HOCKENHEIM, Germany, July 27 - When Brazilian Rubens Barrichello left
Ferrari for Honda at the end of last year, he looked forward to winning races
and fighting for the championship.
His new team, he dared to suggest, could offer him a better opportunity of
achieving his dreams on the race track than Formula One's Italian glamour
outfit.
"There is no limit to my imagination," the 34-year-old declared soon after
his arrival. "I really believe we can win races this year."
This weekend, two thirds of the way into the 18-race championship, the
picture looks very different as the good-natured Brazilian returns to
Hockenheim, the German Grand Prix circuit where he won for the first time six
years ago after a record 124 starts without success.
He knows how fickle Formula One can be, how quickly fortunes can change for
better and worse. But his imagination would be strained beyond breaking point to
invent a scenario that sees him back on top of the podium anytime soon.
Even if he no longer has to serve as loyal and long-suffering sidekick to
seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, Barrichello faces another long
and hot weekend playing follow the leader.
Renault and Ferrari are locked in a title battle of their own and Honda are
also-rans -- 110 points off the lead and hoping not to sink below fourth place
in the constructors' standings.
Barrichello has not been on the podium since the U.S. Grand Prix fiasco of
June last year, when he finished second behind Schumacher in a six-car field led
by the Ferraris after all Michelin-shod teams pulled out for safety reasons.
WRITE-OFF
At the French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours the weekend before last, Barrichello
stopped with an engine problem after 18 laps, his second retirement in three
races.
Team mate Jenson Button lasted longer but also pulled over 10 laps from the
end after running 11th and behind American rookie Scott Speed's Toro Rosso. It
has now been five races since the Briton scored a point.
Barrichello is making the best of the situation, after getting to grips with
a very different car to the one he was used to driving, and has outqualified
Button in six of the 11 races to date and is level on 16 points.
But, even if Honda deny being a 'troubled team', the gap between their
pre-season billing of championship contenders and the disappointing results has
piled on the pressure.
