The Son of Rubens Barrichello Is Racing at Le Mans This Weekend. He Wants to Be Known for More Than the Surname

• Eduardo Barrichello, 24, son of 11-time Formula 1 race winner Rubens, lines up for the 24 Hours of Le Mans this weekend in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin.
• He was named the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Revelation of the Year for 2025 after taking pole and a podium at his home race in Sao Paulo.
• He says his father is “always there for me as a dad” but insists, “I’m a race car driver already, and I know my way around.”

There are surnames in motorsport that arrive in the room before the person does. Barrichello is one of them. For more than a decade Rubens Barrichello carried the hopes of Brazilian racing fans, winning 11 grands prix, partnering Michael Schumacher at Ferrari and becoming the most experienced driver in Formula 1 history. So when a young man with the same name climbs into a car, the comparison writes itself before he has even fastened his belts.

This weekend, that young man is at the Circuit de la Sarthe. Eduardo Barrichello, 24, is one of the drivers in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin lineup at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the most demanding endurance race on the planet. He is not chasing his father’s records. He is quietly trying to build something that is entirely his own, and the early evidence suggests he might just do it.

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A name that opens doors and sets traps

Being the son of a famous racing driver is a strange inheritance. The name opens doors, but it also sets a trap: every result is measured against a legend, and every mistake is amplified. Eduardo has spoken about this with a maturity that belies his age. He is grateful for his father’s presence, but careful to draw a line between guidance and dependence.

“I just need to learn, I need time on the track like any other driver, really,” he told RACER. “My dad’s always there for me as a dad, which is great. I have support from my dad, and sometimes we talk about setup and whatnot. But I’m a race car driver already, and I know my way around.”

The breakout season that announced him

Eduardo moved from Brazil’s Stock Car Pro Series to the FIA World Endurance Championship at the start of 2025, joining the Aston Martin customer team Racing Spirit of Leman. It was a leap into the unknown, and he answered it emphatically.

The defining moment came at his home round, the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, on the very circuit where his father spent years as the great Brazilian hope. Eduardo put his Aston Martin on pole position and scored his first career podium in front of his compatriots. He followed it with another pole at the 6 Hours of Fuji, and by the end of the campaign he had been handed the FIA WEC’s Revelation of the Year award as the breakout star of the season. It was recognition earned on merit, not handed down by association.

A double life across two championships

For 2026 he stepped up to the Heart of Racing Team, the Anglo-American outfit that took over a full-season Aston Martin LMGT3 entry in the WEC. Eduardo shares the No. 23 car with the series newcomer Gray Newell, son of the video game mogul Gabe Newell, and the seasoned factory driver Jonny Adam, a two-time Le Mans class winner. On top of that, he runs the full 10-race IMSA GTD season in America in a near-identical Vantage.

“It’s a great privilege to be doing the IMSA and the WEC championship together in the same year, and I’m super fortunate to be where I am,” he said. Of his co-drivers, he added: “It’s such a privilege to be alongside with Jonny, such a legend of the sport. It’s just really good for myself to be learning from him. And Gray as well, he doesn’t have a lot of experience, but he’s done a good job already, so I’m pretty impressed with him.”

The IMSA campaign has been remarkable. Two poles and two podiums at Daytona and Sebring opened the year, with Eduardo taking pole honours at the latter. A third podium followed at Laguna Seca, and only a pit-lane speeding penalty at Long Beach denied him a possible fourth in four. Through the opening rounds his side of the Heart of Racing operation built a commanding lead in the GTD standings.

He is quick to reject the idea that any of it has come easily. “We work every single day for it, so it’s not like it’s just lucky,” he said. “We do a lot of work to have the results that we have, and we just keep working more and more and try to keep up the results.”

Part of a wider family story at Le Mans

Eduardo is not the only second-generation racer on the Le Mans grid this weekend. The 2026 entry is unusually thick with the sons of former Formula 1 drivers. Kevin Magnussen, son of Jan, is there. So is Jules Gounon, son of Jean-Marc; Enzo Trulli, son of Jarno; Louis Deletraz, son of Jean-Denis; Giuliano Alesi, son of Jean; and Lorenzo Patrese, son of Riccardo. Seven sons of grand prix drivers, all chasing glory on the same 13.6-kilometre stretch of French road.

It is a reminder that racing is, as much as anything, a family business, passed down at kitchen tables and karting tracks long before it reaches a television screen. For most of these drivers, the surname is both a gift and a burden, a head start that comes attached to a permanent benchmark.

Eyes on the biggest prize of all

For now, Eduardo carries the obligatory Silver driver rating, a reflection of his relatively sparse single-seater history rather than his current speed. On his trajectory, that classification looks unlikely to last. He has already set his sights on the top prototype categories, and when asked about a future drive in the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar, he did not hide his ambition.

“The boss man has to decide it himself, but hopefully some day I can give it a go in the big one,” he said. “That’s the end goal.”

This weekend the target is more immediate, and he is realistic about how unpredictable a twice-around-the-clock race can be. “It’s a long race. It’s difficult to know where we’re going to end up anyway,” he said. “It’s a great team, of course. We have two cars, so the No. 23 and No. 27 will be competing for the top five. And we’ll see what we’ve got.”

Whatever the clock reads on Sunday afternoon, the bigger picture is already clear. A Barrichello is back at the sharp end of world-class motorsport, and this one is determined to be remembered for what he does, not whose son he is.

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Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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