NURBURGRING, July 13 – Angry Rubens Barrichello blasted his Brawn GP team following the German Grand Prix.The 37-year-old Brazilian finished sixth behind team-mate, and championship leader, Jenson Button, but blamed the team for poor tactics and strategy.
He said their errors had cost him a victory he thought was sure to be his when he led at the first corner.
Barrichello said: "I’m terribly upset with the way things have gone because it was a very good show of how to lose a race. I did everything I had to do. I had to go first into the first corner, and that’s what I did.
"Then they (Brawn) made me lose the race basically. If we keep going on like this, then we’ll end up losing both championships, and that would be terrible."
"To be honest, I wish I could just get on a plane and go home now. I don’t want to talk to anyone in the team, because it would be a lot of blah, blah, blah, blah… And I don’t want to hear that."
Barrichello’s result saw him drop from second to fourth in the championship behind Button and the Red Bulls of victorious Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, who dominated the race.
But later in a team statement, he was quoted saying: "I had a great start and was really pleased to have got ahead of Mark down into the first corner despite our collision.
"After leading on the first lap, it is of course hugely disappointing to have finished in sixth position. It was a combination of things really, which are now very clear to me, having spoken to the team.
"We didn’t have enough pace compared to the Red Bulls to win, but the fuel rig problem at my second stop, where we had to switch rigs, probably cost me a place on the podium.
"That dropped me out behind Nico Rosberg and the extra lap, which Jenson had at our final stops, was enough for him to get ahead of me.
"We’ll put this race behind us and work really hard ahead to Hungary to try and catch up to the Red Bulls. Congratulations to Mark for his first win."
Team boss Ross Brawn said: "Without doubt it was a very disappointing race for the team, but we were able to score some points to minimise the damage to our championship challenge.
"Quite simply, we didn’t have the pace to match the Red Bulls. We opted for a three-stop strategy for both cars to give ourselves the best possible chance of achieving a podium position.
"Both drivers were battling with the tyres throughout the race and trying very hard to keep them in the operating window whilst managing their graining issues.
"The problem with the fuel rig at Rubens’ second stop dropped him out behind Rosberg which compromised his race strategy and possibly prevented him for achieving third position.
"We will take a close look at the lessons to be learned from this weekend before Hungary and hope to come back fighting there with some performance developments."
Button said: "All points are valuable, but my race started badly and didn’t get much better. The problem with the fuel rig at Rubens’ second stop also affected my race as we were so close on the track and he was struggling with the prime tyre.
"So overall it has been a tough and disappointing day for the team."