Senna to return for HRT in Germany

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HRT say Bruno Senna will return to drive for the team after replacing him with Sakon Yamamoto for the British Grand Prix.

However the team has not explained why it has replaced Senna for this race, amid rumours they’ve run Yamamoto to bring in more money from sponsorship.

In a statement the team said:

HRT F1 Team has decided to give an opportunity to one of its four drivers, Sakon Yamamoto, for this race, the British Grand Prix.

In respect to the rumors about Bruno Senna’s current states with Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team, the team wants to confirm that Bruno Senna has all the support of the Spanish team, that he remains one of the Hispania Racing, HRT F1 Team official drivers and that he will be continuing to drive in the remaining races of the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship.

At the end of second practice today Yamamoto was 1.284 seconds slower than regular driver Karun Chandhok.

Read more: Sakon Yamamoto to replace Bruno Senna at HRT at Silverstone

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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 “Senna to return for HRT in Germany”

  1. I’m trying to figure out what is worse – HRT’s car or HRT’s management.

    Yamamoto got a nice birthday present though, and hopefully Chandhok gives him one on raceday by lapping him.

    1. hopefully Chandhok gives him one on raceday by lapping him.

      Hopefully!

      1. I agree with the fact that it was Yamamoto’s birthday so they gave him a present. What would have happened if it were on December like my one?

        1. bruno would have been kicked out??

  2. Good. (Too Short, but it’s all in the word!)

  3. HRT is doing Senna more harm than good.

    1. miguelF1O (@)
      9th July 2010, 19:58

      senna is a paid driver sometimes there are funding problems maybe hes sponsor was short on money and yamamotos father wanted his son to have a nice birthday senna is slow but its impossible for a new driver to be fighting with the regular one on race 1

      1. Sakon isn’t “new”. I think I remember him in a spyker.

  4. I read on another site that it’s Yamamoto’s 28th birthday present from the team. That’s sweet, if true. Now we can ponder as to why Senna was replaced and not Chandhok…

    1. According to Adam Cooper, he was told by insiders in the team that there was some kind of dispute between Senna and Kolles, but it was not about money nor performance factors.

      My speculation is, it might have something to do with contracts for next year. Or maybe Senna refused to make place for Yamamoto in one session and was punished like this?
      I feel there’s a bigger story there.

      Also Cooper pointed out, that the other Senna had a similar incident with Toleman in 1984!

      1. Really? I’d like more details about the 1984 Toleman incident.

    2. miguelF1O (@)
      9th July 2010, 20:01

      senna probably is slower than chandok telemetry shows the team which driver is fastest more efficient on accelarating and braking and other stuff or it may be a sponsorship related decision cause chandok is indian so he speaks english and he worked at silverstone too so it is the closest to an home gp for him really hrt should rethink their line-up

      1. Yeah they shouldn’t have let 2 rookies in their car to begin with. Especially Chandhok, he’s not doing too bad but he didn’t have any right to be in that seat. Senna is faster the majority of times though.

    3. I thought that might have been the reason… You can imagine the situation:
      Yamamoto: “You know, it’s my birthday today! You didn’t forget, did you?”
      Kolles: “Er… no… of course not! Here, drive Karun’s car this weekend! We just… er… wanted it to be a surprise so we didn’t tell anyone! (slips Chandhok a fiver) Ssshhh!”
      Ecclestone: “Erm, I think you mean Bruno’s car?” (slips Kolles a fiver)
      Kolles: “Er… yeah, yeah, I meant Bruno’s car!”
      Senna: “What??!”
      Chandhok: (smug smile)

      1. This it the truth!!

  5. It’s likely nothing more than Yamamoto being allowed to run a race or two because he has brought in some money. Could I risk a guess at him also racing in Japan?

    The silly games in today high stakes sports. I’m sure we are all used to this by now.

    1. Well if they live up to that statement, it says that Senna will race the remaining races of the season, so if Yamamoto does race in Japan it would probably be at Chandhok’s expense.

  6. I suppose one of the reasons for replacing Senna rather than Chandhok might have been the new sponsor Jaypee (promotor of the Indian GP in 2012 as well) on their cars from the British GP onwards.

    http://www.pitpass.com/fes_php/pitpass_news_item.php?fes_art_id=41355

  7. let’s reserve judgement of yamamoto til after the race. i can’t remember his last appearances so can’t judge yet.

    1. No-one can remember his last appearances, that’s the problem.

  8. UneedAFinn2Win
    9th July 2010, 21:17

    Bottom line:

    It doesn’t really matter who drives the car since it has become painfully obvious they are in a hole too deep to climb out of without any resources to develop the car that was a turkey to begin with. Besides, it’s not as if changing drivers is a new thing in the sport, as a matter of fact I don’t remember a year when all those who started the year were there by the end.

    1. Well in 2008 the only two drivers who didn’t see out the season were Sato and Davidson for Super Aguri – no team changed driver at any point in the season.

      1. UneedAFinn2Win
        9th July 2010, 22:17

        Davidson went to Honda, Sato tried for Toro Rosso…

      2. 2002 had same thing but Arrows was gone. Frentzen and Davidson replaced Massa and Yoong for a while, but original drivers were back later on.

        2000 had same drivers everywhere except that Burti replaced Irvine in Austria.

    2. I take it UneedAFinn2Win is not a member of HRT’s press team.

  9. Mike "the bike" Schumacher
    9th July 2010, 21:21

    In Murray Walkers words ‘absoooolllluuuutellly Fannnntasssticccc!!!!!’

  10. In GPUPDATE: “Hearsay states that a failed payment from a sponsor may be the reason for Senna’s brief absence.

    1. I don’t care what failed pop groups think about the situation.

  11. Sush Meerkat
    9th July 2010, 21:39

    What disgusting news, hopefully Sakon shows the true potential of the HRT to shut up all the Senna fanboys, GO ON SAKON!

    Honestly, not bothered either way, I just wish the HRT racing team the best.

  12. James Allen on his blog mentioned a “disciplinary angle” to the change in driver, but hasn’t been able to elaborate thus far… any thoughts Keith?

    1. I’d be surprised if there’s anything other than money at the heart of this. It might be dressed up as a “disciplinary” thing but the bottom line will be cash.

      1. maybe the disciplinary action is aimed at the sponsors then…

  13. Off topic, but isn’t it convenient for HRT that all three drivers who have raced/will race for them have five-letter first names?

  14. The plot thickens: Senna says it was an internal decision. Yamamoto says he’ll talk to Senna. Kolles says it’s not money-related.

    I find it significant that Hispania point out that there are four drivers in the team. Could we be seeing Klien in a race seat soon? I would think they’d replace Chandhok to make it even between their drivers, but Chandhok has brought a new sponsor to the team: the Jaypee Group (owners of the new Jaypee Group Circuit in India). Perhaps once Jaypee have been with the team wor a while, they’ll give Klein a run.

    To what end, I don’t know – but perhaps they’re evaluating team line-ups for 2011?

    1. Klien is clearly the team’s strongest driver, with Senna and Chandok pretty much together in the Middle, and Sakon on the bottom.

      If it isn’t money involved, Then it would be Klien in the seat. Even if Sakon can match the other two drivers, Klien is quicker again, I just can’t see Sakon improving like that.

    2. If they are still around for 2011!!

  15. There is a rumour doing the rounds that Senna was dropped on disciplinary grounds. I cant see what it would be for if this is the case, Senna is probably one of better behaved drivers on the grid. Very confusing times.

  16. So the HRT car now has the two sponsors from Senna, and it has Yajpee, “Ermis” don’t know what they are. I saw PANDA on the Sakon/Bruno car as well in pictures.
    Maybe that’s Yamomoto’s sponsor?

    1. 1 of them is Jaypee..they are the one’s building the track fr indian gp..so u know who brought them and dunno about the other

Comments are closed.