Barrichello was born and raised in São Paulo. His paternal family comes from Veneto, Italy — from the town of Riese in the province of Treviso — and his maternal side is of Portuguese origin. Both his father and paternal grandfather are also named Rubens, and Barrichello shares his father's birthday of 23 May; he was therefore known as "Rubinho", Portuguese for "little Rubens", which became his nickname. During his early Formula One career he lived in Cambridge, England.
Barrichello won five karting titles in Brazil before going to Europe to race in the Formula Vauxhall Lotus series in 1990, winning the championship in his first year. He repeated the feat the following year in the 1991 British Formula 3 Championship with West Surrey, beating David Coulthard. He nearly joined Formula One at the age of nineteen, but instead competed in International Formula 3000 in 1992, finishing third in the championship before joining the Jordan Formula One team for 1993.
Barrichello made his Formula One debut at the South African Grand Prix in 1993. At his third race, the European Grand Prix, he started twelfth in very wet conditions and ran as high as second, passing the Williams of Damon Hill and Alain Prost, before a fuel pressure problem; his Jordan's reliability was poor and he finished few races, his only points coming with fifth place at the Japanese Grand Prix, ahead of new teammate Eddie Irvine.
In 1994 he opened with fourth in Brazil and a third place at Aida, his first podium. At the San Marino Grand Prix he suffered a violent crash during Friday practice, hitting the wall at the Variante Bassa and flipping the car; the accident knocked him unconscious and threatened his life, and Barrichello credited the on-track work of Sid Watkins with saving him. The weekend also saw the fatal accidents of Roland Ratzenberger and Barrichello's mentor Ayrton Senna, by which Barrichello was deeply affected. Later that season he took pole position at the Belgian Grand Prix — setting the record for the youngest pole-sitter at that time — and finished the season sixth in the championship with nineteen points, outscoring Irvine.
In 1995 he scored a second place in Montreal but lost points on the final lap of three races to a collision and mechanical failures, finishing eleventh. High hopes for 1996, boosted by Benson & Hedges sponsorship, faded as Jordan became less competitive; his relationship with team owner Eddie Jordan soured during the year, and he left for the newly formed Stewart Grand Prix.
Stewart's debut season in 1997 saw frequent reliability problems and Barrichello finished only three races, the highlight being second place in Monaco. The same year he married Silvana Giaffone on 24 February. 1998 was little better, with two fifth places the team's best results, though Barrichello consistently beat his teammates. 1999 was much stronger: he qualified third at his home race in Brazil, took pole position in a wet qualifying session in France, and scored three podiums at the San Marino, French and European Grands Prix. Over the year he caught the eye of Ferrari boss Jean Todt and was signed for 2000.
In 2000, Barrichello achieved his first Grand Prix victory at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, staying on dry-weather tyres in mixed conditions to win from 18th on the grid; this was the longest any driver in Formula One history had then waited for a maiden win. He finished the season fourth, supporting Michael Schumacher as Schumacher won the Drivers' Championship and Ferrari took the Constructors' title. He finished third in 2001 with ten podiums but no win.
In 2002 he won four races and finished a career-best second in the Drivers' Championship with 77 points. The year was marked by controversy when Ferrari team orders required Barrichello to let the trailing Schumacher pass him on the final straight of the Austrian Grand Prix; at the podium ceremony Schumacher gave Barrichello the winner's trophy, both drivers were fined for disrupting podium protocol, and the FIA banned team orders from 2003. Barrichello finished fourth in 2003 with wins at Silverstone and Suzuka, and second behind Schumacher in 2004 with wins at the Italian and Chinese Grands Prix and 114 points. Ferrari lacked pace in 2005 because of the changing tyre rules, and Barrichello's best results were two second places, finishing eighth in the standings — his worst season with the team. Unhappy with his treatment and approached by Honda, he asked to terminate his contract and was replaced by Felipe Massa for 2006.
Barrichello joined Honda for 2006. New teammate Jenson Button gave him the number 11 — Barrichello's lucky number, the number on the kart with which he won his first race. He was initially outpaced by Button, finished seventh in the standings, and scored no points at all in 2007 because of the Honda RA107's lack of pace. In 2008 the Turkish Grand Prix was his 257th Grand Prix, breaking Riccardo Patrese's record of 256 starts to make him the most experienced driver in Formula One history; at Silverstone that year he finished third in heavy rain, his first podium since 2005. On 5 December 2008, Honda announced it was quitting Formula One.
Weeks before the 2009 season opener, team manager Ross Brawn purchased the team, renaming it Brawn GP. Barrichello finished second in Melbourne and built a strong run of results; he won the European Grand Prix at Valencia — his first win in five years and the hundredth Formula One win by a Brazilian — and won again at Monza. He claimed pole in a rain-soaked qualifying session in Brazil, but a puncture cost him a chance of taking the title fight to the final race; teammate Button became champion. Barrichello finished third in the championship with 77 points. During the season, at the completion of lap 47 at Monaco, he became the driver who had completed the most laps in Formula One history, surpassing Schumacher's total.
Barrichello signed for Williams for 2010, having declined a McLaren offer because he had already pledged himself to Williams. He celebrated his 300th Grand Prix at the Belgian Grand Prix in 2010 and, before that race, was elected Chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, replacing Nick Heidfeld. At the European Grand Prix in Valencia he finished fourth and became the highest-scoring Brazilian driver in Formula One history, overhauling Ayrton Senna's career points tally. His best results across the two Williams seasons were a series of points finishes; his final race at the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix was a quiet farewell, finishing fourteenth ahead of former teammate Schumacher. In a 2022 interview, Barrichello revealed he was fired by Frank Williams by phone in early January 2012, and Bruno Senna replaced him for 2012.
A planned 2014 comeback with Caterham did not happen, as the car was uncompetitive and the team went into administration. Barrichello joined KV Racing Technology for the 2012 IndyCar Series, racing his first Indianapolis 500 in May 2012, where he finished eleventh and won the Rookie of the Year title; he finished the season twelfth in the championship.
He joined the Brazilian Stock Car series — now the Stock Car Pro Series — as a guest driver for the final three races of 2012, and from 2013 drove a Chevrolet as a regular member of the Full Time Sports team, racing number 111. He was crowned champion in 2014, his first title in 23 years, and won the series again in 2022. In endurance racing he finished runner-up at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2016 with Wayne Taylor Racing. In 2020, Toyota sent him to Argentina to compete in the Super TC 2000 and Top Race V6 championships, and in September 2019 he made a one-off open-wheel comeback in the inaugural round of Australia's S5000 class with Team BRM. In 2025 he competed in the NASCAR Brasil Series for Full Time Sports, finishing first in the overall drivers' standings in his first season.
Barrichello lives in São Paulo. He formerly held the fastest time by a Formula One driver around the Top Gear test track in the show's Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment, with a lap of 1:44.3. In February 2018 he was rushed to hospital after suffering headaches and was found to have a benign tumour, which was later removed. He revealed on Formula One's podcast Beyond The Grid that he divorced in 2019. His sons Eduardo and Fernando are also racing drivers, with Eduardo competing in the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship and Fernando in the 2025 Euroformula Open Championship. In June 2024 Barrichello was appointed SOFTSWISS's Non-Executive Director in Latin America.
Barrichello retired from Formula One with eleven wins, fourteen pole positions, seventeen fastest laps and 68 podiums, the last of which remains the record for a non-World Champion. From 2013 to 2014 he was a commentator and pundit for TV Globo, later leaving to co-host the motorsport YouTube channel Acelerados.
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