As the saga of Honda’s withdrawal and the team’s eventual rescue by Ross Brawn dominated the Formula 1 news headlines over the winter, Rubens Barrichello kept a low profile.

Even before Honda’s exit he had been expected to lose his drive to Bruno Senna, and most believed the younger Brazilian would be part of any rescue package.

But given the time pressures on his fledgling team, Brawn wanted an experienced hand behind the wheel – so it was logical to recall Barrichello, who holds the record for most F1 starts.

Brawn has great respect for Barrichello’s development and teamwork skills after their years together at Ferrari, and he still has plenty of speed as he starts his 17th season of F1, having outperformed team-mate Jenson Button for much of 2008.

Barrichello may be entering the twilight of his career, but he remains extraordinarily passionate about his sport and will be a great asset to Brawn.


Career log

He’s now a veteran, but Barrichello was once the boy wonder of F1 – making his debut with Jordan in 1993 at only 20 years old.

The Brazilian stunned the paddock by running as high as second in the wet European Grand Prix – only his third F1 race.

His first podium and pole position came in 1994, but Barrichello’s very promising sophomore season was tainted by the death of his mentor and idol Ayrton Senna.

Out-psyched by his 1994-95 team-mate Eddie Irvine, and increasingly frustrated by Jordan’s slow progress, Barrichello switched to the new Stewart Grand Prix team for 1997.

He was revitalised under Jackie Stewart’s tutelage, finishing second at Monaco in 1997, and then shrugging off a disappointing 1998 season by leading races and taking three podium finishes with Stewart’s vastly-improved 1999 car.

That performance earned Barrichello the number two Ferrari seat – where he ironically replaced former nemesis Irvine, and generally got closer to team leader Michael Schumacher’s pace than the Ulsterman had done.

But although his six years at Ferrari brought Barrichello nine wins and 55 podium finishes, being Schumacher’s sidekick was often a thankless task.

Barrichello famously – and deeply controversially – had to pull aside for Schumacher when within yards of winning the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix.

More criticism followed when Schumacher made a ham-fisted attempt to return the favour at Indianapolis later that year.

There were happy times too, as Barrichello contributed greatly to Ferrari’s run of titles between 2000 and 2004, and scored some memorable victories, especially his maiden win (from 18th on the grid) at Hockenheim in 2000, and his charge to glory in the 2003 British GP.

As Ferrari struggled in 2005, Barrichello decided he had had enough of deputy duties and jumped ship for Honda.

The move didn’t pay off, though, as he took time to acclimatise to the team and was then lumbered with Honda’s hopeless 2007 and 2008 cars – failing to score at all with the former, although he did roll back the years with a brilliant podium finish at a wet Silverstone last year.


The early years

Barrichello made a spectacular arrival in European motorsport by winning the 1990 Opel Lotus Euroseries and then coming from behind to beat David Coulthard to the following year’s British Formula 3 title.

He then finished a promising third in his debut Formula 3000 season before making the leap straight into F1 for 1993.