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Britain: Barrichello on the podium for Honda
By Phil Huff July 6 2008
Rubens Barrichello started the British Grand Prix languishing in 16th place, but ended it by taking his Honda Racing F1 RA107 all the way to the podium, despite suffering some pit stop dramas on the way. Changeable conditions played straight to Barrichello’s strengths and, after barely putting a foot wrong throughout the entire race, just a faulty refuelling rig stopped him taking second.
“We were just discussing that we had a problem with the fuel rig that probably cost us second place, so that’s frustrating,” explained Ross Brawn, Honda’s team principal, “but we shouldn’t be too greedy.”

“The start, the first lap, was very good,” continued Brawn. “We didn’t have a lot of pace, let’s say equal pace, with other cars at the same time... we didn't look that special but, when we got on the deep groove wets at the right time, we really took off.”

Despite Barrichello’s obvious skills in the wet, Brawn does recognise that luck played a major part in the result, given the clear problems with the normally reluctant RA108.

“We don’t have the equipment at the moment, we don’t have the car we need,” he explained. £If we can work like this when we do get the car we need, then we’re going to be able to compete.”

Given that development is now concentrated on the 2009 car, and the rule changes will undoubtedly affect the order in F1, we can’t wait to be competing like this more often.

Brawn also took time to congratulate Lewis Hamilton, who utterly dominated the race, finishing over a minute ahead of his next rival, Nick Heidfeld, and lapping all but Heidfeld and Barrichello. “What was impressive was Lewis' performance in that [middle] part of the race, because he was on intermediates,” Brawn said. “I don't know how he did it, because the rest of them were 10 seconds [a lap] off.”

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