Barrichello Looks Forward to Le Mans Debut

The 45-year-old Brazilian, who holds the record for the most Formula One starts, with 322 to his name, completed 33 laps of the 13.6km La Sarthe circuit during the official test day ahead of the big race in two weeks time, posting a best time of 3m33.304, five seconds slower than the fastest LMP2 car but it was the best time for no29 Dallara, some 4.3 seconds faster than Jan Lammers. He also recorded the second fastest speed overall, with his Dallara P217 topping out at 340.2kph, which was 4kph faster than the best speed recorded in 2016 and faster than all of the LMP1 entries from Porsche and Toyota.

So why does Rubens Barrichello want to compete at Le Mans?  “I watched the race on TV for such a long and time,” Barrichello said.  “The fact that I have done Monaco and I have done Indianapolis, I think Le Mans is something that is important to do as well as part of my career too.  Most importantly is the fact that I love what I do.”

“When I raced in Formula One after 19 years people said to me ‘you should stop, you’ve done so much already’ but I will stop when I think I don’t love driving anymore.  I’m doing more driving now than I did when I was in Formula One with Stock Cars and karting, so I am still a very competitive person.  So the shot at Le Mans is very nice to do because I love what I do very much.”