BUDAPEST, (Reuters) – Formula One drivers must be allowed to race each other freely and if that means missing out on the title by a single point then so be it, Rubens Barrichello said yesterday.
The Brazilian was twice overall runner-up at Ferrari, winning nine races in four years with the Italian team compared to the five titles and 72 victories chalked up by Michael Schumacher in that time.
Barrichello was a regular victim of ‘team orders’, which were banned in 2002 after worldwide uproar caused by Ferrari ordering him to let Schumacher win in Austria after the Brazilian had led the entire race.
With Ferrari fined $100,000 last weekend and facing possible further punishment for ordering Brazilian Felipe Massa to let team mate Fernando Alonso win in Germany, Barrichello said team orders had to be stamped out.
“I just think that we should do something to stop this thing,” he told a news conference at the Hungarian Grand Prix, his 299th race.
“I would not feel good if they tell me ‘We will give you this and it will make you faster than the other one and then you will win’.
“I don’t like that. I never did. That’s why I had to make changes in my life and changed teams,” added the 38-year-old, who left Ferrari for Honda at the end of 2005 and won two races for champions Brawn last year before joining Williams.
“It is in the hands of the top people to change that,” he added. “You should be allowed to race, what is the problem? If you don’t win the championship by one point so be it. “You had your chance. You win the championship by one point because somebody let you win. What is the point?”
Massa missed out on the 2008 title by a single point to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
Barrichello said he would bring his own children up with a strong message of fair play.
“If I had to be a bad guy to be world champion, I don’t care for that,” he said. “I will teach my boys the same way my father taught me. I’m happy with that. That’s my view.”
