Last year, when Rubens Barrichello made his first appearance in the Interlagos pitlane, it was like watching a Hollywood rookie accepting the first warming rays of public adoration. A little flinch, a hint of a smile and finally a broad grin of enjoyment.

The former Stewart driver, the Brazilian who had toiled away, forever locked in the shadow of a dead saint called Senna, was looking at a renaissance. His star was being born anew and Brazil expected. He expected.

But as 2000 dragged on and an emotional maiden win at Hockenheim turned sour as Michael Schumacher turned up the heat, Barrichello's star faded until he was left alone behind the Ferrari garage at Suzuki, a spectre at the feast of a new saint - St Michael of the 21year delivery.

But while the brightness fell, the expectation didn't and this year Barrichello is back in Brazil, still in red and this time seeing a red mist.

No longer the rookie, Barrichello has over the two weeks between a fraught Malaysian Grand Prix and this weekend's Brazilian race, transformed himself into a waspish star, whose razor tongue and star-struck tantrums have pushed Ferrari back into the sort of disharmony last seen during Eddie Irvine's rebellious final season with the team.

In the immediate aftermath of the Malaysian Grand Prix, Barrichello took issue with team-mate Michael Schumacher's overtaking manoeuvre saying it had been a rash move and that he felt the German should have thought before acting.

The Brazilian's tirade earned a sharp rebuke from Schumacher who accused his team-mate of displaying a typically Latin mentality. "He has the typical temperament of a man from the south. I'm sure that if you spoke to him now he would give you a completely different reply compared to what he said in the heat of the moment."

Barrichello remains fired up, however, and was this week again insisting to the Brazilian press that he would be no man's number two. "I don't want to be the number two forever," he told Rio newspaper O Globo. "My main challenge now is to beat Schumacher.

"Even though I haven't yet managed to be ahead of Schumacher, I feel good, given that 550 people work for him at Ferrari and not for me. But this is normal because he is in his sixth year there. (Former team mate Eddie) Irvine accepted being one second behind him but I don't and fight for my ideals. There is always the possibility of becoming a champion, even if Michael Schumacher is in your team."

Barrichello has never made any secret of his desperation to emulate his hero Ayrton Senna's emotional 1993 win on home soil and last year admitted that his retirement on lap 29 of the Interlagos race with engine failure was one of the biggest disappointments of his career.

This year, however, he will feel his time may have come. In Malaysia, the Brazilian was closer to Schumacher than at any time in their 19-race partnership, qualifying just a 10th of a second off the German's polewinning time. The temptation to once again flout the code that Schumacher has established for his team-mates at his Ferrari may be impossible to resist.

As Barrichello launched a missiled attack in the direction of his team leader, Jaguar's Luciano Burti was aiming a few bombs at his team leader, the man Barrichello replaced at Ferrari - Eddie Irvine.

Since Spaniard Pedro De la Rosa joined Jaguar as test driver shortly before the Australian Grand Prix rumours have been rife that either Irvine or Burti would be replaced by the ex-Arrows man at the Ford-owned team. Ivrine's tenure looks safer - purely on performances - but the Irishman's outspoken and all-too-public criticism of the Jaguar operation only served to deepen suspicions that Irvine was for the axe.

Yesterday the Brazilian launched a pre-emptive strike just in case his quiet loyalty to Jaguar is not proving a sufficient safeguard of his position.

"He has more experience, he is the number one and therefore has more chances, but that doesn't mean it is a certainty," he said on Wednesday. "I have to try and persuade them. I'll be trying to prove that I deserve a place at Jaguar and I know that my future in Formula One will be guaranteed if I can do a good job this season.