Bruno Senna Profile


By Emma York
November 2 2009

“If you think I’m fast just wait till you see my nephew” Are the famous words of his uncle Ayrton and he’s not wrong. Bruno Senna is one of the most promising drivers destined for the province of Formula One.

His racing career started in 2004, ten years after the tragic death of one of Formula One’s true greats, Bruno’s uncle Ayrton. At the age of 21, Senna was playing catch up with his racing career under the watchful guidance of Gerhard Berger. In 2005 he competed in the British Formula BMW and Formula Renault where he drove 5 races. In 2006 he moved on to Formula 3 and won 3 out of four races before moving on to the British Formula Three with Raikkonen Robertson Racing. Four wins placed him third in the overall standings.

 
 
The interest in the promising Brazilian was building and in 2007 he joined the Arden team in the GP2 Series. GP2’s reputation for bringing budding racing stars was already established from the two previous years which saw both previous champions Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton excel into Formula One race seats for Williams and McLaren. Senna was chasing the dream and got his head down for some racing. The truth is, his rookie season in GP2 was not great. He took a stunning first win in Spain and things went downhill from there. Questions were being asked, could he be consistent enough to make the next step towards the title and the interest from Formula One which would inevitable follow.
 
Timo Glock was the 2007 GP2 champion and followed Rosberg and Hamilton into the promised land of Formula One. The bright eyed Brazilian kept the faith in himself and stayed on in GP2, this time, for the iSport team. He stormed his way to a historic victory Monaco and backed that up with another win at Silverstone in the pouring rain. The bright smile was being worn more often than not by Senna as he found himself in a championship winning position. It all came down to Senna vs. Pantano for the title. Senna’s warrior like attitude was there for all to see at the business end of the season but the title was eventually claimed by the Italian Pantano.
 
The Formula One interest was now mounting and the Honda Team offered Senna a Formula One test in November 2008. This was his first time in the cockpit of a Formula One car and he was keen to take the opportunity to show them what he could do. His test was a successful one as he posted a series of good lap times and many fans were expecting him to be a Honda driver for 2009 in place of Rubens Barrichello….it wasn’t to be.
 
The Honda Team pulled out of Formula One for financial reasons and the dream was swept from under his feet. No one was sure about the futures of Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello and Bruno Senna at this point and the heartbreak was there for all to see. Alas came a savior for the Honda Team in the form of Ross Brawn. It was confirmed….the rise of the Brawn GP Team but, what of their drivers?
 
For Bruno, it was heartbreak as Ross Brawn decided to stick with the experienced pairing of Button and Barrichello. So where was the next stop for Bruno? There was an air of uncertainty for his fans because he had not confirmed where he would be going for 2009. He had walked away from GP2 and the door to Formula One had been firmly shut. There came a series of tests, firstly for the ORECA Le Mans team and then the Mercedes DTM team. The speculation was that he was going to be a DTM driver for Mercedes but in the end he chose to stick with the Le Mans Series with ORECA.
 
His spell in Le Mans rendered 2 podiums, once alongside Stephanie Ortelli in Spain and another with Tiago Monterio in Algarve. The remainder of the first half of the season was littered with retirements as luck went against him. The second half of the season was another blow for Bruno when the second ORECA car was scrapped due to financial reasons. It was all going terribly wrong and he spent the rest of the year out of a race seat.
 
During the 2009 season it was announced that Formula One will have new teams on the grid for the 2010 season. Bruno’s chance had come and it was evident at the Brazilian Grand Prix that he had the hope again. The dream was once again there to be chased and he was confirmed at the Campos Meta team.
 
So now Bruno is no longer chasing the dream – he is living it. Good luck to him for his debut season

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