Barrichello not worried about F1 future

Williams driver Rubens Barrichello has insisted that he sees no reason to worry about his future in F1 as he still feels youthful enough to compete at the highest level.

Speaking as he prepares to this weekend race in his 19th Brazilian Grand Prix the veteran racer, whose future in the sport is in doubt as he has not yet signed with a team for 2012, said it would be “sad” to be concerned about next year.

“I think it would be sad to be worried about the future,” he said. “I had 19 lovely seasons. I’ve been doing this for such a long time, I’ve been wanted for such a long time here, so I feel good. I feel that I still have a lot of youth on me, and it’s not something that I’m asking ‘please, give me the drive’. If somebody wants me to drive on a competitive basis it’s because they believe I can do a very good job – that’s why I’m here.”

Barrichello’s ambitions to say in Formula One will have been buoyed by an outstanding race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in which he started from 24th and eventually climbed to 12th. The Brazilian admitted he had been pleased with his performance, achieved after engines problems had forced him to sit out qualifying.

“I was very pleased and, you know, even more that we had so many conversations with the team because there was some idea that Cosworth wanted to take the engine back to the factory and try to work around the engine, not to break the seal,” he said. “I said: ‘look, if it happens then you’re going to have to open it anyway, the engine. I’m not going to use that engine in Brazil because I’m going to pay a penalty.’

“The only other engine I had was a Friday engine that already had some mileage, so they said: ‘OK, let’s take the gamble’ and when they broke the seal with the FIA there, they saw that it was such a minor thing. The engine became a ninth engine instead of the eighth, so I paid a penalty – but I was on the back anyway so, I have kind of a fresh engine for here. It was good to race hard in that respect. I didn’t finish in the points but I still have a lot of pleasure from the drive.”

And armed with that comparatively low-mileage engine, Barrichello believes he can have a good race in his home town. “It’s a lot of emotion coming to Interlagos and to drive here, so even though I don’t have a competitive car you have to put hopes… you have to dream,” he said. “My dream here this weekend is to put the car in the points and have the best finishing position that I can manage.”