FERRARI’S NUMBER TWO DRIVERS

Irvine, Barrichello and Massa

2002 Ferrari F2002

Examining the careers of Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa, and rating them throughout their careers has exposed an enlightening statistic: all performed faster than they would have had they not been part of this top Italian team. This may seem obvious, but the advantages of belonging to a top team affect a driver’s morale and confidence. For Eddie, Rubens and Felipe, having top-rated drivers Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso in the other car surely acted as a further spur to their performances. Irvine, Barrichello and Massa were all taken on by Ferrari as unofficial, but obvious number two drivers.

Based on my Ratings System, which measures time/speed differences between competitors, with the fastest rating at 100.0 and slower ones in ascending order at one decimal increments, the season-by-season rating table below shows how Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa fared as drivers, car-neutral.

To make the ratings figures more realistic, treat them as lap times: the ultimate rating of 100.0 being a 100-second lap, or 1 minute 40 seconds; 100.1 would then be 100.1 seconds, 100.5 would be 100.5 seconds, that is, 0.5 second per lap slower than say Schumacher or Alonso who rate fastest at 100.0 seconds.

DRIVER RATING TABLE

Season	Year	Irvine		Barrichello		Year	Massa
One	1993	101.6	Jord	101.5	Jord	2002	100.8	Saub
Two	1994	101.1	Jord	100.9	Jord	2003	-	TestdrFerr
Three	1995	100.7	Jord	100.8	Jord	2004	100.8	Saub
Four	1996	100.9	Ferr	100.6	Jord	2005	100.6	Saub
Five	1997	100.7	Ferr	100.7	Stew	2006	100.5	Ferr
Six	1998	100.7	Ferr	100.6	Stew	2007	100.3	Ferr
Seven	1999	100.4	Ferr	100.6	Stew	2008	100.2	Ferr
Eight	2000	100.5	Jag	100.5	Ferr	2009	100.3	Ferr
Nine	2001	100.7	Jag	100.4	Ferr	2010	100.5	Ferr
Ten	2002	100.8	Jag	100.3	Ferr	2011	100.6	Ferr
Eleven	2003	-	-	100.3	Ferr	2012	100.4	Ferr
Twelve	2004	-	-	100.4	Ferr	-	-	-
Thirteen	2005	-	-	100.6	Ferr	-	-	-
Fourteen	2006	-	-	100.7	Honda	-	-	-
Fifteen	2007	-	-	100.5	Honda	-	-	-
Sixteen	2008	-	-	100.4	Honda	-	-	-
Seventeen	2009	-	-	100.4	Brawn	-	-	-
Eighteen	2010	-	-	100.5	Willms	-	-	-
Nineteen	2011	-	-	100.6	Willms	-	-	-

Coincidentally Barrichello and Irvine both started their debut seasons together as team-mates at Jordan in 1993. I measured them directly against each other, and Rubens was slightly faster for their first two years, at ratings of 101.5 and 100.9 versus Eddie’s 101.6 and 101.1. Rubens started earlier and did the full season; Eddie only joining Jordan for the second last event, the Japanese Grand Prix.

Both drivers made their marks early: Rubens at only 20 years of age and in only his third F1 event, was running as high as 4^th, 3^rd and 2^nd places during that chaotic, rainy, Donington race won by Senna. The media hailed him a future champion. Irvine scored an amazing 6^th place at his Japanese debut, one behind Barrichello. But he gained inadvertent ‘fame’ by re-taking Ayrton Senna’s McLaren-Cosworth at the hairpin! Afterwards Senna confronted Irvine in the pits and punched him. How dare anyone overtake The Great Man.

For their third Jordan season together in 1995, Irvine improved to rate at 100.7 against Rubens’ 100.8. Very close-matched.

Irvine joins Ferrari

Irvine then joined Michael Schumacher at the reviving Ferrari team from 1996 to 1999. Eddie’s rating slowed by 0.2% in his first Ferrari year to 100.9. This was possibly in reaction to Michael’s complete ‘ownership’ of the team, mainly in terms of hogging all the testing. Eddie had spent the first cold, damp and misty winter in Maranello testing the new car while Michael holidayed in warmer climes. Result? Eddie outqualified Michael by 0.2 of a second for the season-opener in Melbourne. This was just case of Irvine knowing the car better, just as Hakkinen had when he outqualified Senna on his McLaren debut in 1993. In the race, Irvine led Schumacher initially, then gave way. They ran third and fourth behind the dominant Williams-Renaults, until lap 33, when Schumacher retired with brake balance problems. Eddie went on the finish third. Michael was not pleased. For the next couple of months Eddie did no testing.

Irvine then improved to 100.7 for each of the 1997 and 1998 seasons, equal to his best at Jordan in 1995. His big chance came in 1999 when Michael crashed at Silverstone and broke his leg and missed the next six races. Eddie then went for the championship with Maranello’s full backing. He won four races and just missed the points title to McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen. It must be said, that after his comeback Michael did what he could to help Eddie take the crown. In that last Ferrari year 1999, Irvine scored four wins, two seconds and three thirds against the strong McLaren-Mercedes team which had the faster car, driven by Hakkinen and Coulthard. But Irvine had had enough of being clearly the number two at Ferrari, such as experiencing Michael being supplied with tollgate cards while he had to pay and queue like other citizens, seeing all Michael’s posters, pictures and stuff filling the old Ferrari farmhouse-cum-team rooms at Fiorano and so on. He left to join the new, Ford-owned Jaguar team.

Rubens meanwhile had done another year with Jordan rating at 100.6 for 1996 with Brundle as team-mate. Barrichello then went to Stewart as the number one driver; but he struggled with self-confidence and in three years 1997-1999 his ratings did not improve: 100.7, 100.6 and 100.6.

Barrichello joins Ferrari

For 2000 Rubens took Eddie’s place at Ferrari. Straight away his speed improved. thanks to the big-budget team, the Fiorano test track, one of grand prix racing’s best ever management and design teams in Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne, and Michael Schumacher. Rubens’ ratings improved from the 100.5 of his first Ferrari year 2000, through 100.4 and for the two seasons 2003 and 2004 to his career best of 100.3. The last two years at Maranello saw Rubens drop back to 100.4 and finally in 2005 to 100.6, where he had been rated with Stewart. Barrichello, like Irvine had had enough of Michaels’ dominance and the blatant team orders. Worst of all was the 2002 Austrian GP when Rubens was clearly faster in both qualifying and the race, but received the radio message to move over. Rubens was furious, and did so only on the next to last lap, swerving suddenly out of the way! Barrichello scored nine wins for Maranello in the six seasons, a good haul for any driver in F1.

While Rubens was reaping rewards with Ferrari, Irvine struggled with the under-resourced Jaguar team. His ratings understandably slowed in the three years there, from 2000’s 100.5 to 100.8 by his last season 2002. Eddie then retired for good. Irvine was someone who spoke his mind and did not curry favour with the media; he was very humorous in the cut-and-thrust of probing interviews. Eddie was and remains an under-rated driver, faster than perceptions, and always very safe, seldom making on-track errors.

Rubens left Ferrari after the 2005 season and joined Jenson Button at Honda for the years 2006 to 2008. He struggled initially with the brake type, the new team and Jenson’s established familiarity and good standing, although the two did get along alright. Rubens’ ratings went from 100.7 in the first season 2006, when Button was at 100.4, through 100.5 and ended on a competitive 100.4 for 2008 as the two talented drivers pushed each other and equal-rated. Apart from Button’s lone, first career win in 2006, the team scored none.

At the end of 2008 Honda withdrew and sold the team to Ross Brawn! The newly formed Brawn team scrambled to fit a Mercedes engine to the beautifully-designed Honda chassis. With the aid of the novel double-diffuser they won the 2009 championship! Button taking the driver’s title with six wins. Rubens only came on song and got the upper hand after a change to his preferred brake manufacturer from mid-season; he scored two wins. Rating at 100.4 versus Button’s bes- to-date 100.3. Rubens then lost the drive to the young Nico Rosberg for 2010 while Button left to join McLaren. Barrichello and Button was a harmonious and very competent pair.

For 2010 Barrichello joined the struggling Williams Team as number one driver. Chief engineer Patrick Head and the team reckoned Rubens’ great car set-up skills, vast experience and sunny nature helped so much in their climb back to improved performance. Up against young charger team-mates Hulkenberg and Maldonado, Rubens’ ratings for the two seasons 2010 and 2011 were an impressive 100.5 and 100.6. This was the best that Graham Hill and Jack Brabham rated. Rubens was definitely and understandably slowing, after nineteen years in F1!

Now to the latest of Ferrari’s recent number two drivers: Felipe Massa. Felipe was taken on by Sauber in 2002 and showed impressive speed at a rating of 100.8, but he was erratic and made too many steering movements. For 2003 he became test driver for Ferrari, and learnt a lot from Michael and Rubens, as well as from Fiorano and the mighty infrastructure at Maranello. Returning to Sauber for 2004 and 2005, Felipe showed promise but was still not smooth enough, rating at 100.8 and 100.6.

Massa joins Ferrari

Quite surprisingly for 2006 Ferrari then drafted him into the number two seat vacated by his countryman Rubens Barrichello. Michael really liked Felipe and openly helped and encouraged him. Massa’s rating improved dramatically to 100.4 and he scored his first two wins near season’s end, as wellas three seconds, a third and a fastest lap. Best of all was his beating Michael at Turkey on sheer speed in both qualifying and the race and again in the Brazil finale.

Michael retired at the end of his great 2006 season and was replaced by ex-McLaren number one Kimi Raikkonen. Most expected Felipe to be easily outpaced by Kimi and to be a clear number two, as Irvine and Barrichello had been. Felipe astounded by scoring six poles to Raikkonen’s three and equal scoring six fastest laps. On season average, Felipe equalled Kimi’s best pre-race times and his race times to within a thousandth of a second. This as calculated by my method, which measures speed and the gaps between competitors, and not results or championship points, to determine the Ratings. Kimi did score six wins and take the championship. Despite only managing three wins, Felipe was as fast as Raikkonen in all areas. In the last four events, massa was obviously working for the team, finishin second to two of Kimi’s wins. Speedwise therefore I rated Felipe and Kimi equal at 100.3. So for 2007 Massa had performed as close to the front as had Barrichello at his best when at Ferrari.

For 2008 the apolitical Raikkonen worked for the team and tried to assist Felipe to win the title. I’ll never forget those television camera views back along Shanghai’s long straight: Hamilton’s McLaren-Mercedes cruising along in front, followed by Kimi, almost pulling on his handbrake, looking in his mirrors, waiting for Massa to overtake for the points! Again the Ferrari drivers’ pre-race and race times were within the second decimal of each other, that is a thousandth of a second, as a season average! Felipe won six, Kimi two, but the points title went to Hamilton for McLaren on the last lap of the last race. This was the Massa’s home Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos: he took pole, set fastest lap and won. A perfect drive. Speedwise I rated Felipe on 100.2 and Kimi at 100.3. It seems that the ultra-sensitive Raikkonen, like Button and Trulli, could not perform at the ultimate pace in a car that was not perfectly balanced or not best using its tyres.

The 2009 season was not good for Ferrari: the cars were about half a second-a-lap further off-pace than in 2008, and were more difficult to drive. Halfway through the season, Felipe suffered a serious head injury when a coil spring fell off Barrichello’s car and struck him above the eye. Massa was out of racing for the rest of the season. Raikkonen only won once for Ferrari during 2009, as the Brawn-Mercedes cars of Button and Barrichello dominated. In those first nine races before his accident, Felipe was slightly outpaced by Raikkonen by 0.2% in pre-race times, but they were again dead equal in race times. Consequently they equal rate, but at 100.3. Despite almost universal opinion that Raikkonen was lacking application in 2009, the speed stats show otherwise. And after his comeback in 2012 Kimi reckoned had had driven as well in 2009 as he ever had at Ferrari. This reinforces the fact that Felipe Massa was a superb and very fast driver. His race engineer Rob Smedley confirms this.

Ferrari replaced Raikkonen with Fernando Alonso for 2010. Fernando shocked Felipe with his aggression, focus and speed, to win five races in the off-pace Ferrari. Felipe’s rating had dropped to 100.5 and he was far from a win all year. Jody Scheckter reckoned the effect of his crash injury was underestimated. For 2011 the red car was again off-pace and Alonso only managed one win, Felipe again none. He rated at a slower 100.6, where he managed in his last year at Sauber in 2005. For 2012 the Ferrari started even further off-pace but the team improved the car by about 1% after the halfway mark. Alonso, whom many within the team ranked equal to Schumacher, scored three wins by race 2012/16 when this was written, Massa none. But Felipe started picking up pace from his early season 100.6 rating and now rates at 100.4 after the 2012 Japanese GP. For such a likeable person this was a welcome improvement.

The Three Compared

Of these three Ferrari number two drivers, Massa has been by far the most successful with 11 wins, Barrichello next with 9 and Irvine 4. Massa is into his seventh season with Ferrari, Barrichello had five and Irvine four. Both Irvine and Massa did however almost win the championship and were effective number one Ferrari drivers for a while.

In terms of sheer speed compared with the top-rated drivers Schumacher and Alonso, Massa best rated at 100.2, Barrichello at 100.3, Irvine’s best being 100.4. In historical perspective, these ratings are up with the best attained by: on 100.2, Button, Cevert, Regazzoni, Ickx and Brooks; on 100.3, Coulthard, Montoya, Frentzen and Keke Rosberg back to Hawthorn, Gonzalez and Villoresi; and on 100.4, Hawthorn, Scheckter and Jones. ‘Our Three’ are in select company.

In this day of ‘winner takes all’ and anyone else is downgraded, the standards and speeds achieved by Barrichello, Irvine and Massa are very high. As Mark Webber wryly commented after his 2012 British GP win: “Not bad for a number two!”

© Patrick O’Brien. Nothing from this page can be used without the permission of Patrick E. O’Brien.