Caterham’s failure to make it to Austin ended the possibility of a surprise comeback for Rubens Barrichello.

The 42-year-old has made no secret of the fact that he would like to race an F1 car again, and has always been frustrated that he did not have a proper farewell race at his home event. Since his last F1 race he has remained active in Brazilian stock cars and karting.

Encouraged by support from the Brazilian GP promoter Colin Kolles had been working for several months to put together a deal that would have seen Rubens replacing Kamui Kobayashi for the last three Grands Prix of the season.

“We would have run Barrichello in the last three races,” a team source told this writer. “We had sponsorship for this, and everything was going the right way. It would have been fantastic for F1.”

Speaking exclusively about the plan, Rubens told this writer: “It would have been great to race in front of my people once again and say goodbye properly.”

Mario Andretti suggested last weekend that guest appearances by drivers from other areas of the sport would be a great promotional tool for F1.