Campos Meta 1 confirm Bruno Senna will make his F1 debut in 2010
Bruno Senna will be on the F1 grid with Campos in 2010
F1 newcomers Campos Meta 1 have officially revealed Bruno Senna as the first of their F1 drivers for the team’s debut season in 2010. The announcement had been rumoured for several weeks.
The nephew of Ayrton Senna competed in the Le Mans Series this year after finishing second in last year’s GP2 championship for iSport. After his uncle’s death in 1994, Bruno’s racing career was put on hiatus for almost ten years.
The rookie tested for Honda last year and was expected to make his F1 debut for them this year. Their withdrawal from F1 forced a change of plans.
The Brazilian’s team mate is yet to be confirmed. Campos wanted the experienced Pedro de la Rosa to fill the seat but needs a driver with a budget.
Despite being a Spanish team in search of a local driver (and with two Spanish races on the calendar), team owner Adrian Campos told media yesterday they are struggling to find a sponsor in Spain.
This is less of a problem for world champion Fernando Alonso with his Santander-backed move to Ferrari, and Jaime Alguersuari who signed a marketing deal with Seat this week.
Campos is considering Russian Vitaly Petrov and Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado for the second seat, who have four and three years’ GP2 experience respectively. Either choice would give the team an all-rookie line-up for their first championship season.
Senna is the second rookie to be confirmed for the 2010 F1 season, joining new Williams driver Nico Hülkenberg.
Campos is expected to reveal its first F1 car at the end of January.
You can follow Bruno Senna on Twitter (see here for more F1 drivers on Twitter).
Bruno Senna confirmed for 2010
Image (C) GP2 media service
That famous helmet design is back (click to enlarge)
TommyB said on 11th November 2009, 18:53
He basically told everyone on Twitter about 3 weeks ago but it’s great to finally here it from the team.
Looking forward to seeing how he does next year. He was great to watch in GP2
Lustigson said on 11th November 2009, 20:04
I’m looking forward to seeing him in action. Witnessed Senna in Barcelona, on his GP2 debut weekend, starting 7th and finishing 4th in Sunday’s race.
steph90 said on 11th November 2009, 20:39
I’m very, very happy about this. Can’t wait to see him in f1!
Matt said on 11th November 2009, 21:51
Yes finally he is confirmed. Can’t wait to see him at melbourne next year.
PeriSoft said on 11th November 2009, 21:58
I’m sure that the Campos car will really let his natural talent shine through… :P
Icthyes said on 11th November 2009, 22:27
Great to see this become official. Next year we’ll have quite a few promising youngsters (it would be a crime against humanity if Kobayashi didn’t get a drive), so it should be interesting. Shame only two of them will be in top cars ;)
James said on 11th November 2009, 23:02
Old news! Was confirmed a while ago on the Beeb website =)
Mike "the bike" Schumacher said on 11th November 2009, 23:06
Hopefully Senna will live up to his name like Rosberg and Hill have, rathar than Piquet and Nakajima.
Thats how it should be, Rookies shouldn’t have an easy ride in their first year otherwise they struggle in bad cars (except hamilton prehaps) eg. Villeneuve, his championship is somewhat tainted as he failed to prove himself in poorer cars.
Jonesracing82 said on 12th November 2009, 6:57
for one, Nakajima snr, was nothing special, only got a driv cos of Honda.
Bruno has done fine so far in GP2 etc and is good in the wet!
i am stoked he’s in F1 and will for sure be barracking for him
seskuj said on 12th November 2009, 12:13
mclaren was a crap earlier so do hamilton. but as mclaren improve so do hamilton. isn’t that show that hamilton only do better in a good car??? hamilton seem to follow jacques villeneuve career path.
luigismen said on 12th November 2009, 16:37
I think Hamilton had good races while the Mclaren being a bad car… Who do you think has done great having a bad car?
Anti-Hamilton comments…
Jraybay-Lewismclarenfan said on 30th November 2009, 19:57
Hamilton a great driver, bottom line. But I always thought Alonso did a superb job in that renault winning the championship 2 times against competitive mclaren and ferrari chassis. 2006 I know the damper was in the nose of the renault and helped with the tire degredation but it was still a great effort from renault and alonso. And I think fischella won that season too… at malaysia? I know it’s not quite the 2009 season but I enjoyed 05 06 ;)
Stacy said on 11th November 2009, 23:42
Nice to see a Senna again. Will definitely be following his F1 journey.
Myles said on 11th November 2009, 23:50
I could have sworn this was confirmed at least two weeks ago on multiple reputable sites. But nonetheless, I am glad to see the Senna name back in F1
wasiF1 said on 12th November 2009, 1:27
Campos Meta should have a GP2 talent in their hut because they are struggling for sponsor. The names appeared looks good & they wont cost much.
Leaf said on 12th November 2009, 1:48
Is everyone just excited because his helmet looks like Uncle Ayrton’s? Lets see how he gets on next year. I mean Campos isn’t really going to set the world on fire. Of course, if he can drive a Campos like his Unkie drove a Tolman……
steph90 said on 12th November 2009, 12:25
Well the name and helmet are of course nice to have in F1 but for me, the real reason to be excited is that I have always liked Bruno and glad he has a shot. I also always wonder just what position he would be in if he hadn’t had that big gap in his career…
But what he has achieved, despite the break I think is very, very good.
Leaf said on 12th November 2009, 1:50
Err…thats Toleman of course.
KNF said on 12th November 2009, 3:10
Adrian Campos has an excellent track record in F3 and GP2, and he was also the guy who brought Marc Gene and Alonso into single seaters. I hope that with Bruno on board, they inherit the spirit of Minardi (but with more success, of course)…
Gman said on 12th November 2009, 3:38
No suprise, as I thought he would almost for sure have a place on the grid in 2010. I think he has done enough to earn it on his own, but it will be interesting to see how he dose compared to the other rookies.
On a related note, he dose use quite a cool helmet- surely the FOM TV director will get plenty of shots of the Campos cars.