hockenheim that year in his 128th race, the longest wait for a driver's maiden win. "Rubinho", as he is often known, has continued to be successful thanks to Ferrari's dominance of Formula One: he managed to finish second behind Schumacher in the 2002 championship, as Ferrari ran away from the rest of the field. Team orders allowed Barrichello to earn four victories, with Schumacher trailing him each time by less than a second. Similar team orders also forced the Brazilian to cede to Schumacher some potential victories, such as the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, where he pulled over at the last turn of the race. Such behaviour eventually led to team orders being banned in 2003.

In the 2004 season, Barrichello finished second behind teammate Michael Schumacher in seven of the first thirteen races, but he won both the Italian Grand Prix and the Chinese Grand Prix to clinch second place in the championship, finishing the year with an impressive 114 points and staggering 14 podiums — only one behind his teammate. During the 2005 Formula One season Barrichello was becoming increasingly agitated at having to be so subservient to Schumacher. In August 2005 he announced that he would be leaving Ferrari at the end of the 2005 F1 season to join Honda F1.

Rubens2.jpg

Despite being the newest source of Brazilian pride in Formula One, Rubinho has been very unlucky at his home race, as he has failed to finish ten of twelve Brazilian Grands Prix in which he has competed.


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3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Scuderia Ferrari
Personnel:
22px-Flag of France.png Jean Todt | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Mario Almondo | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Stefano Domenicali | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Luca Baldisseri
Current drivers:
22px-Flag of Finland.png Kimi Räikkönen | 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Felipe Massa | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Luca Badoer | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Giancarlo Fisichella (Test Driver) 22px-Flag of Spain.png Marc Gené (Test Driver)
Notable Former drivers:
22px-Flag of Germany.png Michael Schumacher | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Alberto Ascari | 22px-Flag of Argentina.png Juan Manuel Fangio | 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Mike Hawthorn | 22px-Flag of Austria.png Niki Lauda | 22px-Flag of South Africa.png Jody Scheckter | 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png John Surtees | 22px-Flag of the United States.png Phil Hill | 22px-Flag of Brazil.png Rubens Barrichello | 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Eddie Irvine | 22px-Flag of France.png Jean Alesi | 22px-Flag of France.png Alain Prost | 22px-Flag of the United Kingdom.png Nigel Mansell | 22px-Flag of Austria.png Gerhard Berger | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Michele Alboreto | 22px-Flag of France.png René Arnoux | 22px-Flag of France.png Patrick Tambay | 22px-Flag of the Canada.png Gilles Villeneuve | 22px-Flag of Argentina.png Carlos Reutemann | 20px-Flag of Switzerland.png Clay Regazzoni | 22px-Flag of the United States.png Mario Andretti | 22px-Flag of Belgium (civil).png Jacky Ickx | 22px-Flag of Germany.png Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips | 3dflagsdotcom italy2bs.gif Lorenzo Bandini
Formula One cars:
125 | 275 | 340 | 375 | 500 | 553 | 625 | 555 | D50 | 801 | 412 | 246 | 256 | 156 | 158 | 1512 | 312 | 312B | 312T | 126C | 156/85 | F1/86 | F1/87 | 640 | 641 | 642 | 643 | F92A | F93A | 412T | F310 | F310B | F300 | F399 | F1-2000 | F2001 | F2002 | F2002B | F2003-GA | F2004 | F2004M | F2005 | 248 | F2007 | F2008 | F60 | F10 | 150° Italia | F2012