RUBENS BARRICHELLO RACING WITH A SMILE
Brazil’s Rubens Barrichello remains one of the happiest racing drivers you can meet. He had a 19-year grand prix career that, at the time of his retirement, made him the most experienced Formula 1 driver, with 322 starts, 17 wins and 68 podiums. His rise to F1 was rapid.
He arrived in Europe in 1990 as a fresh-faced 17-year-old, with a sponsor that had fascinatingly committed to getting him to Formula 1. By the time he was 20, he was lining up for his first grand prix in 1993 via winning the Opel Lotus Euroseries and the British Formula 3 championships along the way.
Since the end of his F1 days, he has raced in IndyCar, IMSA, Le Mans and still races today in the highly competitive Stock Car Brasil, where he was champion in 2014.
He answered your questions honestly, and it’s clear that the passion, emotion and love of racing you saw in his F1 podium celebrations will never leave him.
Question: You drove for Stewart Grand Prix. Did you ever do Sir Jackie’s famous slalom course in a road car with the wok and golf ball on the bonnet and if so, how did you do?
Stephen Mills Via twitter Rubens Barrichello: “The story with Jackie is amazing, because honestly nobody told me beforehand that there was something that they used to test all the drivers with. I think when they contacted me they did it for my experience, but still with my youth and the love of the sport. Jackie never, ever, asked me to go anywhere for a test at all. I know for example [then SGPteam-mate] Jos Verstappen was mad about doing that test, so I used to have fun with that. Jos asked me, ‘Did you do that?’and I said no, because he thinks I’m good, and maybe he thinks you’re crap!
“To answer the question, no, Jackie, nor Paul or Mark [Stewart] they never asked. So I felt we had ‘love’for each other, almost like a father-and-son thing because he knew what I was able to do but he never put me in the car with those things.” Talking of father and son, you were dispatched from Brazil to Italy by your father, aged 17, alone, to find your feet with Draco Racing – which obviously you did. Now you have done the same with your son Eduardo, who is 19, sending him to Europe to race in FormulaAlpine Regional having finished second in the 2020 US F2000 National Championship. Is this
