Rubens Barrichello wants 300 GP starts

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Rubens Barrichello will soon become the F1 driver to have started the most races but he’s told the media he wants to go on much longer:

It is no secret that my contract expires at the end of the year. I want to extend it, because I think that with Ross Brawn a new and promising era has begun at Honda.

2008 is definitely not my last season – now I want to finish with more than 300 Grands Prix.

It’s great that he still wants to stay in the sport having been in it so long – but shouldn’t he aspire to more than simply having started a lot of races?

Earlier this week I suggested Ross Brawn would want to keep Barrichello at Honda at least for 2009. There’s going to be a massive change in regulations next year and continuity in the driver line-up would be a useful thing.

Particularly so because Brawn has many years’ experience of working with Barrichello at Ferrari. In Formula 1 it is paramount that engineers understand what drivers are telling them about the cars – something Brawn and Barrichello did for six years at Ferrari. They have shared experiences and common reference points.

I reckon Barrichello’s will get another year at Honda – but no more. Unless, of course, he turns things around and starts beating Jenson Button.

Rubens Barrichello biography

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “Rubens Barrichello wants 300 GP starts”

  1. If he can’t do well this season,he’ll be replaced by other yong drivers.

  2. I have mixed feelings about this.
    On the one hand, Jenson has his number and Rubens is clearly not going to win a world championship, even if Honda turn up to Albert Park next year with the fastest chariot.
    On the other, it is often very hard to pin down how valuable a contribution drivers make to the development of a car. Take for example, Alex Wurz, who spent a year being spanked by Nico but certainly hlped improve the Williams last season.

    At the end of the day, I think he is a taking up a space someone else could do a lot more with. At least Taku with hit someone every so often.

  3. I think on the contrary! Rubinho is quite a good driver once his car gets to a certain level. And that certain level will be reached by Ross Brawn, I think.

  4. I have read there is no agreement about what GP is number 300. Anyone knows if it’s Montmelo, as Rubens said, or it’s later?

  5. I think whether or not Rubens stays will be down to what Mr Brawn really thinks of him…

    Perhaps he should do a DC and race for points…. as points mean prizes … or in DC’s case …. cash….

    But surely Honda could find room for one younger driver….

  6. The guy’s past it, just leave F1 and give someone else a chance.

    For years he had a winning car, better than all the rest by far and was hardly ever on a par with his team mate.

  7. DD with his teammate nobody would have been on par to begin with with the exception of Mika.

  8. Unless Rubens starts consistently beating Button – I think he should do one more season and that is it. Rubens isn’t slow, and continuity of the drivers when all the rules have changed will reap rewards, but Button has had Barrichello pretty much in check for the last two seasons – and a faster teammate for Button could push both drivers higher – like when Kubica arrived at BMW and Heidfeld suddenly upped his game. BMW benefitted greatly from the change, I think Honda would too, but I think it is best to leave that driver change until 2010…

  9. Unless Rubens starts consistently beating Button – I think he should do one more season and that is it. Rubens isn’t slow, and continuity of the drivers when all the rules have changed will reap rewards, but Button has had Barrichello pretty much in check for the last two seasons – and a faster teammate for Button could push both drivers higher – like when Kubica arrived at BMW and Heidfeld suddenly upped his game. BMW benefitted greatly from the change, I think Honda would too, but I think it is best to leave that driver change until 2010… P.S. Keith, I have posted my comment again because the text editor fails to create paragraphs when I press "enter" so I have used the HTML editor to make my comment now. Please delete the first comment if you so wish. Thanks.

  10. When a driver starts talking about wanting to go on even longer, they are signaling that their time is almost up. You are not  young anymore, you’ve put in lots of years of service, its time to drop your gloves and move on. So many generations of drivers don’t make it into F1 because some drivers just stay in there way too long. He is fast, and reliable, but he isn’t going to win any championships, best he can do is help develop the car.

  11. Perhaps with the new leadership at Honda, Rubens will get to stick around a bit longer after this season. But with so much competition for seats on the grid, I can’t see Honda keeping him on for many more years over a younger talent.

  12. Barrichello is now beating Jenson Button… So now what do you say? Should Button leave? I don’t think so either.

    I think the Barrichello-Button pair have still a lot to give. And, if you consider his career as a whole, i think Barrichello is one of the greatest drivers to exist. On brazil he was considered practically unbeatable on Karting, having been brazilian karting champion 5 times and having won the 500 miles of Granha Vianha (500 miles of non-stop kart driving!) 5 times, several of them consecutives…

    Being second place to Schumacher several times is not a bad thing, because we are talking about Schumacher!!

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