A look at Brazilian veteran Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello’s career – Formula 1
Becoming one of the few talented guys to make their way in Formula 1 from Brazil, Rubens Barrichello became famous for not being able to win championship titles.
With a dynamic and shining personality, Rubens got a driving seat with six different teams. Rubens chances of success in Formula 1 have always faltered by a combination of bad luck and extremely talented drivers. He was outperformed by Michael Schumacher
in the Ferrari team and Jenson Button in Brawn GP.
Nicknamed Rubinho, he is into his 18th season of Formula 1 and is currently driving for the Williams team as a senior driver alongside Rookie, Pastor Maldonado. With all his experience and dashing driving style, he will try to take Williams team
to somewhere respectable in Formula 1 but his championship hopes died after he left the Ferrari team.
Never managing a drivers’ championship, still Rubens has his name in world records in Formula 1 history. Rubens is the most experienced driver in terms of races as he has 310 races starts to his name. He is also the only driver to cross the 300 figure in
terms of race starts. Rubens also has a record of driving in most number of races before winning one.
Mostly shadowed by his teammate Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari team, Rubens managed as good as a runner up twice behind Schumacher in the year 2002 and 2004. Rubens stepped into F1 following the footsteps of a legend driver Ayrton Senna.
Starting with junior career in Karting, Rubens won five Karting titles before moving onto bigger single seater cars, in Formula Vauxhall Lotus series in 1990. He won many junior titles in Europe and moved to Formula 3000 in 1992.
He made his way in the Formula 1 car with the Jordan team in 1993 and had an inspiring Rookie year. Jordan car faced a lot of engine failure problems which shadowed Rubens real talent. He scored his first point scoring finish in the Japanese Grand Prix.
He was with the Jordan team in 1994 and scored his first podium in Aida. Rubens escaped a life threatening crash in Friday Practice session in the San Marino Grand Prix. His fellow Brazilian driver and one of the F1 great drivers Ayrton Senna died in the
same race. Rubens finished the season in sixth position with 19 points.
He remained with the Jordan team for another two years and then moved to the newly formed Stewart team. Barrichello remained with the team for three years and his performance was once again faltered by an unreliable Stewart car.
For the 2000 season, Rubens secured a seat at the Ferrari team alongside Michael Schumacher and here he showed his real talent to drive. Also called the master of driving in wet conditions, Barrichello secured his first race victory in the German Grand Prix.
He helped Ferrari team win the constructors’ title when he finished fourth.
The 2001 season saw Rubens finishing the season in third place behind Schumacher and David Coulthard. His performance was more shining in the Ferrari team, when he finished the 2002 and 2004 season as a runner up behind the German. He remained with the Ferrari
team for the 2005 season but his performance was starting to deteriorate.
From 2006 to 2008, Rubens remained with the Honda team with no exceptional results.
He moved to the Brawn GP team in 2009 and finished third whereas his junior teammate, Jenson Button took the drivers’ championship that year.
For the 2010 season, he signed a contract with the Williams team to drive alongside Nico Hulkenberg. It was in the 2010 season that Rubens crossed the figure of 300 races.
Tags: