The Barrichellos, family passion and a common dream: “If everything goes wrong, keep trying”

“His mother didn’t really want to take the kids to the F1 races because I don’t think she liked the idea of ​​them being drivers.”expressed Rubens Barrichello (May 23, 1972, Sao Paulo, Brazil) laughing under the watchful eyes of his two children, Eduardo, nicknamed ‘Dudu’, and Fernando, ‘Fefo’. But the Barrichellos case is the clearest example of how impossible it is to stop a passion once it runs through the veins. Guess: Yes, both Rubens’ sons were pilots, like their father. Theirs is a story of speed, but above all, of “love for the machine”, which its own protagonists tell with a big MD smile.

Rubenslegendary former F1, Michael’s great teammate Schumacher at Ferrari, bid farewell to F1 in 2011. But far from retirement, he continued to enjoy many competitions. He was in IndyCar, Le Mans and even the Super TC 2000 in Argentina. And in the Brazilian Stock Car, where in 2022 he was crowned champion at the age of 50. Now, at the age of 51, he continues to accelerate as if he were a child. sharing the grill with one of his sons, ‘Dudu’, 22 years old. In fact, Rubens left an image that went around the world in 2017, when he handed over the wheel of a Stock Car to his son ‘Dudu’, he started crying because of the emotion he felt from the passenger seat.

But that’s not all. At the same time, when he’s not driving, he’s helping his little son Fernando, 19, on his European single-seater adventure. “I live more or less from motorhome to motorhome”he said with a laugh to MD, looking at this newspaper with his two children in Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Inside one of the pits of the Catalan track, behind the scenes, at a small round table, there were Rubens and ‘Doubtful‘to join ‘Fefo’ last November in the last race of his first Spanish F4 campaign, in the first steps of the youngest of the brothers on the old continent to pursue his F1 dream.

“Fernando made the Brazilian F4 and the Spanish F4 the option with the most track time. “That’s what I liked the most.”Rubens highlighted about Spain, his choice for Fernando to continue development.

Rubens taught

But the next category to jump for ‘Fefo’ seems complicated. Having the last name of a world star like Barrichello does not mean a shower of sponsorships. It is also difficult for him to find sponsors for his children to develop. “Eduardo did two years of European Regional Formula (2021 and 2022) but we didn’t have sponsors and we decided to go back to Brazil with him and now he competes in Stock Car with me”recalled what he had recently experienced with his other son ‘Dudu’ and the difficulty in finding help for ‘Fefo’.

“Sometimes you have to have someone who really loves racing. Sometimes there’s a change of president at a company and he happens to love racing and he’s going to be more helpful. But for us, for example, it is something beautiful. Because when you support a Barrichello, you have three drivers. Eduardo, for example, won a Stock Car race in his first year and then opened eyes for many. The best thing for me is the way we treat life. You have to be simple, humble and calm. “You can’t be annoying”‘Rubinho’ reflects.

Fefo and his father’s teaching

Fernando arrived in 2023 with little time in the team Monlau Motorsport. He moved to Barcelona to start his dream, but his first year in Spanish F4 It was very complicated. “It was very difficult to say goodbye to the family when the year started. But this is part of the dream of reaching F1. I want to live this experience while always being close to the ship and working with the whole team. It was a very difficult year for me in the competition, but a year of a lot of work and a lot of personal evolution,” he reasoned.

In his words is hidden a teaching from his father. “I want my children to be simple, calm, have fun and work hard, because nothing is easy and life can be the hardest possible for them to learn like me. I didn’t have money for anything and I came to F1 and that’s why I stay for many years with a lot of pride.” he explained.

“When I started, my father always told me that I have to do it because I love it and not because of obligation,” ‘Fefo’ remarked. “He always taught me to do everything with love and happiness.”and If things don’t go well and things are hard, keep trying, always smile, be happy, and always do it for love.” And keep trying.

“The dream is to compete in the 24 hours of Le Mans”

“What I tell them is: ‘If you want to do it you have to be determined. The results will be positive or negative, but the negatives make you bigger.. You have to work. If I didn’t study for the exam, I probably wouldn’t have exemplary grades. I’m talking about the gym, therapy and everything you need to do to be strong mentally and physically, to do what you do well. That for me is the best advice,” Rubens explained to MD. He doesn’t know what his children’s future will be on the slopes. But they are clear about a common dream above all: “The dream of the three of them is to one day compete in the 24 Hours of Le Mans together”revealed.

So far, Rubens, who He won 11 F1 races and achieved 68 podiums, 14 pole positions and 17 fastest laps., finishing 2nd in the World Championship on two occasions and third on two other occasions, accumulating all kinds of racing experience in the ‘Great Circus’, he makes sure that the best moments of his career are not experienced in F1. Yes with family.

“I was in Stock Car for 11 years, in the most important category in Brazil, and in 2022, when I won the title for the second time, we were together (with his children). I tell you: celebrating with them was the best thing that happened to me, far from all the years in F1. Because they are older, they know what suffering is, what love is, they know the value we must give for our beloved. For me it was a spectacle.”

At 51 years old. Sharing his passion with his children is his driving force. “I am grateful that I really like what I do, that I smile a lot at what I do and that I have two children who accompany me in this sport and They train for love, not because I want it. They like it. To me that is happiness.”, the end of the legendary Brazilian F1 driver. Love for the machine. family machine. Union without limits. The Barrichellos.