Le Mans lets Barrichello 'feel like F1 driver again'

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When it comes to this year's Le Mans 24 Hours race, Rubens Barrichello is officially listed as a rookie. But with 322 Formula 1 starts to his name, there's no doubt that the 45-year-old knows what he's doing.

The former Jordan, Ferrari, Honda and Williams driver said he was feeling reinvigorated by the atmosphere at Le Mans.

"Le Mans is Le Mans and I felt like a Formula 1 driver when I went out of the paddock and the amount of people just around me," Barrichello told Autosport magazine on Friday.

"It's the love of the thing," he said. "I just love being with my friends and able to do something."

Among other former Formula 1 stars competing this weekend are Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson, Kazuki Nakajima, Nelson Piquet Jr., Bruno Senna, Vitaly Petrov, Jan Magnussen and polesitter Kamui Kobayashi.

For his first outing at Le Mans, Barrichello will be driving the #29 Dallara P217 entered by Racing Team Nederland in the LMP2 category. His team mates are 1988 Le Mans winner Jan Lammers and team owner Frits van Eerd.

Chase Carey to start the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Together they qualified in 17th place in LMP2, 23rd overall. However, Barrichello is aware that they will be up against it in a category currently dominated by French racing team Oreca.

"Oreca seems to have done a super job," the Brazilian said. "But it's not as if Dallara is at the back, because you have the Ligier and the Riley behind.

"They [Oreca] seem so fast," he admitted after qualifying. "I don't know how it will go in the middle of the race. But if they keep that pace throughout it's going to be very difficult to catch."

He suggested that his Dallara might be running too much downforce. However, the leading Dallara in the LMP2 category driven by Mikhail Aleshin was two seconds faster despite even higher downforce settings.

"We went a little higher [on downforce], but not as high as the other Dallara," Barrichello agreed. "We're deciding where to go for the race.

"It might not be the very competitive way, but I'm still very competitive and will be doing my best," he insisted.

"But 24 hours is a different story - and anything can happen."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.