Saturday March 25th, 2000

By Mary Milliken

Brazilian motor racing fans, in mourning since Ayrton Senna's death, are flocking back to the Formula One this weekend as Rubens Barrichello and his Ferrari fuel their passion again.

For the first time in six years, a Brazilian has a good shot at winning his home country's Grand Prix Sunday now that Barrichello clinched a spot on a top team.

"This is the most important year since the death of Senna thanks to the work that Rubinho is doing," said Mauricio Goncalves, who travelled 400 kms to the Interlagos circuit on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

Goncalves and his friends have hastily printed Ferrari T-shirts and bought their scarlet Ferrari hats to cheer on the local hero. In the stands, a sea of red has replaced the traditional green, gold and blue colours of the Brazilian flag.

If Barrichello, 27, ends on top of the podium on Sunday, Brazilians could go back to their old ways -- like getting up in the middle of the night to watch the European races as they did during Senna's heyday in Formula One.

When the three-time world champion died after crashing at Imola in May 1994, the country of 165 million people went into collective mourning and never quite recovered from the loss.

"Before we had Emerson Fittipaldi and Nelson Piquet, but it was Ayrton Senna who gave us our passion for racing," said fan Alexandre Barbosa. "He was the best driver in the world and he represented Brazil so well abroad."

Senna would have turned 40 this week and many Brazilians think the charismatic figure would still have been driving.

Pressure has since been on Barrichello to succeed Senna, but he never got the cars at Stewart and Jordan that he needed to satisfy such a tall order.

Besides Barrichello, Brazil boasts two more drivers in the line-up, Pedro Diniz of Sauber and Ricardo Zonta of BAR.

And after Barrichello gets his chance, fans believe that the 24-year-old Zonta will be the next up.

"I think Ricardo Zonta has great chances to be something," said Goncalves.