Brawn GP Racing Team

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Rubens Barrichello

Barrichello at the 2002 United States Grand Prix
Nationality Brazilian
Formula One World Championship career
Current team	Brawn-Mercedes
Car #	23
Races	275 (271 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	9
Podiums	63
Career points	549
Pole positions	13
Fastest laps	16
First race	1993 South African Grand Prix
First win	2000 German Grand Prix
Last win	2004 Chinese Grand Prix
Last race	2009 Bahrain Grand Prix
2008 position	14th (11 pts)

Rubens Gonçalves "Rubinho" Barrichello (born May 23, 1972 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. Following the management buy-out of the Honda racing team, with whom Barrichello competed during the 2008 season, he was confirmed for 2009 as one of the drivers in the new Brawn GP team.

Barrichello has scored the fifth highest points total in Formula One history. Barrichello drove for Ferrari from 2000 to 2005, as Michael Schumacher's teammate, enjoying considerable success including finishing as championship runner-up in 2002 and 2004. Schumacher's retirement at the end of 2006 made Barrichello the most experienced driver on the grid, and at the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix he became the most experienced driver in F1 history.

As a young, aspiring driver, Barrichello looked up to the late Ayrton Senna, and when he joined Formula One, Senna in return considered him his protégé. As of the 2009 Formula One season Barrichello is the only driver left competing in Formula One to have raced against the likes of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, making Barrichello the last still-competing driver linked to that era of Formula One.

Both his father and paternal grandfather are also named Rubens,^[1] and Barrichello shares his father's birthday: May 23.^[2] Therefore, Rubens Barrichello was known as Rubinho (Portuguese for "little Rubens"), which has become his nickname.

Barrichello won five karting titles in Brazil before going to Europe to race in the Formula Vauxhall 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 David Coulthard. He very nearly joined Formula One, the highest category of single seater racing, at just 19 years of age.^{[citation needed]} Instead he competed in Formula 3000 in 1992. He finished third in the championship, and joined the Jordan Formula One team for the 1993 Formula One season. During this time, and also early in his Formula 1 career, Barrichello lived in Banbury & Cumnor, Oxfordshire, UK.