Barrichello, Rubens

Barrichello began karting as a child. By the age of seventeen, Rubens had five karting championships won in Brazil . In 1989, Rubens finished fourth in the Brazilian Formula Ford 1600 series, and in 1990 moved to Europe , where he soon won the European Formula Opel series.

The next stage in the career of the Brazilian was the British Formula 3 , in which he became the champion, ahead of his future rival in Formula 1 David Coulthard . The following season, Rubens participated in the Formula 3000 championship as part of the Il Barone Rampante team, ending the season in third place.

1993-1996 Jordan

In 1993 , Eddie Jordan , the head of the eponymous team, considered that Barrichello had already matured for Formula 1 and signed an agreement with the Brazilian shortly before his twenty-first birthday. The team at that time was in crisis, Rubens’s teammates often took turns, and Rubens was close to scoring points and getting on his first podium in his life at the European Grand Prix in his third race of his career, but in 6 laps he taking third place, stopped due to lack of fuel. Even many years after his debut, Rubens will later recall that this gathering at the European Grand Prix was the biggest failure in his career, as this was the only chance in his life to be on the podium with his idol Ayrton Senna . The other stages of his debut season, Rubens failed, and he managed to score the first points only at the end of the championship for fifth place.

The third race of the 1994 season was largely unsuccessful. The tragic "black" weekend in Imola opened with a severe accident Barrichello on Friday's training. On Friday, April 29, 1994, during the first qualification session of the San Marino Grand Prix , the Jordan race car Rubens Barrichello touched the curb in the Variante Bassa corner and soared into the air. The car hit the top of the tire barrier, and Rubens passed out. His Jordan rolled over several more times after landing to stop upside down. Medical teams immediately arrived at the crash site, and Barrichello was sent to the hospital.

As a result of the accident, the driver broke his nose, and also damaged the ribs. The very next day he was present on the track, although he was forced to miss the race. On Saturday, Roland Ratzenberger died in qualification, and Ayrton Senna died on Sunday.

In general, the season was better for the Brazilian than his debut and subsequently turned out to be the best for the Brazilian during his performances for Jordan. The first podium in his career for himself and the first in the history of his team Rubens got at the Pacific Grand Prix , although his success in that race was the result of the departure of most pilots from the top teams. At the Spa Francorsham, Rubens highly justified the trust of Eddie Jordan, having won the first pole position for himself and for the Irish team. However, the race for him was extremely unsuccessful - having won the start of the race and retaining his first position, Rubens nevertheless could not develop his success: having propped up half of the 1st round, he lost his position to Michael Schumacher in the first attack, and on the 19th round the Brazilian and completely deployed, and he could not continue the race. Thus, in his best start in his career at that time, the Brazilian was not only unable to score points, but even to drive the leader at least one lap. In the remaining 5 championship grand prix, Barrichello finished three times in fourth position and took 6th place in the final classification with 19 points.

In the 1995 season, Barrichello began to pursue technical malfunctions. Usually his teammate Eddie Irvine bypassed Rubens in qualification, but in Montreal Rubens managed to achieve his best result - second place, but his success was somewhat depreciated by the fact that almost all the top team riders got off the race and only the pilots reached the finish line from middle teams and outsiders, the best of which were Barrichello and Irvine, who took third place in that race after his teammate. Nevertheless, the Brazilian’s performances began to decline, relations with the team began to deteriorate. The 1996 season began for Barrichello rather encouragingly. The Brazilian almost won the pole in his home race in Brazil in 1996 , but lost to D. Hill , becoming only the second. Despite the excellent result in the qualification, the race ended with another failure - after the last pit stop, the Brazilian took a good fourth place, until after 12 laps he made a mistake. The car turned around, and Barrichello was forced to retire. Without scoring points in the first two races of the season, Barrichello then issued a series of three successful grand prix, and at the Argentine Grand Prix in 1996 , starting sixth, Barrichello managed to finish fourth, and vice versa - he rode third for a while, but eventually reached the finish line only fifth. In San Marino, Barrichello unsuccessfully qualified, then he fought for the whole race for getting points, in the end he crossed the finish line again fifth. Luck stopped with the next race - the Monaco Grand Prix , where Rubens again began to pursue failure. In Spain, he had a chance to finish on the podium, but 20 laps before the finish of his Jordan stopped due to a clutch failure. The rider was able to finish points again only at the 10th stage of the season at the French Grand Prix in 1996 , earning 3 points for fourth place. In the remaining 6 stages, Rubens earned another 4 points and took 8th place in the championship with 14 points. After the season Barrichello left the team.

1997-1999 Stewart

In the 1997 season, Barrichello began playing for the new Stuart team, owned by three-time world champion Jackie Stewart and using Ford Cosworth engines — fast but extremely unreliable.

Barrichello became the main pilot of the team. However, the season turned out to be a failure in general. The Brazilian came down in 14 stages out of 17, but nonetheless, there was a sensation. The Monaco 97 Grand Prix turned out to be very difficult. Shortly before the start, the rain began to drizzle, which began to gain strength with the first circles. Pilots on wet asphalt began to fly out one after another. Already by the 24th lap 10 pilots stopped the fight. In addition to Schumacher, who was tearing himself farther and farther away from his pursuers, and his partner Eddie Irvine , who managed to climb from 15th place to fifth in ten circles, only the Jordan and Stuart teams were ready for rain. On lap 6, Rubens came out in second place and confidently kept him the whole race, and was close both to the sensation in this race, and to another major failure. Rubens almost became the leader of the race when, due to Michael’s mistake in the Ste Devote turn, his car almost flew out, but the German pilot demonstrated aerobatics: skillfully besieging Ferrari on the spot near the church, he was able to turn around and continue on to victory. And 6 laps to the finish line, the pressure in the hydraulic system began to drop in Barrichello’s car, Barrichello suddenly lost pace, his car with strips of Scottish tartan on the sides could stop at any moment, but in the end it worked out, he finished second, although he lost almost to the winner of the race a minute. Despite such an impressive start, only disappointment awaited further in the Rubens season. He was no longer able to finish with points, and his podium was not only the only one for him and his team this season, but in general both the only Brazilian hit the points and the team’s only points for the season.

The 1998 season turned out to be somewhat better for the Brazilian, but overall again a failure. He stepped off the track before reaching the finish line in 11 stages of the season, and the only success was at the Austrian Grand Prix-98 , where the Brazilian qualified fifth. During the course of the season, he was unable to qualify above 9th place, and he scored the only points for two 5 places at the Spanish Grand Prix-98 and Canadian Grand Prix-98 , which accounted for most of the team’s points scored for the season.

The third year at Stuart was much more successful: the 1999 Stewart SF-3 was much faster than its predecessors and fought almost on equal terms with the leaders. The beginning of the season was impressive for Rubens, already in the first race of the season at the Australian Grand Prix in 1999 Barrichello was able to qualify fourth. Having failed the start in the race and rolled back, he still managed to get into fifth place and finish. At his home race in Brazil, Rubens could have won his first career victory. Starting from the 3rd place, he already took the lead on the 4th lap and held it until the 24th lap, until his car started having problems with the engine, due to which he was forced to eventually get off at the 42nd lap. However, already at the next stage, fortune was favorable to the Brazilian and he finished third at the 1999 San Marino Grand Prix . In qualifying for the French Grand Prix in 1999, he won his second pole position in his career and the first pole in the history of the team. But he could not win the victory: he won the start of the race, but only 5 laps progressed, then slipping to the third position, which he could hold throughout the race and come to the finish line in the third. On the catwalk, Rubens looked upset. The Brazilian did not spend the next three stages badly, and could only get the next points for fifth place at the 1999 Hungarian Grand Prix . In the qualifications of the Italian Grand Prix of 1999 and the Belgian Grand Prix of 1999, Barrichello both showed seventh time, but he was able to successfully hold only the race in Italy, where he earned 3 points for fourth place. In the 1999 European Rain Championship, both pilots of the Stuart team didn’t take the best places in the qualification: Barrichello himself showed the 15th time, and his team mate Johnny Herbert became the 14th, but ironically, this grand prix became the best in team history: Herbert brought the first and last victory in team history, and Barrichello finished third. Thus, for the first and last time in the history of the team, both of its pilots stood on the podium. However, Rubens that day was sad: he himself could bring the first victory to the team and himself, during the race he took third place, while Herbert - fifth. On lap 36 and 37, both pilots visited the pits, but the pilots were given different types of rubber: Herbert was “shod” in rain tires, the Brazilian in slicks, despite the fact that the rain did not stop. The British team relied on the British pilot. Herbert became the third after leaving the boxes, and after the leaders Ralph Schumacher and Giancarlo Fisichella left, they became the leader and without problems reached the finish line, while Barrichello lost the pace on the wrong type of rubber, skipped ahead of Trulli and the only remaining circles struggled with him for second place, but failing to beat the Italian. Thus, Barrichello for the first time faced the use of team tactics, which he will face more than once in the future during the period of speaking for the Ferrari team. Nevertheless, 3 podiums and a total of 21 points allowed the Brazilian to get ahead of his teammate and take seventh place in the final classification according to the season results.

2000-2005: Ferrari

Before the end of the season, Irvine signed a contract with Stewart (more precisely, with his successor Jaguar Racing ) for the year 2000. Soon Barrichello received an offer to take the place of the Irish in the Ferrari, which he accepted.

Although in his first season for the Italian team, Barrichello was inferior to Michael Schumacher , he successfully scored points and regularly finished on the podium, becoming one of the leaders of the championship. At Hockenheim in Germany, Barrichello won his first career victory, impressively breaking from eighteenth place at the start. When it began to rain, Rubens remained on the slick , despite the fact that the entire field began to change tires. It only rained over the slow corners in the stadium, leaving the long forest lines dry, which allowed Barrichello to succeed. The Brazilian finished the season fourth in the overall standings. The following year, Barrichello did not win, but often started with pole position. Barrichello until the end of the championship fought with David Coulthard from McLaren for the title of vice champion, but in the end he remained third.

At this time, the policy pursued by the Ferrari leadership regarding their riders became obvious - the so-called team tactic , according to which a partner who does not fight for the champion title, was supposed to help the pilot who is fighting to win the championship. At the Austrian Grand Prix in 2001, shortly before the finish, Barrichello missed Schumacher in second place, allowing Michael to score the points necessary for the championship. The following year, the situation repeated itself. Shortly before the finish in all of the same Austria , the leader Rubens received from the boxes an order to let Schumacher go second. Barrichello braked right in front of the finish line, allowing Schumacher to drive past and win the race. On the podium, Michael pointedly raised his partner to the first step of the podium, recognizing his actual victory.

This incident caused extremely sharp criticism in the media, directed primarily against Jean Todt and Ross Brown , the leaders of Ferrari. The FIA , having examined complaints, refused to review the results of the race because there was no ban on team tactics in the rules. Racers and the team were only fined for acting on the podium. However, it was this incident that led to changes in the rules: it was forbidden to give such orders to riders. Schumacher, whose image suffered from this incident, at the end of the season “paid back” to Rubens, missing him at the finish of the US Grand Prix . The whole team, including Michael Schumacher, worked for the vice-champion of the Brazilian - which allowed him to take second place in the championship of pilots.

The 2003 championship was more difficult for Ferrari after a series of changes in the rules. Despite two victories, Barrichello was unable to repeat his result of last year and became the fourth. However, 2004 passed under the full leadership of Ferrari, allowing Barrichello to again become vice champion with four poles and two victories, including the first in the history of Formula 1 Grand Prix of China. In 2005 , the Ferrari were not so strong. Second place in Melbourne - the best result for the season for the Brazilian, who finished the year only eighth.

Since the 2006 season Rubens has left the team, his place was taken by the test pilot “Ferrari” Felipe Massa .

2006-2008: Honda

Even before the end of the season, Barrichello signed a contract with the Honda team for 2006 , becoming the new partner of Jenson Button.

The unsuccessful start of the 2006 season was due to difficulties caused by getting used to the new car.Rubens in the first four races barely scored 2 points, but towards the end of the championship he scored points regularly. Barrichello finished his first season at Honda in seventh place, almost twice losing to Button in the number of points scored. The fourth place in Monaco and Hungary became the best achievement . After Montoya left, this was enough to take seventh place in the season.

The 2007 season was the worst in a rider’s career: without gaining a single point, Rubens took 20th place in the pilot rating, the best result was 9th place in the British Grand Prix and the only hit in the third qualification segment . За 15 лет ещё не было случая, когда бразилец не зарабатывал очков: даже в дебютном 1993-м за рулём «Jordan» Рубенс финишировал пятым в Японии. Отчасти такой провал объясняет новая модификация болида Honda RA107. Заявив, что машина будет совершенно новой в конце сезона 2006, главный инженер не слукавил, болид стал полностью детищем заводской команды Honda. Но RA107 оказался очень «сырым», что подтвердили зимние тесты и плохие результаты в начале сезона. Хорошее материальное состояние, одна из лучших аэродинамических труб, технический персонал работающий не первый год — всё это не дало ожидаемого результата. Хуже того, дочерняя команда — Super Aguri , выступающая на модифицированном болиде прошлого года Honda RA106, была быстрее практически половину сезона.

19 июля 2007 Баррикелло продлил контракт с «Honda», чему в немалой степени способствовала «медленная» Honda RA107: для доработки машины в сезоне 2008 нужны были опыт и знания.

The 2008 season was a significant “breakthrough” for the Honda team , which scored 14 points and took the penultimate place in the championship, and was marked by Brazilian third place at the fantastic British Grand Prix . In addition, Barrichello scored points in Monaco and Canada , and his 6th place in Monaco was interrupted by a long series of “no hits in the glasses” lasting from the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix .

2009: Brawn GP

Everything went to the fact that 2008 will be the last in the career of a Brazilian pilot. The contract with Honda ended, and the team was in no hurry to extend the working agreement with the rider. The situation for Rubens became catastrophic when, in early December, the leadership of the Honda company announced their departure from Formula 1. Throughout the offseason, Barrichello and his fans were unaware of their future fate. However, on March 6, it became known that the ex-Honda passed into the hands of Ross Brown. On the same day, a one-year contract was announced between Rubens Barrichello and the new Brawn GP team.

In the first Grand Prix of the season, the Brawn GP team became apparent. Yesterday's outsiders began to rule the ball. Rubens Barrichello during the qualification was faster than his partner, but in the final attempt he nevertheless lost the pole to Jenson Button. The start of the race, the Brazilian driver failed - this was a frequent occurrence throughout the season for Barrichello. Only the clash of Vettel and Kubica at the very end of the race allowed Rubens to climb to the second stage of the podium, and the team won a double in his very first race.

At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Barrichello again did not shine and lost to his partner in the race held in extreme conditions. The button won, and Barrichello was content with 5th place and only thanks to the stop of the race and half points Rubens lagged behind the Button only 5 points in the overall standings.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, Barrichello for the first time this season was able to get ahead of his partner in qualifications, but in the rain race he was again left behind. This time, the Red Bull team took a double, and Jenson Button took third place, slightly ahead of the Brazilian, thereby increasing the gap in the overall standings to 6 points.

The Bahrain Grand Prix turned out to be very difficult for Barrichello. As a result, the rider finished only 5th, while the Button won a third victory and increased the lead to 12 points. At the Spanish Grand Prix, the Brazilian was in the lead half the distance, but after a pit stop he was behind his partner, which caused Barrichello's emotional statements after the race. In Monaco, the Brawn GP pilots again won the double, but in the same order. In Turkey, Barrichello came down for technical reasons, and the Button has already won the sixth victory, increasing the lead from his partner to a maximum of 26 points this season.

In the UK, Barrichello finally finally beat Button in the race for the first time, finishing 3rd. But in Germany he again lost one line to Jenson, finishing 6th.

The Hungarian Grand Prix became “black” for Barrichello. Not only did he not go into the third segment and lost to Button in qualifying, there was also an unfortunate incident when a fragment from Barrichello's car fell into Philippe Massa's helmet, which caused his severe injury, which disqualified Massa from participating in the championship. In the race, Rubens could not finish in the points zone, and the Button became the 7th.

In Valencia, Barrichello was finally able to win, in Spa he finished in 7th place on a burning car, while his partner got off, and in Italy he won a second victory, reducing the overall lag to 14 points. It seemed like a turning point had come, but the Button calmly spent the remaining races, and Barrichello could not make a miracle, although the pole on empty tanks in Brazil looked spectacular, but the race quickly put everything in its place. As a result, Barrichello became the third in the overall standings, as Red Bull added a lot during the season and Vettel became the vice champion. In the offseason, the team was sold to Mercedes, and the composition of the pilots completely changed. Barrichello signed a contract with Williams, he was also interested in McLaren, but already at the time when the contract was signed. with Williams.

2010–2011: Williams

On November 2, 2009, Williams confirmed Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg as the main pilots of the team in the 2010 season ^[1] . According to the results of the season, Barrichello was confidently ahead of the talented young partner, which caused the extension of Rubens, while Nico had to become a test pilot for a year in 2011. The season was also remembered for overtaking Barrichello Schumacher at the Hungarian Grand Prix and the subsequent scandal. Rubens Barrichello spent 38 races in the seasons of 2010 and 2011 and became the first racer in history to have held more than 300 Grand Prix ^[2] . Over the course of two seasons, Rubens scored 51 points, and ahead of his mentor and three-time world champion Ayrton Senna and became the best in this indicator among all Brazilians. However, in the 2011 season, the Williams team experienced tremendous difficulties. And although Barrichello passed in the overall standings of his partner (Maldonado), this season the Brazilian clearly could not bring himself into the asset. Barrichello until recently claimed a place in the cockpit of the Williams car in 2012, but in the end the team made the choice in favor of Bruno Senna, who offered a more solid sponsorship package.

2012: IndyCar

Rubens, apparently, decided to repeat the path of Nigel Mansell and moved to IndyCar. At the same time, he never hid the fact that at any moment he was ready to return behind the wheel of an F-1 car, if such an offer came. In 2012, Barrichello took 12th place in the individual standings of the IndyCar series. His best result was 4th place on the California track in Sonoma, and he finished 10th in the legendary Indy 500 race. However, Barrichello again did not find enough sponsorship funds and was unable to pursue a career in this series in 2013.

2013—2017: Stock Car Brasil

In 2013, Barrichello became the pilot of the Full Time Sports team at the Campeonato Brasileiro de Stock Car , the Brazilian equivalent of NASCAR. In the first season, Rubens took 8th place in the overall standings, and the second season brought the pilot the first championship title in 23 years.

At the Turkish Grand Prix of 2008, Rubens Barrichello broke the record of Ricardo Patrese , held since 1993 : taking part in the 257 Grand Prix, he became the most experienced driver in the history of Formula 1. In this regard, the car and helmet were in a special way: decorated with them the figure "257" , reflecting the number of Grand Prix in which Rubens participated in his career, which has been ongoing for the 16th year. As a gift from the team, Rubens received a Honda CBR 1000RR Fireblade motorcycle.

Rubens Barrichello drove more than 15,000 laps first in the history of Formula 1, after the Canadian Grand Prix on his account 15010 laps ^[3] .

But, despite a record-long career and a huge number of points ( 658 at the end of the 2011 season), the Brazilian had few wins and poles: only 11 and 14, respectively (for comparison, Lewis Hamilton has the same number of victories after his first three seasons). And the first victory came to the rider only at the German Grand Prix in 2000 - at his eighth full season in Formula. But in terms of the number of podiums, Rubens ranks sixth among all Formula 1 pilots: he has 68 of them . And in terms of the number of finishes in points, Rubens ranks second - 140 , second only to Michael Schumacher .

In Formula 1, Rubens Barrichello held 326 Grand Prix, which is a record for the entire history of the championship. According to the distance covered in 80,609 kilometers, it is second only to Michael Schumacher. By the number of laps passed, Barrichello also ranks second (16631 laps), second only to Michael Schumacher (16825 laps).

Rubens Barrichello married Sylvanas Jaffon (born May 12, 1975) on February 24, 1997.

Children: Eduardo (born September 23, 2001) and Fernando (born September 12, 2005) ^[4] .

Rubens is known as a strong family man. He prefers to devote all his free time to children and loved ones. Among the hobbies of the Brazilian pilot can be called golf, tennis, karting. Barrichello is a fan of the Corinthians club from his native São Paulo.

Statistics

† - Since Barrichello was a guest pilot, he could not get points.

Formula One Performance

Notes

Literature

Steve Small. The Grand Prix Who's Who . — 2. — Guinness World Records Limited, 1996. — С. 49. — 464 с. — ISBN 0-85112-623-5 .

Links

• Рубенс Баррикелло (рус.) на сайте wildsoft.motorsport.com
• Official site
• Русский фан-клуб
• Рубенс Баррикелло в « Твиттере »