Rubens Barrichello
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 Rubens Gonçalves Barrichello (born May 23 1972) is a Brazilian Formula One race driver who drives for Honda Racing.
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YouthBorn 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 years 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.Traumatic yearsBarrichello 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. Dr Sid Watkins saved his life by preventing him from swallowing his tongue, 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, including a second place finish in Montreal in 1995 , but after his relationship with team owner Eddie Jordan soured during 1996, he left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix in 1997. Having finished second in Monaco in Stewart's maiden year, he struggled mainly 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, replacing Eddie Irvine. Barrichello called himself "1b". Second to SchumacherBarrichello was more than capable of being Schumacher's "1b". He achieved his first victory in Hockenheim that year in his 128th race, the longest wait for a driver's maiden win, despite having started from a shocking 18th on the grid. "Rubinho", as he is often known, has continued to be successful thanks to Ferrari's dominance of Formula One: he managed to finish second behind Schumacher in the 2002 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. Fed-up with Ferrari 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. His best result was a third place in 2004. Complete Formula One results([key]) (Races in bold indicate pole position)PersonalRubens is married to Silvana and they have two sons, Eduardo (b. 2001) and Fernando (b. 2005)
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