Brazil: Rubens Barrichello Q&A

Are there any particular preparations you have made for this race? A few laps with the children?

I have been spending my time booking churrascarias for friends of mine. I got into Brazil on Tuesday morning after Japan, so just my normal life. Exercising, picking up the kids from school and just being at home exercising nicely. It was a day off last Monday, so we had time to stay away from Sao Paulo a little bit more which was good.

Any particular efforts your team has been making or any modifications coming here?

It is good. We know where the problem was the last few races, so we kind of addressed the problems and the track should suit us very well. The weather is the only thing that we should pay attention to but I am quite optimistic for the home grand prix.

You have got races that you look back at and think ‘if only such and such hadn’t happened’. Do you do that as the championship gets tighter and tighter?

Since I have changed my brake material for Silverstone I have been very happy. In terms of performance it has been quite good and I am just driving a car that I think has been very fast and consistent. The season showed ups and downs for everyone. I think Brawn is the one that when it has been down it has still been okay. I have been very happy. The second part of my season has been quite good and I just hope I can keep it on.

Is people power an advantage or a pressure? They are all expecting so much of you and they have been thinking that for years.

It has been a long road coming to Brazil and at the beginning, feeling the pressure but learning, more than anything, how to deal with it and changing to get that positive energy and just using that to your advantage. I feel so great to be here. It is really nice and like I said, for me it is a winning year already. I put my hands into the sky to thank for the car I have and for the wins that I have and for the chance I have to win in Brazil. Something that I have been dreaming of for a long, long time, so hopefully the car will be back into the performance that we wish. The second part of the season has been a little tough in terms of getting the performance, especially because the Red Bulls and some other cars are going quite fast but hopefully here I can just put everything out and go for the win as I need it and because I want it so badly.

So is wet weather a good thing for you?

The wet weather has always been good for me. Looking at the forecast it looks like Friday and Saturday could be quite wet and Sunday a little bit better. That’s the first impression that we have. I think the Red Bulls are quite fast on the wet and we could be a little bit better in the dry but having said that it is all the same for everyone and we have got to be prepared for the situations.

You announced earlier in the week that you were in discussions with Williams and you’re also speaking with Brawn. Is it a distraction having to discuss your future while you’re trying to fight for the title and is it also a disappointment that you’re having to look for another team potentially, despite your best season in Formula One with Brawn?

It was a distraction last year when I got here and I had no jobs; that was a distraction because it was tough going in not knowing if I could come back, wishing that I was there all the time. So to be able to talk to teams and just to see myself in a competitive car next year is all I wish. My focus has been a long, long time into this season. In a way I’m so proud that after the race in Silverstone I have kind of turned things around a little bit and I was able to really get a lot of speed out of the car, with the car working for me as well. So no, I’m fine, it’s no distraction, it was really a distraction last year to see if I had to consider it as my last race or not. I didn’t want it to be, but things were tougher than they seemed to be.

You’ve experienced a lot of bad luck in your races at Interlagos. Firstly, are you thinking about this bad luck this year before the race, and secondly, what are your best and worst memories of this Grand Prix?

Well, first of all I don’t believe in bad luck. I just think that this is… there was a famous phrase from a driver saying that ‘the more I work, the more luck I have.’ It depends on your work and all the problems that I’ve had here in Brazil have sort of been human failures. I’ve actually gone off a few times, so for me it’s not bad luck that I finish a race without fuel in the car. I don’t believe that is bad luck, so I’m fine. I think in life we have what we plan or what we dream, so I have all the possibilities to have the best race of my career here and now and that’s what I’m prepared to do. Obviously, I don’t live in the past and like I said, I don’t care about the results in the past. I care about what I can change and maybe next year you come here and you see that it’s very positive and then you won the race and this and that, so for me it’s more on those terms. I have plenty of good memories here, because, if you remember, I qualified in the top three with the Stewart and I remember all the people coming down the tribunes. I finished on the podium with the Ferrari. I have plenty; sure, I wish I had won here already but I have really good memories, and I feel that I drive well on this circuit, so it’s just a matter of time for someone who works.

You’ve known Felipe Massa for a very long time. It’s seems that since he’s been on the sidelines looking at Formula One from a distance he’s become a lot more outspoken, he’s been talking about his new team-mate recently, saying that he suspects he knew more than he’s been letting on about Singapore. He’s been saying that he was robbed of the championship, he’s been saying that Jenson might bottle the championship. I wonder if you think that he’s changed at all since his absence?

No, I don’t think he has. I think he’s been the same person and all my wishes, when I was at the hospital, were that he was the same guy. And after I saw him with my own eyes and I saw that he was the same, I wished that he could drive the same way, and he went to Fiorano and did that. From all the people that I’ve spoken to and to himself, it looked like he got into the car and on the third lap he was on the pace. But there is one fact that in Formula One if you’re not travelling with everyone all the time and not hearing what the same people are talking about, you just get different ideas and maybe you’re flying on your own ideas. He’s been out for a month and then he comes back in and talks about something and it becomes a lot more important, so it’s not like what we hear every fifteen days or sometimes every week, we talk about the same things and we’re prepared to talk about the same things that you guys are talking about for the whole week. So maybe that’s what causes us to be so much more… for us to give it so much more importance to what he says, but for me it’s just the fact that he’s been out and not living the world that we’re living in.

Would you be able to comment if the title went to Jenson, would you able to comment on why it would be deserving, because you guys have both been battling for a long time and I guess both of you would like to win the title?

I think it makes the situation a bit more comfortable because, like Jenson said, we haven’t won the Constructors’ just yet but I believe that it’s very, very close and it should be done, and hopefully this weekend. And by doing that, we have this feeling that we’ve both worked for that, and it’s what we’re giving to the team and the team gave us. So in the other championship, we just have to work for ourselves to win, like Jenson said, we don’t want to lose the chance. I feel that particularly it’s my very first chance, that I really have the chance to… it was put this way, somebody gave me the chance to go for the title and win myself. So for me it feels comfortable that we are working hard to beat each other, but it’s comfortable for the fact that we both work very well together for the Constructors, so the team should be very happy and proud with that.