"Barrichello's '94 Imola (near) Death Ride and The Devil Horns"
Yup. He's giving the old Devil Horns during his hellacious crash at Imola back in 1994, which is pretty hardcore.
I find it odd that old Rubinho is getting so much coverage in my blog as of late, considering I don't particularly think too much of him one way or another, other than I like him more than most of the old guys still kicking around F1 that won't leave. With that said, I think I shall take a moment to speak about drivers who I wish would already leave F1 or have raced their last race.
So, speaking of such it seems as though Turdsy Fisichella has been given his walking papers being that Mini Piquet will probably race with The Fern at Renault, and purportedly Heikki will move on over to Alonso's vacated seat at McLaren. At least this is what I have read, and I do hope it is the case, because I'm only against the promising Finn being moved to another team if it is a lesser team than his current one. Moving to McLaren wouldn't be a horrid deal and I could live with this.
So it looks like Fisi is out of F1. Good riddence. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy as a person but I think he's a truly unspectacular racer and a slight whiner. I remember back in 2003 or maybe 2004 when there was talk of Schumi retiring that Fisi went to the press literally begging Ferrari to sign him. It was at that point that I realized this guy wasn't good for much other than delivering Jordan Grand Prix their last race win. Why not show on the track yer worth the Scuderia's time. After being brought to Renault to replace Trulli/Villeneuve in 2005 he was outclassed by Alonso, and again in 2006. Fernie left for 2007 and Fisi had the team to himself and did nothing with it. Sure, the car was kind of a turd this year, but it wasn't the previous two years when he did next to nothing with the machine.
Nick Heidfeld and his unspectacular beard look to be safe because for some reason people still think he has some chance of doing something with himself. Sure he scored 61 points to The Kube's 39, but that is not a fantastic representation, considering Kubica had 3 retirements and 1 missed race due to injury, whereas Heidfeld only had two retirements. Either way, I do concede that Nick was quicker than The Kube this year. No denying that, just Heidfeld has been kicking around in F1 for 7 seasons, making a total of 132 starts, while The Kube has raced just 1.3 seasons, making only 22 starts... so Heidfeld better be quicker. I just think Heidfeld is a solid-to-mediocre driver at best.
Moving along, I wonder what is going to become of Jarno Trulli and his massive neck? Jarno is another one of those guys that is probably on his way out. While he has a valid contract for 2008, due to the uncertain future of Alonso, Toyota have seemed to be entertaining the idea of buying him out of his contract which could leave him marooned. The way I see it is that Toyota should let Jarno stick around for another year. They have never given him a great car, so therefore have nothing lost by keeping him around the paddock for yet another year. Besides, what else is he going to do with that tree trunk of a neck?
Ralph Schumacher on the other hand, I can understand why they did not retain his services. However, if all Ralphie was asking for was to keep any prize money won/earned and for Toyota to take care of travel expenses, then Toyota should have kept him around for another year, being as with Jarno, Toyota have never really ponied up a fantastic car and we know Ralph is capable of winning races... but I imagine his proposal to them was to halve his salary, which would still be $10 or $11 million a year, which is not exactly a bargain, even if you are the world's most prosperous car maker. I suppose next year will be the first Schumacherless year since 1991.
David Coulthard deserves another year or three with Red Balls considering he purportedly helped engineer Adrian Newey's entrance to the team and as of yet, Ade hasn't yet spat out one of his classic designs. While DC will never win a championship, he's still a solid racer and in the twilight of his career, yet still producing strong results with what he has been given. I mean, he out performed The Webb, whom is another driver I'm not too sure about, yet I shant talk shit upon since he always ends up in the wrong car at the wrong time, though if he doesn't do something soon, I will start hating on him.
Wurz retired, which was a smart move. I have already addressed this subject though in previous enteries.
Then there's the guy who keeps popping up in all my blog entries like he was my favorite friggin driver or something... Mr. Rubens Barrichello. I like Rubens, I will admit this. The guy has had an interesting career, and was Michael Schumacher's ultimate bitch. Sure, if he had not been at Ferrari he probably would have never won a race and have been out of F1 a long time ago, but here he is. He is currently the most experienced driver on the grid, the only current driver to have raced with Senna, and in 2008 will have raced in more GP's than any other driver ever. This year was Barrichello's worst season ever, considering he scored not one point, and scored 2 points back in his rookie season in 1993. This was namely due to Honda producing possibly the shittiest car on the grid. Due to this abortion of a car, Rubens was rewarded with one last contract. It's damn near impossible he will have a worse year than this one, and can leave the sport at the end of 2008 as the guy who raced longer than all others.
