Eduardo Barrichello stepping out of his father's shadow in sports cars

Only two years into his international sports car racing career, 24-year-old Eduardo Barrichello has already begun to make a name for himself with Aston Martin and the Heart of Racing Team.

The son of 11-time Formula 1 Grand Prix winner Rubens Barrichello moved from Brazil’s Stock Car Pro series to the FIA World Endurance Championship last year. He had a fine first season driving for fellow Aston Martin customer team Racing Spirit of Léman.

The highlight of which was unquestionably his Brazilian homecoming at the 6 Hours of Saõ Paulo: At the circuit where his father was the great F1 hope for his compatriots for so long, Barrichello put his Aston Martin on the pole position, and scored his first career podium finish. He then put the Franco-Swiss team’s Vantage on the pole for the 6 Hours of Fuji, and at the end of the season, Barrichello was given the FIA WEC’s “Revelation of the Year” award for being the breakout star of 2025.

He’s continued that momentum into a new dual role at Heart of Racing Team for the 2026 season. As the Anglo-American outfit took over the second full-season Aston Martin LMGT3 entry in WEC, Barrichello was retained to drive alongside series newcomer Gray Newell (the son of team co-founder and video game mogul Gabe Newell) and distinguished Aston Martin factory driver Jonny Adam, a two-time Le Mans class winner.

Barrichello was also added to Heart of Racing’s IMSA GTD line-up, running the full 10-race season in a similar Aston Martin Vantage GT3 to the one he drives in WEC.

“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,” Barrichello told RACER earlier this week.

Of his WEC and 24 Hours of Le Mans co-drivers Newell and Adam, he continued, “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.”

So far on the IMSA side, Barrichello’s rookie year has met all of his and Heart of Racing’s expectations. The No. 27 Heart of Racing Vantage started the year with two poles and two podium finishes at Daytona and Sebring – with Barrichello taking the pole honors in qualifying at the latter. Aston Martin Valkyrie driver Tom Gamble is his teammate for most races, though IMSA and WEC clashes mean there has been, and will be, some changes at select rounds.

At Laguna Seca, Barrichello notched his third podium and second runner-up finish of the year, and it could have very well been four podiums in four races were it not for a pit lane speeding penalty at Long Beach.

Barrichello took his third IMSA podium at Laguna Seca. Brandon Badraoui/IMSA photo

About the IMSA season so far, Barrichello said, “We work every single day for it, so it’s not like it’s just lucky. 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.”

The data is so far inconclusive on the start of the 2026 WEC campaign, which for Barrichello was delayed twice over due to the postponement of the Qatar 1812KM and the clash between Long Beach and Imola. But through four IMSA races, Barrichello and Heart of Racing have built up a 140-point lead in the standings; in IMSA’s currency, it’s worth roughly the difference between a class win and finishing tenth.

While he is disappointed that his priorities in IMSA mean he won’t get a chance to race in front of the Brazilian fans in WEC next month, he has a great opportunity to dethrone the back-to-back series champions at Winward Racing this year, even though the GTD class has not reached its halfway point.

He may be the obligatory Silver-rated driver in his team’s line-ups, due to his sparse single-seater results and relative lack of experience – but on his current trajectory, it won’t be long until Barrichello joins the ranks of the top GT3 drivers around the world (with an FIA driver rating to match).

In fact, he already has aspirations of racing in the top prototype categories, admitting “that’s the end goal”.

“The boss man has to decide it himself, but hopefully some day I can give it a go in the big one,” he said in reference to a future drive in the Valkyrie Hypercar.

This week, the No. 23 Heart of Racing Vantage of Barrichello, Newell, and Adam will compete for LMGT3 class honors at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, looking to improve on the sister No. 27 car’s results in which Mattia Drudi put the car on pole position, then finished fourth alongside Ian James and Zacharie Robichon.

“It’s a long race. It’s difficult to know where we’re going to end up anyway,” Barrichello admitted. “It’s a great team, of course; Mattia poled it last year, so it’s good for the team. 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.”

A great result at Le Mans would continue to put Barrichello on track to forging his own path in racing, stepping further out of his father’s shadow.

“I just need to learn, I need time on the track like any other driver, really. 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.”