Rubens Barrichello, the Williams driver, holds the record for the most Formula One starts. He has entered 324 races and started 320 of them, 35 more than his closest rival Michael Schumacher.
Rubens Barrichello, the Williams driver, holds the record for the most Formula One starts. He has entered 324 races and started 320 of them, 35 more than his closest rival Michael Schumacher.

Sport

Virtual reality for passionate Barrichello

Graham Caygill finds that the Brazilian's thirst for motorsport is still so strong that, ahead of a 20th season in the sport, he spends part of his spare time behind the wheel in an online game

Graham Caygill

November 11, 2011

You could forgive the online gamers racing on a Swedish Touring Cars simulation for doing a double take at their computer screens when they saw the name of one of their virtual racing competitors.

The driver's screen name was Rubens. It could not be him, could it?

Yes, as it turns out, it could be.

Rubens Barrichello, the man who has started the most Formula One grand prixs in history, likes nothing more than racing online when he is not behind the wheel of his Williams Formula One car and has become a fan of competing in virtual motor racing.

And he is good at it; he won the championship of his latest competition. Barrichello, 39, says that few members of the public believe that it is actually him that they are racing wheel-to-wheel against.

"Sometimes people go there and ask if Rubens is the real Rubens," he says with a grin while in the Williams hospitality area at Yas Marina Circuit yesterday.

"If you say 'yes' they won't believe it, if you say 'no' they won't believe it, so it's a good thing for me to keep my head down."

His Brazil compatriot Felipe Massa, the Ferrari driver, was the catalyst for his introduction into the computerised version of driving.

"I had seen Felipe play it," Barrichello says. "I used to play off-line with Touring Cars and it went from there.

"I loved the fact that the Touring Cars are much more similar to real life than Formula One simulators are.

"You have it online, you talk to people on radios and microphones and things like this and it is so accurate. You have so many situations and set-ups it is unbelievable and it is something that I really enjoy.

"We compete to Swedish Touring Car rules and it is open to everyone.

"You have Stockcar.com.br where you can buy the game from which this championship has been starting."

Barrichello believes that his virtual racing, after competing at tracks across the globe, shows that he is battling hard to be on the grid for 2012 with the Williams team.

"I think that is a good explanation of why I want to be here for my 20th year next season; I just love doing what I do," he said.

The man from Sao Paulo has been a fixture on the F1 grid since 1993 and has enjoyed a successful career, racing for six teams, winning 11 races and claiming 14 pole positions.

The Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday will see Barrichello start his 321st grand prix.

What is the secret of the Brazilian's longevity in a world as notoriously cut-throat as F1?

"I think it is the love that I have for my passion," he says. "You go through your tough moments and you need to accept the tough moments and try to get better on the other side.

"I think that so many people go through tough moments and give up trying. I really love what I do and I am really thankful for doing what I do."

A 20th successive season in the series is in jeopardy, though. Barrichello has had no word from the Williams team, whom he has been with since 2010, on whether they will renew his contract after a frustrating year in which he has scored only four points in uncompetitive machinery.

There has been speculation linking the British team with a move for Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, who has been out of F1 for the past two seasons while competing in the World Rally Championship.

Experience is helping Barrichello keep a cool head and avoid the Brazilian newspapers, who are predicting that his days as a F1 driver will end later this month at the final round of the season in Sao Paulo.

Asked if the uncertainty has affected him, he said: "It would if it was my first five years in Formula One. But after such a long time in the sport I don't read anything about myself anymore.

"There is a lot of comments and bad attitudes from the Brazilian [media]. The bad news sells more than the good news and it is not a good time to be reading it so I just stay out of it and do what I do.

"You have to remember that the reason that I am here is that I love this. To have the weekend here once more and do all the things we do is great.

"In a short period after this I am doing the track walk [around Yas Marina] and I love doing everything that goes with the job, and it never gets boring."

If Barrichello's career in the top echelon of motorsport does end this year, he will leave the sport having missed out on his dream of becoming the first Brazilian world champion since his hero Ayrton Senna.

His best result was runner-up, when he was at Ferrari, in both 2002 and 2004.

But when he does hang up his helmet, there will be no looking back and wishing things had worked out differently.

"I don't have any regrets. I am pretty sure that I would have done things different, but everyone in life would have done things different as they now know the outcome. So I am fine.

"I do not have any problems with my past. I think it has been pretty good and a learning curve."

But if this year is his goodbye to F1, the world of virtual motorsport has ensured that he will remain a racer long after he has left the track.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”