Barrichello is no 'guinea pig'

Barrichello finished second at Hockenheim, helped in part by a raft of retirements, but some observers questioned the wisdom of the two-stop approach on the high-speed Hockenheim circuit. Barrichello, however, said it was a gamble worth taking - and a decision he made himself.

"I'm completely conscious of what we do," Barrichello told Autosport.com. "On Sunday, in actual fact, I asked if I could do two (stops), and Ross (Brawn) gave me a good reason to start on two. On one stop I would have finished sixth."

Technical director Ross added: "Rubens was starting sixth, and in all due fairness I didn't see Sauber as being that strong opposition. So why not?

"Unfortunately we gave the game away a little before the restart," explained Brawn. "He got past Coulthard and Hakkinen at the beginning, and Mika came over to him on the grid to apologise for hitting him, and said, 'Oh, I see you're on a two-stop. You're far too fast to be on a one-stop!' So McLaren were aware, and he didn't have the element of surprise that might have been more useful. But Rubens drove a fantastic race, a very, very good race."

Although a constructors' and drivers' title double remains the key objective for the Italian outfit, team principle Jean Todt has made it clear that Barrichello has a real chance to take second in the drivers' championship and says the team will be adopting a more conservative approach in the remainder of the season (see separate story).

With only five races left, Barrichello is fourth in the standings, seven points behind David Coulthard and one behind Ralf Schumacher with 50 points up for grabs.

For full Rubens Barrichello Q&A click here.