Bruno Senna

Bruno Senna drives for HRT in 2010

Bruno Senna began karting when he was five but six years later, when his famous uncle Ayrton was killed, his family ended his racing.

He returned to karting in 2003 and as he reached his 21st birthday his determination to compete became clear to his family. At the end of 2004 he made his first race starts with Carlin in the British Formula BMW championship. In six appearances he scored a best finish of sixth.

Formula Three

That paved the way for a full season of Formula Three in Britain in 2005 – the same championship his uncle had won 22 years earlier. Racing for Double R (the team run by Kimi Raikkonen and Steve Robertson) he got on the podium three times and ended the year tenth overall.

He remained at Double R for a second year and he and team mate Mike Conway were tipped to be the top championship contenders. Senna began the season by making a one-off appearance in the Australian F3 series supporting the Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne.

Conway’s grinding consistency put the British title beyond Senna’s reach – the Briton won eight times and scored points in 21 of the 22 rounds. Senna began the year strongly winning both rounds at Oulton Park but his season went downhill after he suffered a huge crash at Snetterton, flying in the air and almost hitting the bridge on the Revett straight.

Senna ended the year third overall, losing second place to Oliver Jarvis. But the promise he had shown despite the gaping hole in his racing CV – and the inevitable appeal of his name – secured him a place in GP2 for 2007.

GP2

Senna joined Arden for his first GP2 season and won his third race in the category. But after scoring four times in the first six races he hit a slump and only posted three more points finishes over the rest of the year. He ended the year eighth in the championship and second best rookie behind Kazuki Nakajima.

He also made an ill-fated return to F3 at the end of the season for the Macau Grand Prix. He crashed in the qualifying race and failed to make the main event.

A one-off appearance in the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli series at Silverstone part way through the season went much better, Senna winning both of his races in a Ferrari 430.

Over the winter of 2007/08 Senna raced in the inaugural GP2 Asia series for iSport, the team who had just won the GP2 title with Timo Glock. He finished the ten-round series fifth but the result rather masked the quality of his driving. He lost one potential win to a questionable stewards’ call and another when his team fluffed a pit stop.

The bad luck followed him into the GP2 series proper. In the fourth race of the year, at Istanbul, he hit a dog which had run onto the track, and was fortunate not to suffer injury.

Senna has scored two wins so far this year – both of which invoked strong memories of his uncle’s victories in F1. He won at Monaco, where Ayrton scored a record six F1 victories, and in heavy rain at Silverstone, just as Ayrton did 20 years earlier.

He ended the year second in the championship to Giorgio Pantano. For a while a move to F1 with Honda in 2009 looked in the offing – but the team’s withdrawal from the sport left Senna on the sidelines. He raced for Oreca in the Le Mans Series – including the Le Mans 24 Hours – instead.

F1

At the end of the 2009 season F1 newcomers Campos Meta 1 announced Senna would make his debut with them in 2010. On the eve of the season the team changed its name to HRT F1.

Senna began the year with the team but was left out of the race line-up at Silverstone in favour of Sakon Yamamoto. He returned to the team alongside the Japanese driver at the Hockenheimring.

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Image (C) Campos Meta