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Transcript

Rubens Barrichello · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:13
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust, and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  I'm in Melbourne for this ep at the end of an unforgettable day.
• 0:31
  Earlier I'd been at the Albert Park GP track getting ready for broadcast work around the first event of the 2020 F1 season.
• 0:40
  The Australian Grand Prix is one of my favourites.
• 0:43
  We're all excited to see and hear the latest Formula One cars and to perhaps get a sense of who was fast and who was behind the eight ball at the end of the day's two scheduled 90-minute practice sessions.
• 0:55
  Not one wheel turned.
• 0:58
  Sadly, a McLaren team member tested positive to the coronavirus that had begun sweeping the planet, and the squad opted to withdraw from round one.
• 1:07
  The organisers considered all sorts of alternatives, but unfortunately the event had to be cancelled on what was meant to be...
• 1:14
  The 25th running of the F1 race here.
• 1:17
  So now that I've got some spare time, I've teed up a chat with Rubens Barrichello at his hotel.
• 1:23
  The Brazilian was back down under to race in the new V8-powered S5000 open wheel class, which was on the support bill at the GP.
• 1:31
  And...
• 1:32
  As you'll hear, Rubens is infectiously passionate about cars and racing, even in his late 40s.
• 1:39
  He spent nearly 20 years in F1, chalked up more than 300 starts.
• 1:45
  In fact, at the time we recorded, he held the most starts of any F1 driver in the sports history.
• 1:51
  11 wins, 68 podiums and 14 pole positions.
• 1:56
  He drove for some great teams, contributing significantly to their success too.
• 2:01
  Notably at Ferrari alongside Michael Schumacher and Braun when Jenson Button took the title.
• 2:06
  They say it's often the earliest influences that have the biggest impact.
• 2:11
  And for Rubens, that's particularly true.
• 2:14
  The first memory I have is going to my grandmother's house where everybody would sit.
• 2:21
  It was a big family, Barrichello's family.
• 2:24
  When we grew up, it was in Interlagos, right by the track.
• 2:29
  And Sundays, whenever they were doing the pasta, the Bolognese pasta, it was, for us, was about watching the races.
• 2:37
  And I remember my first memory is...
• 2:41
  It was just the Lotus 78, Mario Andretti coming on that Black Lotus.
• 2:50
  And then the year after, I had the chance where everybody would test in Interlagos because of the weather.
• 3:00
  they would come to Interlagos to properly test.
• 3:02
  So there were no car tested there.
• 3:04
  There was a...
• 3:05
  So because I was from Interlagos, they wouldn't ask me for a pass.
• 3:09
  So I was with my bicycle, and I would ride straight in.
• 3:13
  And...
• 3:15
  So, you know, it was a passion and a falling in love in there.
• 3:20
  I was just able to see something coming up.
• 3:25
  And obviously when I was six, I was giving my first go-kart.
• 3:28
  So I could relate it to, you know, the driving.
• 3:33
  Obviously you don't know the power and so many things, but...
• 3:36
  René Arnault in that car and Jean-Pierre Jabouille, it was phenomenal.
• 3:44
  I just loved the times when I was growing up.
• 3:49
  Obviously, my father didn't have the means to actually get me going on the go-karts, but because he had a building material place right in front of Gate 7 of Interlagos,
• 4:03
  He made a lot of friends from Interlagos and from the racing.
• 4:07
  So therefore, he was able to do some stuff where he would give a little bit of sand or tint or this, and people would help me with pieces of engines and exhaust and things like this that just kept me going for the first few years of my career.
• 4:26
  You talk even now with a smile, with a passion, an immense passion for it.
• 4:32
  When you got that first go-kart, the CV, the record books, talks about your titles.
• 4:37
  Did it come easily?
• 4:38
  Were you natural?
• 4:39
  What were the learnings like when you first got into carving?
• 4:45
  It was something that was very natural to me, but for sure for my father...
• 4:51
  It was something that he would, okay, let me give my son a chance of a sense that I never had, like my father saying.
• 5:02
  Sensation.
• 5:05
  Yeah, but that's going to stop soon.
• 5:08
  I have a feeling that my dad never thought that that would have become such a thing.
• 5:15
  Yeah.
• 5:16
  And so it was phenomenal because when I first drove, then I remember, you know, people coming to my dad and saying, you know, the kid has a talent, so you should look after that.
• 5:29
  And my dad, the only two things he asked me was, you go to school, you behave there, and you go to sleep at 8 p.m.
• 5:40
  So that's the only two things I had in my mind for my whole childhood.
• 5:45
  Did you do the right thing?
• 5:46
  I did.
• 5:46
  I was, you know, for me, it was everything I wanted to raise so badly that I could see that my dad was working hard, more hours trying to provide me that, and I couldn't...
• 6:05
  skip any any line that he had put it to me so when I tell my kids that nowadays it's it's different word and everything but I I don't want them to be exactly the same as I say but when I tell Eduardo Eduardo is 18 and he's he's already racing in America and I tell him look
• 6:27
  When I tell you to go to the gym, it's probably not for right now because you have the means to qualify to be racing so well at the USF 2000 championship.
• 6:42
  But maybe tomorrow...
• 6:44
  I don't know, a Red Bull or a Ferrari, they might call me and say, oh, we got a test for Eduardo.
• 6:50
  Is he ready to do it?
• 6:51
  And I want him to be ready for what he tells me is his dreams.
• 6:56
  So my dad, he was...
• 6:59
  He was able to fulfill my dreams in a way that he prepared me well.
• 7:05
  And I was prepared whenever the cycle came my way.
• 7:09
  Because life, it is a cycle, isn't it?
• 7:12
  There are days that you wake up, it doesn't matter what you do, and you say, oh man, this is a bad day or this is a good day.
• 7:19
  This is life.
• 7:21
  And then, you know, I want him to be prepared for that as well, the same way my dad did it to me.
• 7:26
  Am I right in saying you and your dad share perhaps the same birthday and the same name?
• 7:31
  And you'll have to say it in the language, in Portuguese or whatever, but they call you Little Rubens, basically, is that right?
• 7:38
  Yeah, I'm known in Brazil as Rubinho.
• 7:43
  Rubinho means Little Rubens, because my grandpa, it is Rubens as well.
• 7:48
  Wow.
• 7:49
  And the real Rubens Barrichello is my grandpa, because the only name he has is Rubens Barrichello.
• 7:56
  My father is Rubens Barrichello Jr., and he was born on May 23rd, 1950.
• 8:02
  And I was the Rubens Gonsalves Barrichello, which is my mother's middle name.
• 8:10
  And then I was born May 23rd, 1972.
• 8:13
  Nice.
• 8:14
  Amazing.
• 8:15
  As a young man, you would go to England after some success in karting.
• 8:19
  How daunting was that period for you?
• 8:21
  Were you ready to grab it with both hands?
• 8:24
  And very recently, I did a function in New Zealand with Dick Bennett's.
• 8:28
  All right.
• 8:28
  You know, lots of great names have come through West Surrey Racing, which he runs, haven't you?
• 8:33
  Yes, absolutely.
• 8:34
  I mean, when I went to Europe, it was a tough time because, you know, as a family man, I love the Sundays around my father and my family.
• 8:46
  So when I, it was a big change.
• 8:49
  And at 16,
• 8:52
  You know, you're going to Europe, living with the whole team, and it was a new experience.
• 8:59
  And my mother still has some letters that I wrote to her from those times.
• 9:04
  And I remember crying in my little room and saying, Mom, I can't hang on just to the fact that I'm sure whenever I drive, it will be good.
• 9:14
  Because I didn't drive the first month and the team owner had asked me to go there beforehand, it was because he wanted me to learn the language.
• 9:25
  And I didn't... you know, how special is life?
• 9:29
  Because that month teach me how to speak Italian and after I drove for Ferrari.
• 9:34
  So it was something that, you know, it's those little bits and the knots that get together.
• 9:41
  Were meant to be.
• 9:43
  Yeah, they were meant to be.
• 9:44
  So...
• 9:45
  My father asked me one thing when I went that patch and when I left to get to the finger, you know, the airplane finger, and he said, you go, but you come back the same.
• 9:58
  And that's the, it's such a simple thing, you know, from a humble person, and he want me to be like that.
• 10:05
  And when I walk through the paddock today, like a Formula One paddock, and I see those mechanics jumping out of the,
• 10:12
  their work and just to say hi to me, I think I've done really well on that patch.
• 10:18
  That it was the only thing that my father said to me.
• 10:22
  So I am, you know, I'm proud of what I have achieved, obviously, inside of the racing track.
• 10:28
  But most important is also the bit outside of the racing track.
• 10:33
  As you should be, because it's an intensely political game, it's sport at the most elite level, that can change human beings, that can change people.
• 10:42
  And clearly you kept the core Rubens Barrichella.
• 10:47
  And I tell you, it's not that it does not change, because it does.
• 10:50
  At a certain point, you just don't get the cues anymore, because people, you go to a restaurant and they call you right inside, and then...
• 10:59
  you know, it comes up to your mind.
• 11:02
  I mean, we experienced the same thing here.
• 11:05
  We came in and there was a family and asked for a picture.
• 11:09
  And I mean, sometimes you can feel like a pop star, but it's with the events that happen in life that teaches you how to proceed.
• 11:22
  So, like I said, I'm very proud that I was able to...
• 11:28
  My mind did go up and went down and went up and I'm just me, so I'm proud of that.
• 11:35
  The record books, I think, say you were about 20 when you got your first taste of Formula One.
• 11:42
  But is it true that at 19 you may have got a chance to have a crack at it at 19 years of age?
• 11:48
  Is that right or not?
• 11:50
  I think when I really sat down on that Jordan, that Yamaha Jordan 92, I was 19.
• 11:59
  And when I first drove it in Kyalami, I was still 19.
• 12:04
  What was that like for a 19-year-old man who dreamt of this, who'd been next door to Interlagos and listened and seen?
• 12:11
  What did that feel like?
• 12:12
  Oh, it was such a feeling.
• 12:14
  I mean, for me, I remember, like, if it was today, my dad, Kyle Ami, different, South Africa.
• 12:22
  It was just, you know, Ayrton Senna, Alan Brost.
• 12:26
  And it was just, it was magical.
• 12:29
  It was, and I was put in really good times.
• 12:32
  I had a...
• 12:33
  I had Ivan Capelli as my teammate, and I was doing so well.
• 12:38
  My name was up there, and it felt good.
• 12:42
  It felt really good.
• 12:43
  Your career is remarkable.
• 12:45
  I mean, to look back now and to see more than 300 starts, more than 320 starts, when you set out on that adventure with the passion that you have, it would have been a dream to tick up that tally.
• 12:58
  Did you ever imagine you would get to that number of starts in the sport?
• 13:02
  No.
• 13:02
  And then I think that's what it's good about it.
• 13:05
  Because at the end of the day, people say, I got there because of this, I got there because of that.
• 13:10
  For me, I got there because I love.
• 13:13
  And I remember my last year in Formula One, people said...
• 13:19
  you should just go home.
• 13:20
  You've done so much.
• 13:23
  And I kept on thinking, why should I go home?
• 13:25
  I just love driving.
• 13:27
  And nowadays, I'm still on my seventh year of stock car.
• 13:32
  I just signed to race the Argentinian Super Touring car in there.
• 13:38
  I'm racing go-karts with my kids.
• 13:39
  I just love this.
• 13:42
  I'm here in Australia for the S5000.
• 13:43
  And...
• 13:47
  And it's just a feeling that, you know, I thank God for the opportunity I had to deal with what I liked so early.
• 13:56
  And, you know, at the end, perform or not perform, it depends upon your head and your attitude and your focus.
• 14:07
  I just love what I do.
• 14:08
  So it makes it 50% easy.
• 14:11
  From your time in Formula One and all the great teams you drove for, I immediately think of you at Ferrari and the amazing contribution you made to their Constructors' titles and finishing second in the World Championship and more and more Rubens.
• 14:26
  Is there a car in that period where you look back and you think,
• 14:31
  It was a great era, the way they looked and sounded and things like that.
• 14:34
  But is there a car that you have maybe a little attachment to where you think that was a special car for that period of time?
• 14:43
  There was those 2002 and 2004 Ferrari cars.
• 14:48
  they were exactly the same as they describe on the wind tunnel.
• 14:52
  They came out and they said the car is going to be faster by this amount because of this and because of that.
• 14:58
  For me, that's the translation that nowadays people get lost a little bit.
• 15:04
  And so many times during the past five, six years, Mercedes got it right because the translation from the wind tunnel to the racetrack is what it is.
• 15:14
  So, you know, it was amazing.
• 15:20
  I first drove the car in Mugello and then they said, the car is going to do this and that.
• 15:24
  And it was perfect.
• 15:26
  It was bang on.
• 15:27
  And I was able to do the times they were saying.
• 15:31
  And it was like those times where the car from one year to the other was like 1.5 seconds faster.
• 15:38
  So you know exactly what the kind of year you're going to have.
• 15:42
  So, but I gotta tell you that from 2008, when I had a not so good Honda car at the time, and Honda withdrawal, and there was a period that nobody knew what we were gonna do.
• 15:59
  My friends would come to me and said,
• 16:03
  what are you going to do now after Formula One?
• 16:05
  I said, no, I'm going to drive Formula One.
• 16:06
  I said, no, but it's Bruno Senna already signed or somebody else already signed.
• 16:11
  And I said, no, I have a feeling that I'm going to be driving next year.
• 16:17
  And even my wife would tell me, okay, so should we live in another place, in a place that you like?
• 16:24
  I said, no, no, we're going to do Formula One.
• 16:28
  They said later that they thought I was completely out of my mind.
• 16:35
  And for some reason, I had a feeling.
• 16:37
  And whenever Ross gave me a call to tell me that I was on that brown, and the contract was not perfect.
• 16:46
  And it was a contract for every four races.
• 16:51
  And so one, I said, yes.
• 16:53
  I want to do this.
• 16:54
  And, you know, Ross told me the other day that it was the best option for him that he could ever have in his own career.
• 17:06
  And that makes me so proud.
• 17:09
  And when I drove that car for the first time, what a car.
• 17:13
  The 2009 Brown.
• 17:15
  the real beast.
• 17:18
  And if you compare the 2010 Williams and 2011 Williams, the 2009 Brown would have beat all those years at Williams.
• 17:27
  So for me, it was the year to have, yes.
• 17:31
  Talking about Ross Braun and Braun Grand Prix, as you rightly point out,
• 17:36
  I think, too, one thing I read, which for listeners sums up among your many great strengths, is Jensen Button paid you quite a compliment in that period where he said your ability to have this mechanical understanding and empathy and the technical side of it, that's been a real asset for you, hasn't it?
• 17:57
  You have a great want to connect with the machine.
• 18:03
  Yeah, I think that when I told my...
• 18:06
  When Eduardo, my son, drove for the first time on a Formula, I told him, you've got to be really tight on that seatbelt.
• 18:15
  And he said that, but it hurts.
• 18:16
  I said, yeah, but when you're driving, that's the connection.
• 18:20
  I mean, the tighter you are to the race car, it's how you feel it.
• 18:26
  It's one part of it.
• 18:28
  It's just not...
• 18:30
  two parts.
• 18:32
  There is a connection there.
• 18:34
  You gotta be connected to that.
• 18:39
  It really gave me tears in my eyes when I see him just going out of the pits and that little thunk on that seatbelt because he understood what I meant from that.
• 18:51
  So
• 18:53
  I don't know where it came from.
• 18:55
  Probably from those times when I would come to the pits on the go-karts at age of six and tell my dad, listen, there's a problem here.
• 19:04
  He wouldn't know because he wasn't from that part of the world and he would send me so many times without a change or with a change and he would...
• 19:13
  make me come back and say the problem is still there or the problem is gone.
• 19:17
  So I think he has pushed me to the limits of having a feeling for the car.
• 19:25
  Are you a nervous dad when the next generation decide they want to go racing?
• 19:30
  Were you okay with that?
• 19:31
  I'm very nervous.
• 19:32
  I tell you, if there are times I get older, it's when they are racing.
• 19:36
  It's really something.
• 19:39
  I'm very emotional.
• 19:41
  I remember the first race over the water that...
• 19:47
  There was a crash and there was a red flag.
• 19:50
  And I came to tell my my my wife at the time that I told her I wanted to tell her that everything was OK.
• 20:01
  But I start crying in the middle of in the middle of my whole conversation.
• 20:04
  I said, hey, it's OK. And then I I fell in tears because I was so nervous for for him.
• 20:11
  And
• 20:13
  And Fernando, my other son, he races as well, and he's so different because Eduardo pays attention, he's quiet.
• 20:22
  Sometimes you have to actually pressure him to say, go for it.
• 20:26
  Fernando, you got to tell him, hey, just be careful.
• 20:28
  You're crashing too hard.
• 20:30
  So two different human beings that it's just so nice.
• 20:38
  And plus, I don't tell them to drive, you know.
• 20:41
  They drive because they wanted to.
• 20:43
  I mean, even Fernando right now, he's playing soccer because he wanna try that.
• 20:50
  That's what he says, it is his passion.
• 20:53
  So as long as the boys are doing some sports, I think that's what keeps me out of drugs, out of anything that it wasn't good.
• 21:04
  And I feel so good about it.
• 21:19
  Changing the air fuel mixture with a fuel injected car requires a laptop and probably a degree.
• 21:25
  But with a carburetor, all you need is a flathead screwdriver.
• 21:30
  Oh, the good old days.
• 21:33
  One of your other great strengths is loyalty.
• 21:36
  And probably a story that listeners might appreciate is that, am I right in saying, in the Williams period of Formula One, you had either shaken hands or certainly agreed to go and compete with them, but an opportunity came up at McLaren, but you remained loyal to what you were going to venture into with Williams, is that right?
• 21:56
  That probably came, that story you might know from San Michael.
• 22:01
  It is true.
• 22:03
  It is true.
• 22:04
  I mean, I had signed the contract for Williams before the September area.
• 22:12
  It was spa.
• 22:13
  And after that, the McLaren came and the deal was good.
• 22:18
  The money was even better.
• 22:19
  But I couldn't do it.
• 22:21
  It was something that I, you know... No, it was...
• 22:27
  I might have been teammates with, well, I would have been teammates to Lewis and, you know, being teammates to Michael and then teammates to Lewis, it would have been something else.
• 22:39
  But, yeah, no, the Williams was already something so assertive that I was going to do it.
• 22:47
  I couldn't drop off.
• 22:49
  Was it a hard thing to ultimately stop Formula One?
• 22:51
  You still race now, which I think is phenomenal.
• 22:54
  And that's the best piece of advice for any race driver.
• 22:57
  Don't stop cold turkey.
• 22:59
  Keep trying to do something, even if it's in an historic car or whatever it might be.
• 23:03
  But was it hard to stop Formula One?
• 23:04
  It had been the better part of your adult life.
• 23:07
  I mean, I honestly been working on the 2011 year so much on the 2012 car.
• 23:16
  So it was hard and harder not to be on that car.
• 23:21
  Especially when they won the Barcelona Grand Prix, that I wasn't there, you know, to leave that car.
• 23:31
  But unfortunately...
• 23:33
  I think, you know, this past 10 years, it has been, the story has been a little bit more on the money side.
• 23:42
  And instead of paying a driver and receiving some cash and surviving, they thought it was a good idea.
• 23:51
  And when you see where Williams are right now, you see, I think it was the wrong situation.
• 23:56
  they took the wrong decisions at those times with money and just kept on going.
• 24:01
  Because two young drivers, they can do the job on the speed.
• 24:06
  But because of the lack of testing, if you don't have someone, it doesn't matter if you're young or not,
• 24:14
  that takes the decision left or right.
• 24:17
  Because the problem has been, oh, I don't know.
• 24:20
  That's where the problem stands.
• 24:21
  Because then you go only for the telemetry, and then sometimes it cannot give you the answer.
• 24:27
  The right answer is still the driver.
• 24:30
  And if he drives you, and it's not one decision, we're talking about 100, because it could be that the front wing difference
• 24:42
  has made it better, but the diffuser did not.
• 24:45
  And you only had a chance to test both at the same time, on a different track and a different time.
• 24:51
  So you need to calculate if the wind is blowing to the right direction, that it's going to push you or it's going to oversteer you, so you don't know.
• 24:59
  You need to know.
• 25:01
  So if you take two young guns, they say, oh, yeah, the car is just slower.
• 25:07
  Sometimes it is slower, but it's the best car.
• 25:09
  So that's what drives teams to the wrong patch.
• 25:13
  A lot of time has passed, but a standout moment in your career, very sadly, was Imola and the passing of your friend in the Editing Center.
• 25:22
  A crazy weekend where you had a big crash yourself.
• 25:27
  In that timeframe, how do you, now that a lot of time has passed, how do you compartmentalise that weekend?
• 25:31
  How do you think about it all?
• 25:33
  It's a crazy weekend.
• 25:35
  I mean...
• 25:37
  A lot of mystery in that weekend because we don't know a lot of bad things happened on that weekend, isn't it?
• 25:44
  It's not just the pass of Hudson Berger and Senna.
• 25:49
  There was a bad accident on the start of the race with Leto and Lamy.
• 25:56
  There was the accident on the pit stop with the mechanic.
• 26:01
  It was just a crazy, crazy weekend.
• 26:04
  I mean, on my side, the thing I can say is that I was, I remember just before I went to qualify that I said I can do the Variante Bassa in fifth gear.
• 26:17
  And that's all I had in my mind.
• 26:19
  Because I was on the limiter in fourth gear.
• 26:22
  I said, I can do it fifth, I can do it fifth.
• 26:24
  And then right after that, I can hear the, oops, I can't do it.
• 26:31
  But it was gone.
• 26:32
  It was already gone big time.
• 26:34
  I wasn't fifth when I crashed.
• 26:35
  You can see on the data.
• 26:37
  So the 90G and the fact that I swallowed my tongue, you can imagine the impact that I had on my head.
• 26:47
  There are good and bad things about it.
• 26:50
  I mean, obviously mostly bad because I lost my, you know, two of my, my, one of my, my hero, obviously in Ayrton, but I also lost one of my, my, my brothers there racing with us, which is Hudson Berger.
• 27:06
  Um...
• 27:08
  I lost my memory for a good 20 days.
• 27:11
  And I cannot remember taking Ayrton to, you know, he have seen pictures of me carrying him up to the coffin, and I can't remember that.
• 27:23
  So that's something that it's a positive because it's such a sad moment.
• 27:28
  And it's something that whenever I, it was 10 days after,
• 27:37
  still suffering a little bit because of a broken nose and everything, I said, okay, there's a test, Silverstone, new car, and it's a new era.
• 27:47
  What means?
• 27:48
  It means that you go flat and you try to kill yourself again.
• 27:52
  If you don't kill yourself again, it means that you like this.
• 27:55
  Otherwise, you just...
• 27:57
  give up and go home and do something else.
• 28:00
  At that time, I beat my own record at Silverstone, and I knew that that's what I wanted to do.
• 28:06
  Which is terrific.
• 28:07
  Bounce through a couple of cars for me.
• 28:08
  Firstly, stock cars in Brazil.
• 28:11
  Mark Winterbottom, who races in the Supercars Championship here in Australia, has been over and tackled them.
• 28:16
  What are they like?
• 28:17
  And tell our Australian and Kiwi listeners a bit more about them.
• 28:22
  Well, the stock cars, it is a car that weights pretty much 1,300 kilos.
• 28:28
  We have around 450 horsepower on 82% of a butterfly carburetor, which means that when you push the pass, it goes to 100 open butterfly and then you have a 500 horsepower.
• 28:45
  So we have that as something to overtake when you have a certain number per race.
• 28:53
  And the series is really competitive.
• 28:57
  I mean, sometimes for a couple of tenths, you could be first or eighth.
• 29:01
  So great names racing, great Brazilian drivers that are racing, great people that are all over the world and also the great Australians that came and raced on that double race there.
• 29:18
  It is a series that I've always had a knife for it.
• 29:23
  And I told myself as soon as I'm done with the open wheel, I want to do stock cars.
• 29:30
  So I am in love with that.
• 29:32
  I have a motorhome, a small one that I, you know, I go from the Wednesday to the Sunday.
• 29:38
  I'm on the racetrack.
• 29:40
  That's all I do.
• 29:40
  I eat at the track.
• 29:42
  I race at the track.
• 29:43
  And I have a really good time when I'm there.
• 29:46
  Awesome.
• 29:47
  Immersed in it.
• 29:47
  I love it.
• 29:48
  And you've been back to Australia, not just once, but twice to drive in S5000.
• 29:54
  So for people listening, the cars kind of tip their hat to a greater era of the Tasman series in this country, V8 powered open wheelers, but a more modern take on that.
• 30:04
  Have you enjoyed those cars?
• 30:05
  What are they like to drive and things like that?
• 30:07
  Oh, I tell you, when I first went out in Melbourne, I got to do turn three, turn four, five.
• 30:16
  When I got to turn six, the light, the sunlight was tremendous.
• 30:22
  And I had that connection with God where you say...
• 30:27
  Thank you.
• 30:28
  Thank you.
• 30:28
  I'm back here again in a track that gave me so much of a great feeling.
• 30:36
  And in those Formula One cars that they feel right now, you know, I'm driving a car that it does give me the feeling of power, 600 horsepower and just in different balance and so on.
• 30:51
  You know, the air is through my visor and so on.
• 30:55
  So gratitude.
• 30:57
  I can only have gratitude from the time.
• 31:00
  I'm 47 and I'm still competitive.
• 31:03
  What else can I ask?
• 31:06
  So I had a great time in Melbourne and I hope I can come back to do more of this.
• 31:11
  We hope so too.
• 31:12
  As you and I sit here, this has been, for me...
• 31:16
  One of the craziest days I can remember in motor racing.
• 31:19
  And I know Formula One over time has its share of drama and things like that.
• 31:22
  It's a great sport.
• 31:24
  But to think very sadly today on Friday, the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled.
• 31:31
  You know, at the end of the day, health is what is most important.
• 31:33
  But it's been a wild day, hasn't it?
• 31:36
  It's been a wild day.
• 31:38
  I went to sleep last night, and when I woke up today, it was all different.
• 31:42
  It was amazing because I woke up, I put the alarm at 5.20 because my son was going to be qualifying in America, and I knew that...
• 31:53
  I could, I cannot do it if I wasn't watching.
• 31:56
  And I, you know, thankfully, not, not same as my parents.
• 32:02
  I have some technology on the phone that, you know, I had to, to go put a little, a little coin into the phone and call them to say, I'm on pole position.
• 32:14
  So now it's different, isn't it?
• 32:15
  And I, I can, I can watch on the, on the app.
• 32:19
  I mean, it's, it's fantastic that technology.
• 32:21
  And I, uh,
• 32:24
  And then at 5.20pm he was not on the track.
• 32:26
  And then I called him and I said, what's going on?
• 32:29
  He said, hey, daddy, it's been cancelled over here and then we're only on the track tomorrow.
• 32:34
  So hopefully he is actually on the track tomorrow by his wishes.
• 32:38
  Yes.
• 32:41
  But in here, Australia, when I woke up, I said, can somebody tell me anything?
• 32:46
  Because it looks like...
• 32:49
  Formula One with McLaren not happening.
• 32:53
  It looks like it's going to be hard to happen.
• 32:56
  Then I came to breakfast.
• 32:58
  It was 7.45, I saw Leclerc just leaving, saying goodbye, I'm going to the airport.
• 33:04
  So I knew by then Formula One wasn't going to happen.
• 33:08
  But there wasn't a statement from Ferrari, so it was a bit of a thing.
• 33:13
  I actually don't know if he said that he was going to the airport, but I had the feeling that he wasn't going to race.
• 33:21
  But I'm sorry that we didn't race.
• 33:23
  I had three races to go.
• 33:27
  And when you race three races, it's better than just one race, especially in Melbourne.
• 33:32
  We hope it's not the last time you'll come back down under.
• 33:34
  Now, we've got to tell a little true story here because in setting up this podcast, we rang a friend who has helped me with other podcasts before in Greg Siddle, Peewee Siddle, who's well known in the Australian motorsport community.
• 33:46
  And you have come here having had lunch with him and lunch with Larry Perkins.
• 33:52
  What was that like?
• 33:53
  Larry's got some great old tales from his time in Formula One in the 70s.
• 33:56
  He did some amazing things here in touring cars in this country.
• 33:59
  Did you enjoy that?
• 34:00
  I enjoy it purely because when Pee Wee told me, I said, Pee Wee, let's get lunch.
• 34:07
  He said, is Larry Perkins coming?
• 34:10
  I said, the legend?
• 34:12
  Is Larry Perkins the Larry Perkins?
• 34:14
  He said, yes.
• 34:15
  He said, okay, I'm definitely coming.
• 34:17
  Because I am a lover.
• 34:19
  I love...
• 34:21
  motorsport as as it is so for sure it was uh i i i heard so many great things about larry driving and he told me he he stopped driving 2003 when he was at age 53 so it gives me great feeling that i still have six years to go of uh of racing
• 34:41
  And what a great lunch.
• 34:44
  It was great stories.
• 34:46
  And he not just talked, but he wanted to listen as well.
• 34:50
  And that's the good thing about it, isn't it?
• 34:53
  It's different times and different periods.
• 34:56
  But we all want to hear about our passion, which is racing faster a car.
• 35:03
  Fantastic.
• 35:03
  Two final questions.
• 35:05
  Listeners of the podcast would love to know, what does Rubens get around in terms of a daily drive, a daily car?
• 35:11
  I mean, you talked about your motorhome before.
• 35:14
  And is there a restoration project that you've been involved in over time, an old car or something that you went, I've got to have one of those.
• 35:20
  I want one of those in my garage now that Formula One is wrapped up or something like that.
• 35:24
  it's uh honestly i've been racing so much that i didn't have the chance to do that right now i have the 94 jordan which is at the which is in brazil uh you know the famous painter called seed uh seed is a famous the famous painter in brazil and the car is is right there and um
• 35:49
  I have a 2008 Honda car that is also with me, but I didn't actually have the chance to restore it.
• 35:59
  I mean, I've just been too busy traveling so much and so on.
• 36:06
  But what was the first part of the question?
• 36:08
  What do you drive to?
• 36:12
  I've always been in love with Audis and the RS6 is...
• 36:18
  For me, a station wagon was the car that I could have the bags of the family, but I still drive fast.
• 36:26
  So for me, obviously, I follow the rules on the road.
• 36:33
  But for me, a faster car is always...
• 36:39
  safer for you to do an overtake if you're allowed to, just to go out and come back in on a single road.
• 36:45
  So that's the daily car.
• 36:48
  It's been fantastic to spend some time with you.
• 36:50
  Thank you very much.
• 36:50
  You're off to a function tonight.
• 36:52
  We hope you'll come back and do some more racing down under.
• 36:54
  And the great lesson for everyone is from you, follow the passion, do it as long as you possibly can.
• 37:02
  That's the clear thing with you, isn't it?
• 37:04
  More important is do as long as you can if you really do enjoy.
• 37:09
  Because the other day I said to my kids, I said, hey, daddy might not do the shifter carts anymore because my lower back is hurting.
• 37:19
  And then they gave me so much of a bad job.
• 37:26
  They said, if I was as fast as you, I would never stop.
• 37:31
  So, and I said, okay, Daddy can keep on for some more years in that.
• 37:37
  And, you know, the passion is everything.
• 37:40
  like whenever you mention uh dick bennett's uh i could not go out without mentioning him as well he would come back to me so many times with those books of fireton cena and how much front wing he put as a dick call it off man we are here 10 10 years after and we we need to think about hours i mean cena is a good time on the past and the
• 38:03
  I had a great time with Dick Bennet.
• 38:06
  He taught me so much about being methodical and learning how to do it.
• 38:13
  I think the story here is about love.
• 38:16
  If you really love what you do, you're going to have a successful time.
• 38:20
  It doesn't matter what.
• 38:23
  I read books from different people and you can see at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much you worked.
• 38:32
  And some people might have worked much more than others, but there is love and passion on the very bottom.
• 38:38
  If there is, you're going to have success.
• 38:46
  Rusty's Garage is written and presented by me, Greg Rust.
• 38:50
  Series producer and editor is Alex Mitchell.
• 38:54
  Audio production by Darcy Thompson.
• 39:02
  Listener.