Rubens Barrichello

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Rubens Barrichello
Barrichello at the USGP in 2002
Nationality	Brazilian
Car #	8
Current team	Honda Racing F1 Team
World Championship career
Races	238 (234 starts)
World Championships	0
Wins	9
Podium finishes	61
Pole positions	13
Fastest laps	15
First race	1993 South African Grand Prix
First win	2000 German Grand Prix
Latest win	2004 Chinese Grand Prix
Latest race	2007 Australian Grand Prix
2006 Championship position	7th (30 pts)

Barrichello in his Ferrari at the 2003 US GP.

Rubens Gonçalves Barrichello (born May 23, 1972) is a Brazilian Formula One race driver. He currently drives for Honda. He is best known for being Michael Schumacher's teammate at Ferrari from 2000 to 2005, enjoying considerable success. Schumacher's retirement at the end of 2006 makes Barrichello the most experienced driver on the grid.

1 Youth
2 Traumatic years
3 Second to Schumacher
4 Move to Honda
5 Trivia
6 Complete Formula One results
7 Personal
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Youth

Born in São Paulo, 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, and he promptly joined the Jordan Formula One team for the 1993 season.

[edit] Traumatic years

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. His spirits weren't any better after his mentor Ayrton Senna's death at the race two days later. Despite this deep personal loss, Barrichello recovered his confidence and raced strongly in the remainder of the races - including a pole position at Spa-Francorchamps. At the time he was the youngest driver to secure pole position. He finished an excellent sixth in the Drivers' Championship, top of the drivers outside the established manufacturer-backed teams.

Barrichello at the 1997 Canadian Grand Prix.

Two similar years with the team followed, including a second place finish in Montreal in 1995 , but after his relationship with team owner Eddie Jordan soured during 1996, he left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix in 1997. Having finished second in Monaco in Stewart's maiden year, he struggled mainly 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, replacing Eddie Irvine. Barrichello called himself "1b".

[edit] Second to Schumacher

He achieved his first victory in Hockenheim that year in his 128th race, the longest wait for a driver's maiden win, despite having started from 18th on the grid. "Rubinho", as he is often known, continued to be successful in the following years 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.

Barrichello's #2 status at Ferrari was made obvious after he moved over to let Michael Schumacher win at the 2002 Austrian GP.

He managed to achieve only four victories during this time. However, team orders forced the Brazilian to cede to Schumacher one potential victory, 2002 Austrian Grand Prix, where he slowed down at the last turn of the race for Michael to take victory. Such behaviour eventually led to team orders being banned in 2003.

In the 2004 season, Barrichello finished second behind teammate Michael Schumacher in only 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 114 points and 14 podiums.

[edit] Move to Honda

Barrichello at the 2006 Brazilian GP, with a special helmet design.

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. He struggled to get on top of the car early in the 2006 season and was initially outpaced by his team-mate Jenson Button, claiming that the car did not suit his driving style. After modifications to the car he was able to be more competitive. At the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix, he nearly got his first podium with the team, but then he was given a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. At the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix Qualifying, he sat in the press conference with the Renault drivers, beating out Schumacher and Raikkonen for the 3rd spot.

[edit] Trivia

Barrichello's Honda in 2006, with number 11

The nickname of Rubens Barrichello is Rubinho (little Rubens).

Barrichello has been very unlucky at his home race, as he has failed to finish ten of fourteen Brazilian Grands Prix in which he has competed. His best result was a third place in 2004.

Rubens Barrichello is cousin-in-law to IRL Brazilian driver Felipe Giaffone, because his wife, Silvana, is a cousin of Felipe and a niece of the Stock Car Brasil champions, Affonso Giaffone Filho and Zeca Giaffone brothers.

Barrichello's lucky number is "11" that he won first time in Kart and many times in his Kart era. In 2006 Formula One season, the car number was gifted from his team mate, Jenson Button. Excluding the 2006 season, he also put this number in the 1996 season in Formula One.

One of his best friends in racing car drivers is Tony Kanaan. Barrichello sometime writes about Kanaan in his colum[1] and calls him "Anão".

The names of his father and grandfather (father's side) are also Rubens^[1]. And the birthday of his father, Rubens (Rubens Júnior), is the same day of Rubinho, May 23^[2].

The Brazilian football team that Barrichello supports is Corinthians.^[1]

Rubens is also a devout Roman Catholic

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Team	WDC	Points
1993	Jordan	RSA Ret	BRA Ret	EUR Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 12	MON 9	CAN Ret	FRA 7	GBR 10	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	POR 13	JPN 5	AUS Ret				Jordan	18th	2
1994	Jordan	BRA 4	PAC 3	SMR DNQ	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN 7	FRA Ret	GBR 4	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 4	POR 4	EUR 12	JPN Ret	AUS 4				Jordan	6th	19
1995	Jordan	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	SMR Ret	ESP 7	MON Ret	CAN 2	FRA 6	GBR 11	GER Ret	HUN 7	BEL 6	ITA Ret	POR 11	EUR 4	PAC Ret	JPN Ret	AUS Ret			Jordan	11th	11
1996	Jordan	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 4	EUR 5	SMR 5	MON Ret	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 9	GBR 4	GER 6	HUN 6	BEL Ret	ITA 5	POR Ret	JPN 9				Jordan	8th	14
1997	Stewart	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG Ret	SMR Ret	MON 2	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL Ret	ITA 13	AUT 14	LUX Ret	JPN Ret	EUR Ret			Stewart	13th	6
1998	Stewart	AUS Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 10	SMR Ret	ESP 5	MON Ret	CAN 5	FRA 10	GBR Ret	AUT Ret	GER Ret	HUN Ret	BEL DNS	ITA 10	LUX 11	JPN Ret				Stewart	12th	4
1999	Stewart	AUS 5	BRA Ret	SMR 3	MON 9	ESP Ret	CAN Ret	FRA 3	GBR 8	AUT Ret	GER Ret	HUN 5	BEL 10	ITA 4	EUR 3	MAL 5	JPN 8				Stewart	7th	21
2000	Ferrari	AUS 2	BRA Ret	SMR 4	GBR Ret	ESP 3	EUR 4	MON 2	CAN 2	FRA 3	AUT 3	GER 1	HUN 4	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	USA 2	JPN 4	MAL 3			Ferrari	4th	62
2001	Ferrari	AUS 3	MAL 2	BRA Ret	SMR 3	ESP Ret	AUT 3	MON 2	CAN Ret	EUR 5	FRA 3	GBR 3	GER 2	HUN 2	BEL 5	ITA 2	USA 15	JPN 5			Ferrari	3rd	56
2002	Ferrari	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	BRA Ret	SMR 2	ESP DNS	AUT 2	MON 7	CAN 3	EUR 1	GBR 2	FRA DNS	GER 4	HUN 1	BEL 2	ITA 1	USA 1	JPN 2			Ferrari	2nd	77
2003	Ferrari	AUS Ret	MAL 2	BRA Ret	SMR 3	ESP 3	AUT 3	MON 8	CAN 5	EUR 3	FRA 7	GBR 1	GER Ret	HUN Ret	ITA 3	USA Ret	JPN 1				Ferrari	4th	65
2004	Ferrari	AUS 2	MAL 4	BHR 2	SMR 6	ESP 2	MON 3	EUR 2	CAN 2	USA 2	FRA 3	GBR 3	GER 12	HUN 2	BEL 3	ITA 1	CHN 1	JPN Ret	BRA 3		Ferrari	2nd	114
2005	Ferrari	AUS 2	MAL Ret	BHR 9	SMR Ret	ESP 9	MON 8	EUR 3	CAN 3	USA 2	FRA 9	GBR 7	GER 10	HUN 10	TUR 10	ITA 12	BEL 5	BRA 6	JPN 11	CHN 12	Ferrari	8th	38
2006	Honda	BHR 15	MAL 10	AUS 7	SMR 10	EUR 5	ESP 7	MON 4	GBR 10	CAN Ret	USA 6	FRA Ret	GER Ret	HUN 4	TUR 8	ITA 6	CHN 6	JPN 12	BRA 7		Honda	7th	30
2007	Honda	AUS 11	MAL 11	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA			Honda	11th	0

[edit] Personal

Rubens is married to Silvana and they have two sons, Eduardo (b. 2001) and Fernando (b. 2005)

Preceded by Mika Häkkinen	British F3 Champion 1991	Succeeded by Gil de Ferran

Constructors and drivers competing in the 2007 Formula One championship
McLaren	Renault	Ferrari	Honda	BMW	Toyota	Red Bull	Williams	Toro Rosso	Spyker	Super Aguri
1 Alonso 2 Hamilton	3 Fisichella 4 Kovalainen	5 Massa 6 Räikkönen	7 Button 8 Barrichello	9 Heidfeld 10 Kubica	11 Schumacher 12 Trulli	14 Coulthard 15 Webber	16 Rosberg 17 Wurz	18 Liuzzi 19 Speed	20 Sutil 21 Albers	22 Sato 23 Davidson