After much disagreement over the date,
Rubens Barrichello will officially overtake Riccardo Patrese's long-held record for number of grand prix starts when the lights go out in Istanbul next month – making him the most experienced driver in
Formula 1 history.
Despite various sources stating he will break the record – held since 1993, when Patrese retired from the uppermost echelon at the end of his 17th season and a young Barrichello made his debut – in either Turkey, Canada or France, the amiable Brazilian himself has elected to mark the achievement on 11 May, date of the third Turkish Grand Prix.
His
Honda outfit had him down as having started 249 races back at the beginning of the 2008 campaign – meaning he would pass Patrese at Magny-Cours in June – whilst the annual Grand Prix Guide compiled by
F1 statistician Jacques Deschenaux put the 35-year-old's tally at 250 races prior to Melbourne this year, making Montreal the milestone.
Deschenaux argues that a driver is only considered to have taken part in a race if he takes the first start, which would exclude the tragic San Marino Grand Prix weekend at Imola in 1994, when
Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger were both killed and Barrichello was injured in practice.
Barrichello also failed to begin the 2002 Spanish and French outings, when he encountered problems on the formation lap, but he is counted as having participated in the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, a race which was re-started without him after he was involved in a multi-car first lap collision in sodden conditions.
To cloud the issue even further, Patrese's own career statistics are somewhat open to interpretation too. The Italian's resumé includes the 1981 Belgian Grand Prix, a race that re-started without him after he stalled and was hit by Arrows team-mate Siegfried Stohr on the initial opening lap.
