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(born
May 23 1972 ) is a
Brazil ian
Formula One race driver who drives for
Honda Racing .
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
Year s 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. Barrichello called himself "1b".
Barrichello was more than capable of being Schumacher's "1b". He achieved his first victory in 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 . He was not competitive in the early part of 2006, with 3rd on the grid at
Imola proving to be a false dawn.
Rubinho has been very unlucky at his home race, as he has failed to finish ten of thirteen
Brazilian Grands Prix in which he has competed.
Rubens is married to Silvana and they have two sons, Eduardo (b.
2001 ) and Fernando (b.
2005 )
