Campos Meta 1 confirm Bruno Senna will make his F1 debut in 2010

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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 Hulkenberg.

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)

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “Campos Meta 1 confirm Bruno Senna will make his F1 debut in 2010”

  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. I’m very, very happy about this. Can’t wait to see him in f1!

  4. Yes finally he is confirmed. Can’t wait to see him at melbourne next year.

  5. I’m sure that the Campos car will really let his natural talent shine through… :P

  6. 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 ;)

  7. Old news! Was confirmed a while ago on the Beeb website =)

  8. Mike "the bike" Schumacher
    11th November 2009, 23:06

    Hopefully Senna will live up to his name like Rosberg and Hill have, rathar than Piquet and Nakajima.

    Shame only two of them will be in top cars

    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.

    1. 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

    2. 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.

      1. 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…

        1. Jraybay-Lewismclarenfan
          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 ;)

  9. Nice to see a Senna again. Will definitely be following his F1 journey.

  10. 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

  11. 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.

  12. 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……

    1. 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.

  13. Err…thats Toleman of course.

  14. 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)…

  15. 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.

  16. Welcome news, altough not a surprise by any means. If they are looking for an experienced driver who is Spanish, I wonder why Gene is not being considered?

    1. I encountered Marc Gene while at the shopping malls during the Singapore GP weekend, talked a bit about his Le Mans drive, but I forgot to ask him about the Campos seat. Maybe he has a long term race seat at Peugeot?

  17. I am ambivalent about this…It will be emotional to see the Senna name in Formula 1 again. I just hope the pressure that will inevitably follow his first couple of years in F1 is not too much. It is not fair to compare him to his late great Uncle…and I hope people are kind to him in that respect. However, I will be rooting for him from day one!

    1. We should remember to be kinder to him then, he did spend about ten important years away from the track while the likes of Hamilton, Rosberg and Kubica were carving their way through in karting…

      1. I agree but look how well he has done despite the gap. I will be supporting him to Ayrton. I’m sure given time he could be good.

  18. Wasn’t this “officially confirmed” a few weeks ago?

    If Campos manage to sign Petrov, they would have an incredibly talented, promissing and quick driver lineup for 2010. If the car is up to scratch, Campos could easily be challenging the Toro Rosso’s of the world next year.

  19. While like most I welcome the news of Senna signing for Campos, I think it would be best for them if they manage to get a driver with F1 experience in the other car.

    I think the team’s and the driver’s progress could be hampered next year if they have to have two rookie drivers in the team’s first year in F1, because the team need a driver who can bring sponsorship.

    Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost recently said that their driver’s lack of F1 experience was a problem for Toro Rosso this year, and at least they had the benefit of the team itself having F1 experience.

    1. Jraybay-Lewismclarenfan
      30th November 2009, 20:02

      Yeah I read on another site that senna was just there for sponsorship and attention mostly. I will find the link and show you.

  20. no pressure then mr senna…………….

  21. The Senna Era is Back…i just hope Campos design a decent car…

  22. im just don’t like senna…is he really that good?? how he compared to his uncle???he just resume his career a couple years ago. pedro de la rosa is much deserved for his seat. Campos look to be lack of money compared to lotus f1. lotus want experience driver so they can develop a competitive car just like brawn gp in this season while campos looking for pay driver to pay for their operation. even campos didn’t pay senna to drive for them. is this mean that senna is a pay driver???

  23. I hope they sign Maldonado, he’s a great driver and has won 3 times de Monaco gp in gp2!
    And we will have a venezuelan driver in F1 again! :D

  24. you must see this…
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbrHk0EmQP0
    that guys from “usf1 team” will destroy there reputation along with the spot for the 2010cs…

    i just dont understand why did bernie gived them a spot?

  25. Antifa,

    Are you saying that Sir Jack Brabham was not a good driver? Seems he won many races and a championship or two, what is the basis for your comment?

  26. Yes, we will have Bruno Senna in the next season !! Here in Brazil there is a huge crowd for him. Accompany the fight this guy since his start in Formula BMW in 2004 and I can assure you that this is a highly skilled pilot to F-1!!!
    Accelerates Bruno !!!!! We are together and strong in the crowd the best ever!

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