BARRICHELLO HAMPERED BY BRAKING ISSUES

Rubens Barrichello hampered by braking issues – Photo: InSyde Media

It was a tough day in the office yesterday for former F1 star Rubens Barrichello who spun out of S5000 Qualifying and as a result, will start from the 14th on the grid for today’s first Qualifying race.

By DAN McCARTHY

The former Ferrari driver is making a cameo appearance in the S5000 Championship at the Australian Grand Prix after competing in one of the two exhibition events that took place last season, since returning the Brazilian has been suffering braking issues.

“I need to sort out a problem with the brakes, since the test Winton I have been having some issues with braking and I keep on having them,” Barrichello said after practice.

Early in the 20-minute Qualifying session Barrichello locked his rear brakes up and spun into the gravel trap at Turn 3 bringing out the red flag. When asked by Auto Action after Qualifying the 11-time Grand Prix winner confirmed that the brake drama had not been fixed.

“In practice I had a migration to the front, it was too much going to the front, when you have a migration like that you lock the front and you just lose the ability to turn in the car,” he explained to AA.

“As soon as I went out in Qualifying I made changes to it and the car was much more alive which made me happy. The problem was that the migration was to the rear then, it caught me by surprise.

“I wanted to put a lap in before anyone brought out the red flag, I was the cause of the red flag. It really angered me, but in a way the mechanics and engineers are more sorry than anyone because how can you have such a big migration from one side to the other, we are just trying to find where the problem is.”

The Brazilian felt that he could not have done anything differently to keep the car out of the gravel trap and believed he had a quick car underneath him.

“I think we could have gone good but that is the statement of a loser isn’t it, unfortunately that is what we have right now, it is a shame but there is nothing I could have done on the brakes,” he said.

Despite the Quali mishap the former Brazilian Stock Car Champion is just enjoying being behind the wheel of the V8 powered open-wheel S5000 monster, he is unsure what he will be able to achieve in the three races.

“The points from the qualifying is not going to be on my side but having said that I can only go from here now,” he told AA.

“Whenever things are not going good you have got to help your brain, think why you are here.

“I’m here because I love this, I’m here because I love driving, I’m here because I love Melbourne, I feel so much gratitude on my chest that I am driving on this track again, so there are many more positives than negatives.”

The inaugural Australian S5000 Championship race takes place today at 10.50am with former Supercars driver James Golding starting from pole position.

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