All it takes is a glimpse of a red-suited figure at the edge of the Ferrari pit and suddenly it's bedlam. The flimsy crowd-control tapes are swamped, flashbulbs pop and a great roar of celebratory approval shudders up from the throng. Michael Schumacher? No, this is Interlagos and Schumacher is a sideshow to the real thing, Brazil's own Rubens Barrichello.

It has taken a long time for his compatriots to fall for 28-year-old Barrichello. Touted as the new Senna on his arrival in Formula One with Jordan - he scored a couple of points in Suzuka, ahead of fellow debutant and team-mate Eddie Irvine - Barrichello fell from grace almost as soon as Senna himself fell on that May afternoon in 1994.

Enormously talented but immature, Barrichello buckled under the weight of expectancy.

Ridiculed by press and public in his home country, he faded from sight. His tenure at Jordan came to an end in 1996 and he floated down the grid and washed up on the then inhospitable shores of the fledgling Stewart team. Even the brief high of a second-place finish at Monaco couldn't reignite any passion in his native land. But when he qualified second last year at Interlagos in a vastly-improved Stewart, Sao Paulo sat up, got its shoes on and marched down to the Carlos Pace circuit in droves, his sudden upturn in fortunes causing two-mile queues at the turnstiles. It wasn't a fluke.

All through the wilderness years, Barrichello had been quietly honing his skills away from the spotlight. Ditching the wilfulness, taming the tantrums and eradicating the errors. Ferrari, and this weekend, is his reward.

On Thursday he was quick to acknowledge that he is much changed, but he has given up trying to fill Senna's shoes. "Brazilian people wanted me to be the next Senna. It was the wrong thing. I will never be Ayrton. I can be better or worse than him, but I can never be him. That was really bad for my mental position. But with every problem you learn more from the problems than anything else. And I definitely learned from it."

His second place in Australia two weeks ago has sparked a rash of "Rubens to race away with Brazil" stories here. Yesterday, by the end of the practice sessions, he found himself fourth fastest, three tenths behind his team-mate, and reputedly on the harder and thus less gripping tyre compound.

Today in qualifying, the extra surge of having his own crowd behind him could push him to do better than Schumacher.

Yet, while the German has been quick to admit Barrichello's skills, as ever, his praise hides perhaps, a subtle piece of advice. "I'm pretty sure he'll make life difficult for me. It looks like he is quicker (than Eddie Irvine) so far. I hope he doesn't get too close." The late pit stop that Ferrari forced on Barrichello in Australia allowed Schumacher to regain the lead and take victory. And in the end the question may not be whether Barrichello has the talent to take victories - he undoubtedly has - but whether his talent will ever be allowed to shine brighter than Schumacher's.