Barrichello Still Hoping for a Smile from Lady Luck

Some people have all the luck and, on the basis of his Formula One season so far, Rubens Barrichello is not one of them.

While Ferrari's four times World Champion Michael Schumacher remains a master craftsman at making Lady Luck smile on him, his frustrated Brazilian teammate simply cannot catch her eye.

Barrichello failed to start Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, left stranded on the grid with a gear selection problem as the rest of the field roared by for the formation lap.

Pushed back to the garage, he waited as mechanics investigated and then admitted defeat as Schumacher dominated the race from start to finish in the spare car after himself suffering a breakdown in the warm-up.

His F2002 ran like clockwork, pulling out almost a second a lap in the first half of the race and never missing a beat. The German has now won four out of five races and finished third in the other, stacking up a lead of 21 points over Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.

Barrichello can claim just six points, with four retirements in his five races. The Brazilian was involved in a first corner crash in Australia, had an engine problem in his home race and retired with an hydraulics problem in Malaysia.

The only bright spots have been pole position in Melbourne and anchoring Schumacher to a Ferrari one-two finish on the team's home territory at Imola two weeks ago.

Commiseration

"Michael seems to have got everything on his side, even in terms of breaking down in the warm-up this morning," commented Williams technical director Patrick Head with a wry smile.

Lady Luck is obviously shining on him.

"They say to some extent you make your own luck but with Ferrari all the bad luck seems to go with Rubens Barrichello," he said.

Schumacher added his voice of commiseration.

"It's really bad luck for Rubens," he said. "Everything that has gone wrong this year so far has gone wrong for him. You can't really think it will always go that way. You know that one day it's going to hit you. We will simply try our best not to let it happen and, again, I'm sorry for Rubens."

The Brazilian, who has just one victory to his credit in 152 races, refused to be downcast however.

"I don't think it's bad luck...it's something that could happen to me or to Michael. It happened to me," he said.

"Apart from the problem at the start, this has been a very positive weekend because the car has worked well ever since the start of Friday.

"Even though I have been unlucky here and only have six points, my motivation is even stronger, given the potential of the car and the team. This was a frustrating day but these things happen and they cannot continue for much longer."