Formula One / Ralph Ellis / 14 October 2009 / Leave a comment

Faltering Englishman's chances of hoisting the Drivers' Championship will take a knock if rumours of team-mate's departure are true, says Ralph Ellis

"Barrichello is a man driven by ego who was furious earlier in the campaign when he felt that Button was getting preferential treatment from the team. What better way to have the last word in that debate by zooming past his rival to win the title, and then giving an “up yours” to his Brawn bosses before driving into the sunset?"

When you're changing jobs, working out your notice is never easy. From the moment you hand over that letter to the boss, you're not really part of the team any more.

Some companies will get your desk cleared in half an hour and have you straight out of the door. Others will tie you to the very last minute of your contract to make you suffer sitting in an office where you don't want to be.

How you react depends on your character. Some will go on cruise control and take it easy, others work as hard as they can just to prove how much they'll be missed when they join a rival firm.

As you look at this week's Brazilian Grand Prix there's now a question to be asked: which type of character is Rubens Barrichello?

The Brazilian is on his way out of the Brawn team to join Williams next year in a move which will treble his pay packet to around £4.5million a year, according to this morning's Daily Mirror. Their Grand Prix writer Byron Young quotes a source saying: "Rubens thinks a lot of Frank Williams and designer Patrick Head and the team could be the perfect environment for him."

The word is that the 37-year-old will renew Williams' tradition for Brazilian drivers that goes back to Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet, with talented young German Nico Hulkenberg stepping up from test driving to be the number two.

Young reckons the news leaking will be a boost for Jenson Button as it will throw the resources of the Brawn team firmly behind the English driver. I'm not so sure. Barrichello is a man driven by ego who was furious earlier in the campaign when he felt that Button was getting preferential treatment from the team. What better way to have the last word in that debate by zooming past his rival to win the title, and then giving an "up yours" to his Brawn bosses before driving into the sunset? And where else to get ready for that than on his home track in Brazil on Sunday?

I know I'm biased because I've laid Button heavily for the title at short odds, but I'm still tempted to go back for more at [1.14]. Both Barrichello and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel are chasing him hard and the 29-year-old Somerset driver just doesn't seem to have the edge to wrap it up. He seems to have adopted a safety first policy for the second half of the season after building such a big lead and that's no way to be a world champion. A sign of that is that while Button is [15.5] to win in Sao Paulo, Barrichello in the same car is six points shorter at [9.0].

Vettel is the obvious danger after winning so superbly in Japan, and he's being encouraged by legend Michael Schumacher to keep up his pursuit. "There's a fact I stuck to in my career, which is it is never over until it's over," says the seven times world champion.

"At Ferrari we lived that for years and I am convinced it will be like it again this time."

Even if Button does cling on to his 14 point lead, he has ended up as an uninspiring champion who is losing the public's support. Lay him at [2.32] as BBC Sports Personality of the Year because the bubbly Jessica Ennis will get more votes from the grannies!

Five things you might not know about Nico Hulkenberg

1. Born in 1987 in Emmerich am Rhein, on the border between Germany and Holland, he fell in love with speed when his dad took him to Go-Karts at the age of ten

2. Within five years he was German Junior Karting championship, and a year later mixed it with the grown-ups to become one of the youngest ever winners of the German Kart Championship

3. He has been mentored since then by Michael Schumacher's manager Willie Webber who now manages his career.

4. He won the Formula BMW title in 2005, but was stripped of first place in the world final after being accused of brake testing his rivals during a safety car spell

5. On his first day as a Williams test driver he outpaced the team's number two race driver Kazuki Nakajima

Tags: Ayrton Senna, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Brawn, Brazilian Grand Prix, Jenson Button, Nelson Piquet, Nico Hulkenberg, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel, Williams