Rubens Barrichello: the Old Formula One Hero
He says that Formula One racing runs in his blood. The drivers’ craze for speed and cars and his desire to compete and win are features which have only kept mounting over the years. It is none other than Rubens Barrichello; the famous Formula One driver who always wanted to be nothing but a driver. He has grown up by idolizing the legendry driver Ayrton Senna as his aspiration and the biggest inspiration for the sport. In the later years when he joined Formula One, Senna said that he feels himself to be his protégé.
Well, the family has got a lot more in common than just the love for auto racing. It is an interesting fact that both his father and his paternal grandfather were also named Rubens and more interesting is the fact that Barrichello shares his father's birthday as well. Both father and son celebrate it on the 23rd of May. This gives Rubens Barrichello his nick name Rubinho, meaning “little Rubens" in Portuguese mythology.
He started his career in racing with Karting where he won five titles in Brazil before he moved to Formula Vauxhall Lotus series in the year 1990 which was held in Europe. He was able to win the championship right in his first year. In 1991, he participated in the British Formula 3 Championship where he replicated the same performance by beating David Coulthard for the first time ever. He was about to join Formula One - the race that stands as highest category of single seater racing - at an age of just 19 years. However, at the last moment, Rubens opted to run for Formula 3000, where he ended the season at third place in 1992. In the following year, Rubens Barrichello entered Formula One racing after joining team Jordan to run for the 1993 Formula One season. At that time, Barrichello was settled in Banbury and Cumnor, Oxfordshire, UK, where he stayed for a long time during the early years of his Formula One career.
Barrichello stands at the fifth highest in total scores earned in Formula One’s history. He had clung to the Ferrari team for a period between 2000 and 2005 with Michael Schumacher as his teammate. They together made a fine team and were able to grab considerable success including their finish as runners-up in the Championship of 2002 and 2004. Rubens drove for Ferrari over a period of six years, which he says was the longest and toughest season in his career. Yet, he believes that it was the best portion of his racing career. He had been able to get a total of nine victories, twenty-one third place finishes and twenty-five second place finishes with Ferrari. He was also successful in developing a credible reputation as an outstanding driver during this time by winning several pole positions and fastest lap times. Rubens went on to help the team win the Constructor titles by not less than five times. In 2006, when Schumacher retired from Formula One racing, Rubens became the most experienced driver on the grid for the Ferrari team. Later, in the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix, Barrichello stood as the most experienced driver in the history of Formula One racing. Rubens has crossed a number of achievement and laurels all across the globe. In 2010, he is all set to reach the 300 Grand Prix entry mark along with the same number of starts in Formula One racing. All together, he had been able to get a total of sixty eight podium position with a total of six hundred and fourteen points. However, he has not been able to get hold of a championship so far.
Currently Rubens Barrichello is racing for the Williams F1 team. He has shown a reasonably consistent performance in the beginning of the flyaway races in the 2010 season. Quite recently in the Australian Grand Prix, Rubens finished on the eighth place in round two. Anyone watching the race was amazed to see his performance down under. Many believe that this is the best anyone could pull out from this Williams machine. No matter what happens in Rubens Barrichello’s career, the driver is sure to go down in the pages of history as the most thrilling and exciting driver in Formula One racing.
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