Rubens Barrichello

Not only did Rubens win 11 Grands Prix, competing in more of them than any other driver, came 2nd in the 2002 and 2004 Formula One World Championships and win a couple of national and world titles, he also beat The Stig. Who, you might ask, is that? Well, he’s the anonymous racing driver in BBC TV’s world famous motoring show Top Gear, who nobody knows because he never removes his helmet on screen. The Stig’s job is to beat the world’s greatest Formula One and other racers in what the show’s ex-presenter Jeremy Clarkson used to call “a reasonably priced car” or bog standard sedan. The Stig always won because he knew the program’s test track best—until he met Rubens, who beat him at his own game by a slim 0.1 of a second.

Not the pinnacle of Barrichello’s career, of course, but a telling, if light-hearted episode in the outstanding career of yet another of the “Boys from Brazil,” i.e. Emerson Fittipaldi, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna and Rubens Barrichello. Senna was Rubens’ friend and mentor and, when speaking of the late three-time F1 World Champion, he said he felt Ayrton was up there still watching over him.