Ex-Ferrari star Rubens Barrichello has lifted the lid on his time as Michael Schumacher's team-mate, reflecting on team orders he had to follow whilst driving alongside the German icon.
Schumacher is one of the greatest drivers to get behind the wheel of an F1 car, backed up by his record-breaking seven drivers' championships, a feat he shares with new Ferrari star Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton will be looking to eclipse that number and make it eight having moved to the Scuderia for 2025 and beyond, although it is unlikely he will have the same help Schumacher once did.
Between Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc, there is unlikely to be a clear number one driver within the team, which was often not the case during Schumacher's time.
Schumacher claimed seven world titles between 1994 and 2004, five of which he achieved at Ferrari against team-mate Rubens Barrichello.
In an interview on the Beyond the Grid podcast, the Brazilian driver admitted that team orders came into play during his time at Ferrari, as the team centered itself around Schumacher for their title bid.
“Every time I sat on the car, I had the pleasure and the gratitude of driving a really good car, and that paid off,” he said.
“So every time you saw me on the car, take Australia, the very first race. I was second, but I was getting close to Michael that race, so that was the first time I heard something on the radio that I had to drop the revs, or something like this.
“But you see, I was prepared for that, just because pressure for me was really when I did not know when I met my father after work, if he would come back to me and say, ‘Son, we have no money to go for this go-kart race’ – ‘pressure’ was that, so those difficult times that I had made me prepare for the time that I would then have people watching.”