Barrichello Hopes for Lucky 150th Race

Rubens Barrichello starts his 150th Formula One race on Sunday as an optimist, still confident his time will come.

But over the last decade, the Brazilian Ferrari driver's home Grand Prix at Interlagos has tested his resolve to breaking point.

Barrichello was brought up near the circuit that hosts the third round of the season, the reverberation of engines and glimpses of speeding cars forming his childhood memories.

Yet, while his late great friend and mentor Ayrton Senna won twice in his native Sao Paulo, Barrichello has never even stood on a Grand Prix podium there.

Once the hottest property in Brazilian karting, the 29-year-old has finished once in nine home races and his recent record reads more like a horror story - seven retirements in a row before his own fans.

This season he has still to score a point after going out of both the first two races. In Australia, he took pole position - the fourth of his career - but was shunted out by Ralf Schumacher's Williams at the first corner. In Malaysia, his engine blew when he was heading for a podium finish.

While Michael Schumacher once again leads the Championship, Barrichello starts at Interlagos with his second string status at Ferrari well and truly underlined; Schumacher will give the shiny new F2002 its race debut while Barrichello will make do with the old but undeniably reliable F2001. And maybe that is for the best.

No Curse

"I prefer to think that my bad results in Brazil are merely coincidental," Barrichello told reporters this week. "I don't think I am particularly cursed at Interlagos. In fact, racing in front of my fans always gives me a special feeling."

Reliability, or lack of it, has been the bane of Barrichello's Brazilian experiences since 1994, when he finished fourth for Jordan. But he has also had to bear the pressure of being - from an early age - the next great hope from a country that has produced a string of Champions.

That pressure only increased in the vacuum left by Senna's tragic death at Imola at the wheel of his Williams in 1994, and then when he joined Ferrari in 2000.

His greatest success at home came a few weeks before Senna died. Since then, almost as if Interlagos was keeping faith with the fallen Champion, no Brazilian has even scored so much as a point at the circuit.

Last year, Barrichello's Ferrari failed on the warm-up lap, forcing him to start in the spare after a sweaty run back to the garages in the strength-sapping heat. He then shunted Ralf Schumacher's Williams - losing a wheel, ending up in the gravel and drawing considerable criticism for his actions.

"It is something I have been asking myself - why do these things happen?" he pondered afterwards. "I have to keep smiling and think on the positive side. But in the space of 10 minutes everything went wrong."

Mechanical Failure

But before 2001, Barrichello's Brazil had been more a litany of mechanical failure than human error.

In 2000, he led for two laps before the hydraulics went. The previous year, he sent the already exuberant crowd wild with delight when he forged to the front before the engine of his Stewart expired after he led for 23 laps.

In 1998, it was the gearbox. In 1997, he was left stranded on the grid when the Stewart failed to start and the suspension then went after he continued in the spare.

The 1996 race saw Barrichello start on the front row alongside Damon Hill on pole but the Brazilian spun his Jordan while in fourth place. Gearbox trouble stopped him in 1995 and in 1993, when he made his home debut in a Jordan.

Maybe this year, in his 10th appearance at home, the 'Paulista' will finally appear on the podium.

"I want to stay calm," he says. "I do not promise anything. Not pole or victory. I just want to enjoy myself."