Barrichello to drive for Caterham in Abu Dhabi?

[Agent Orange]

The latest, according to the major German daily Bild, is retired F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello, who apparently recently found enough sponsorship to contest the Austin, Interlagos and Abu Dhabi races as his "great farewell performance"

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/barrichello-coul...

Anyone else find this a bit sad and a sorry state of affairs? If true what does he hope to achieve?

[DanielSan]

Agent Orange said:

The latest, according to the major German daily Bild, is retired F1 veteran Rubens Barrichello, who apparently recently found enough sponsorship to contest the Austin, Interlagos and Abu Dhabi races as his "great farewell performance"

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/barrichello-coul...

Anyone else find this a bit sad and a sorry state of affairs? If true what does he hope to achieve?

Even if it's just one race he gets to do what he wanted, a goodbye race. Given his career it was one thing Williams should done.

[BritishRacinGrin]

Agent Orange said:

Anyone else find this a bit sad and a sorry state of affairs? If true what does he hope to achieve?

I find it a bit sad that people find it a bit sad. This isn't a 'comeback', this is an ex-F1 driver seizing an opportunity to race in F1 again because why not? Bit of fun. If you're a racer you want to race and if you've raced in F1 I imagine you want to do it as much as you possibly can. To be in the position to re-visit it and be part of the circus with your old pals one last time... a privilege.

Is the suggestion that an outing in an uncompetitive car is going to somehow 'blight' Ruben's career?

[marshall100]

Mansell used to frequent a vacant seat quite a bit back at the end of his career, did anyone complain about it? (apart from the engineers trying to get him into the seat)

[Agent Orange]

BritishRacinGrin said:

I find it a bit sad that people find it a bit sad. This isn't a 'comeback', this is an ex-F1 driver seizing an opportunity to race in F1 again because why not? Bit of fun. If you're a racer you want to race and if you've raced in F1 I imagine you want to do it as much as you possibly can. To be in the position to re-visit it and be part of the circus with your old pals one last time... a privilege.

Is the suggestion that an outing in an uncompetitive car is going to somehow 'blight' Ruben's career?

So F1 - the pinnacle of motorsport has a place for drivers to come back for a bit of fun?

Don't believe it'll blight Ruben's career. I do believe it'll blight F1.

Why not get Mansell back for the British GP in 2015? Even if all he did was tootle around in the back it would at least be fun. Sorry I don't get it. This isn't a masters or historic series.

His F1 career is over. Time for him to move on.

[Eric Mc]

Sir Stirling might be up for a bit of pootling about.

[BritishRacinGrin]

Agent Orange said:

I do believe it'll blight F1.

One of the most enduring and popular icons of the sport coming back for a single outing for a team which about a week ago wasn't going to compete at all... Sounds like a fantastic turnaround and quite a story to me. Barrichello is more likely to get folks tuning in to the race than somebody that the average joe has never heard of.

[BritishRacinGrin]

Agent Orange said:

Why not get Mansell back for the British GP in 2015?

Eric Mc said:

Sir Stirling might be up for a bit of pootling about.

Classic PH, folk going to silly extremes in a vain effort to try and validate their opinions...

Rubens only retired at the end of last season, he's still race fit, he has experience in KERS equipped cars, Pirelli tyres, modern F1 in general... and we're talking about a one-off here, for a team who needs that experience not a hot-headed kid straight out of the simulator with only a day and a half of testing.

[Lincsblokey]

BritishRacinGrin said:

Agent Orange said:

Why not get Mansell back for the British GP in 2015?

Eric Mc said:

Sir Stirling might be up for a bit of pootling about.

Classic PH, folk going to silly extremes in a vain effort to try and validate their opinions...

Rubens only retired at the end of last season, he's still race fit, he has experience in KERS equipped cars, Pirelli tyres, modern F1 in general... and we're talking about a one-off here, for a team who needs that experience not a hot-headed kid straight out of the simulator with only a day and a half of testing.

Well said!

[Eric Mc]

BritishRacinGrin said:

Classic PH, folk going to silly extremes in a vain effort to try and validate their opinions...

Rubens only retired at the end of last season, he's still race fit, he has experience in KERS equipped cars, Pirelli tyres, modern F1 in general... and we're talking about a one-off here, for a team who needs that experience not a hot-headed kid straight out of the simulator with only a day and a half of testing.

Classic PH sense of humour failure.

[FunkyNige]

DanielSan said:

Even if it's just one race he gets to do what he wanted, a goodbye race. Given his career it was one thing Williams should done.

With a lot of the drivers announcements coming after 1st December I can see this happening quite a bit in the future, assuming Button is out of F1 he won't get a goodbye race either.

[Agent Orange]

BritishRacinGrin said:

Rubens only retired at the end of last season, he's still race fit, he has experience in KERS equipped cars, Pirelli tyres, modern F1 in general... and we're talking about a one-off here, for a team who needs that experience not a hot-headed kid straight out of the simulator with only a day and a half of testing.

He retired end of 2011 but it's not that I doubt Ruben's abilities.

It's the combination of a team running around with begging bowl to fans for crowd funding, limping from race to race and finally relying on a long since retired driver to pay his way so they can race to hopefully claim the 2 points to give them a nice large $$MM bonus.

Hence why I suspect Marussia are now planning to "race" at Abu Dhabi to cover the Caterham threat.

It all adds up to a very sorry state of affairs for F1 with Ruben's now being right in the middle of that if he drives.

[BritishRacinGrin]

So when you started this thread with Barrichello in the title, the 'sorry state of affairs' concerns F1 as a whole and the fact that Rubens is driving is not really your issue with it? This is really just another 'F1 is doomed' thread, only with Rubens in the title?

Then what's the thrust of this sentence? I presuming you're referring to Rubens...

Agent Orange said:

what does he hope to achieve?

[pozi]

marshall100 said:

Mansell used to frequent a vacant seat quite a bit back at the end of his career, did anyone complain about it? (apart from the engineers trying to get him into the seat)

Seat, what about the entire car, McLaren had to make a special "Fatboy" chassis just so he could move his arms about to steer it !!

[VolvoT5]

This is a bad idea IMO. Barrichello was good in his day but his day was at least 10 years ago. I actually think it is quite sad for him that he hasn't managed to move on with his life and find a career outside of being an F1 driver.

Also it really just proves the point that anybody with the money can drive an F1 car these days. I'm sure there are plenty of younger, more talented drivers who deserve a go in F1 far more than Rubens does.

[BritishRacinGrin]

VolvoT5 said:

I actually think it is quite sad for him that he hasn't managed to move on with his life and find a career outside of being an F1 driver.

Indycar 'rookie of the year' 2012, V8 Stock cars 2013.

[BritishRacinGrin]

VolvoT5 said:

I'm sure there are plenty of younger, more talented drivers who deserve a go in F1 far more than Rubens does.

I agree but I say again, this is a one-time event with a team which may not even exist after the race. This is not denying a young driver an auspicious start to a racing career.

[marshall100]

pozi said:

Seat, what about the entire car, McLaren had to make a special "Fatboy" chassis just so he could move his arms about to steer it !!

Was it really that bad?

[Vocal Minority]

VolvoT5 said:

I'm sure there are plenty of younger, more talented drivers who deserve a go in F1 far more than Rubens does.

I know I prattle on about this a lot - but there has never been an era in the sport where drives in F1 were about the young, talented and deserving. The ones who are good enough to demand a salary from a factory race at the front.

The back half always has and always will be the ones with the money. Its how F1 works. PH needs to make its peace

[Agent Orange]

BritishRacinGrin said:

So when you started this thread with Barrichello in the title, the 'sorry state of affairs' concerns F1 as a whole and the fact that Rubens is driving is not really your issue with it? This is really just another 'F1 is doomed' thread, only with Rubens in the title?

Then what's the thrust of this sentence? I presuming you're referring to Rubens...

Agent Orange said:

what does he hope to achieve?

The Caterham team is a somewhat sad and shambolic affair. I can understand your point that he might want one last hurrah (don't we all!) but to do it will this team? Why? Paying for a drive in a st team to tootle around in last place?

Feels sad to me but seems I'm in the minority and we should instead applaud him.