» Barrichello comments spark quit rumours

A recent interview with Rubens Barrichello certainly gave the impression that the Brazilian veteran would be reluctant to re-sign with Williams for 2012 on the back of the team’s worst start to a championship season in its history.

The multiple championship-winning team has endured a terrible start to its latest season after showing some solid form in pre-season testing, and the resulting lack of points has seen technical director Sam Michael and chief aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson tender their resignations.

And comments made to AUTOSPORT indicate that the most experienced driver in the sport’s history could choose to exit stage left unless the team can start to improve its results.

After qualifying on the fringes of the top-ten at last weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix – the team’s best qualifying result of the season to-date – both Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado finished well outside the points after the team elected to run a three-stop strategy instead of the conventional (and, as it turns out, quicker) four-stop strategy run by most of the teams. It was another strategic error that was just indicative of the team’s championship campaign in 2011.

“Williams must improve a lot for us to reach an agreement [for me to re-sign] for next year,” the 38-year-old is quoted as saying.

“Things are standing still. It’s not worth going on this way. I need the team to start to shake up and I need to see differences,” he added.

In a lengthy interview with the magazine, Barrichello was seemingly critical of the current operating structure at Williams, citing examples of team members being overstretched and lacking resources.

“We need to address the problems. It is good to have some of the top guys here to see, because Sam will give 100% up until the end, but we need a leader. We need a leader.

“Right now, it is almost like we have too many but not enough. A lot of people are trying to say something but in the end that is not the point. They need to focus on what they are doing.”

[Image via LAT]