 Silly Season: Barrichello Gets the Ball Rolling Thursday May 16th, 2002 By Alan Baldwin
Before the Brazilian had even fired up his Ferrari, he was the centre of attention over his new two-year contract with the World Champions. Some idea of what that piece of paper involved was revealed after Sunday's debacle, when Ferrari chief Jean Todt rebuffed criticism of the team orders furore. "Rubens understood and he was very professional," Todt said. "We have just renewed our contract with Rubens with a clear situation, a clear understanding and Rubens understands that." One can only speculate about the small print but, Championship aside, the contract will have a knock-on effect in the paddock as the first big push of the annual driver merry-go-round. Barrichello's drive is one of the most desirable in Formula One, despite the fact that he has to allow Schumacher to win while the Championship is still alive, and there had been considerable speculation about his future. Now that the ink has dried, keeping Rubinho at Ferrari's happy family until at least the end of 2004, the focus falls back on the likes of McLaren, Renault and second tier teams. Jenson Button, Jacques Villeneuve and Eddie Irvine will all be players in the next stage of the game and the latter two, among the highest paid drivers on the grid, can expect bargaining over hefty pay cuts to get serious. All of which, at a time of financial insecurity and cost-cutting, could strengthen the hand of some of those drivers who inhabit the more cut-price end of the market. Testing Times It may still be too early to ask Spain's Marc Gene and Austrian Alex Wurz to step forward but both, experienced Formula One drivers who test for Williams and McLaren respectively, sounded hopeful in Austria. They want to come back and both have been sounding out other teams about the prospects as well as talking up their own attributes. "This is really happening, for some drivers who have very big salaries, that either they accept earning five times less or the teams will look for a replacement," said Gene, who formerly raced for Minardi. "It looks like young drivers, or some who are not such big names, have been doing the same job as the expensive drivers....the driver market has never been as competitive. Probably from this year if you could add up the 22 drivers' salaries, and you did the same thing in two years' time, I'm sure in two years' time the total will be a lot lower." "I have to say that next year is a good year for drivers like me to go into Formula One." Wurz, once seen as a hotshot with four seasons at Benetton behind him and a career best of third place in Britain in 1997, is still only 28 years old. His considerable height has been held against him in the past but setting faster times than McLaren's two drivers seems to have convinced many people, Peter Sauber aside. The team boss prefers small drivers and Wurz, one of the tallest, is not expecting to appear on any Swiss shopping list. Other talks are still shrouded in secrecy. "It is always very difficult to know what is going on in the driver market," Wurz said. "We have one fact now that Rubens is staying at Ferrari, which I think is going to accelerate a few more things because there were a few people in the paddock who were hoping to get the seat there, you know. "You have salaries like Villeneuve's and Irvine's and team bosses have already said they have to cut drastically so I don't know how this fits with their egos. "This makes for a very interesting situation for people like Marc or me. But the most important thing in the driver market is still to be there at the right time, talk to the right person and deliver the right argument. It's a human decision in the end."
Published at 13:42:50 GMT
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Rubens Barrichello was the talk of the Austrian Formula One Grand Prix and not just for the almighty row that erupted on Sunday afternoon.
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