Monza: Italian Grand Prix winner Rubens Barrichello promised on Sunday that his Formula One title battle with Brawn team mate Jenson Button would not turn nasty.
"There's that old saying that you can only win in Formula One if you're tough," said the Brazilian after beating the championship leading Briton in a Brawn one-two in Ferrari's backyard.
"We're both nice guys so this is the end of it. I think the best thing in life is respect."
Barrichello's second win of the season trimmed Button's lead to 14 points with four races remaining. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel is third overall, but a massive 26 points behind the Englishman.
Button, who has been the 37-year-old Brazilian's team mate since 2006, tried jokingly to be confrontational when asked whether they could continue to be friends.
"I don't know. I've put on a brave face lately but I absolutely hate this guy. He doesn't know his arse from his elbow when it comes to racing cars," he said. "Is this more fun?,"
"We've got a good relationship and we've been team mates for many years now. We're working together, we've had to pull our car to the front, we will see how it goes from here," added the 29-year-old.
"But I think we're still going to be sharing information because there's always the possibility that the Red Bulls will be strong, you never know, and we might have some bad luck.”
"When we go on the circuit we're obviously fierce rivals. We're not going to give up until the end. I've obviously got the advantage of 14 points; it's got smaller at the last couple of races but Rubens is going to be a very tough rival."
Caged Tiger
Button won six of the first seven races of the season in a dream start for a driver whose Formula One career had looked in danger of stalling after Honda pulled out in December, leaving the team fighting for their survival.
But a management buyout under the leadership of Ross Brawn, and the arrival of Mercedes engines, transformed their fortunes and took Barrichello from the brink of retirement to race winner.
Before this season he had not won a race since he was at Ferrari in 2004 in the shadow of Michael Schumacher.
The Brazilian played the role of sidekick to the German, forced to play second fiddle and even hand over victory in Austria in 2002.
Brawn have given him the chance to shine again with assurances of equal treatment. Barrichello said he could also be a tough nut under the smiling, friendly exterior.
"I think that Michael might have had more skill than I had, but if you threw both of us into a jail with a tiger I might get out alive and I'm not so sure about him.”
"That's life. You learn, you learn by your mistakes, you learn by everything," he said.
"I didn't say this to criticise because I had fun, I really had fun at Ferrari. It made me a better driver as well, so everything that's happening now is because of all the times that I had in Formula One."
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, September 14, 2009, 09:11