F1 Fanatic

I don’t think you can just look at finishing results when rating Bruno as there were a few races where he got a much lower place than his actual performance during the race would have got him.

At Spa a lot was made of his qualifying position & turn 1 accident, However after he pitted for a new nose his race pace was actually fairly strong when compared to Petrov.

When he scored points at Monza its often overlooked that he was last at the end of lap 1 having driven through the gravel avoiding the turn 1 crash & had to pit for a new nose as a precaution due to going through the gravel.

He was faster than Petrov all weekend at Singapore a track which is one of the most physically demanding circuits on the calender.

He matched Petrov’s pace all weekend at Suzuka & outqualified Petrov despite having done no qualifying simulation during practice due to his crash.

From memory he was ahead of Petrov in India when his KERS failed & Got screwed by the team’s strategy at Abu-Dhabi when they pitted him at the end of lap 1 expecting a safety car, Then as he was coming back through the field he had another KERS failure.

He was also well ahead of Petrov at Brazil untill the incident with Schumacher which I still see as a racing incident undeserving of a penalty, Especially since the penalty was for the initial collision & not for the one which gave Schumi the puncture. Bruno’s pace was then very strong & he had made progress through the field before getting the 2nd penalty for ignoring blue flags.

Also its worth remembering that he was only 3 tenths of Button’s pace when he had the test with Honda at the end of 2008 & Ross Brawn spoke very highly of Bruno & did say that had Honda not pulled out & had they had more preperation before the start of the 2009 season he would have gone with Bruno rather than retained Barrichello.

From the Barcelona Test on 20/11/2008:
5 Jenson Button Honda 1m21.387 94
8 Bruno Senna Honda 1m21.676 107

From an earlier test at Barcelona in similar conditions:
7 Rubens Barrichello, Honda, 1:21.950 sec 122

Remember Button had a ton more experience in the Honda RA108 & that car round that track while it was Bruno’s 1st ever run in an F1 car.

Nevertheless, you can’t simply say “that year didn’t count because he didn’t have a good car”. The F110 might have been an absolute dog of a car, but Karun Chandhok was able to finish in fourteenth place in two races, securing 11th place in the WCC.

I feel that Senna should be given some lee way.

Why does he deserve to be treated differently to anyone else? Because he’s a Senna? So far, he hasn’t lived up to the name.

You can completely write off 2010 for Senna. It was such a dreadful car it never showed anything about Senna’s driving skill or consistency. Plus that year he had a dreadful team and a mismatch of teammates. Senna should be given some lee way due to the fact that he is a few years behind, and think about the emotional side of what Senna has been through…

You just used the ‘Chandock got two 14th places’ argument while ignoring that somebody else had completely negated the relevance of it.

And let me negate it further- by being on the grid at all and having a car that didn’t break down is the only reason Chandock got those 14th places. In Australia he finished 14th. And last. In Monaco he was running 14th and 2nd to last and was taken out by Trulli at the end of the race. Badoer could have performed just as well. Chandock was simply lucky to get finishes (or in Monaco near enough to be classified) in the two highest attrition races.

It’s a bit hypocritical of PM to complain about people overstating Senna’s achievements, when he himself is very quick to write him off.
PM looks at statistics only – his refusal to read what Steven said about Chandhok’s 14th places says it all (about how Senna was ahead until his car blew up). You could also argue that he should look at Senna’s pace in Barcelona 2008 compared to Button, who took the car to WDC glory the next year, the very car that Senna could have driven if Honda hadn’t pulled out.
PM just doesn’t like him, end of. We can’t change that.
Personally, I would like to see Senna given a PROPER chance. Not a year in a GP2 car on an F1 grid, not half a year in an ailing Renault. I have a feeling that the FW34 will be at least half-decent, probably 2010-pace relative to the rest of the field, meaning regular points. A year for Senna in this car should either silence his critics or his fans. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Senna to Williams is nothing but a marketing ploy end of!

I don’t think he has done anything to particularly deserve his seat but then Williams aren’t exactly looking for deserving drivers now are they (or perhaps they are getting the drivers they deserve!)

Barrichello’s time has come and gone, a few seasons ago to be honest. People often talk about how good he is at car development and set-up but I don’t see anything like that having happened at Williams, quite the reverse in fact. I think this reputation has come about because JB borrowed his set-up once or twice in his championship year which happens more often than the teams or drivers ever admit.

It looks like a done deal, it’s all over twitter. I think Senna deserves one last chance. If you can write off Senna’s potential on his 2010 performance in the HRT, then you have to rule out the potential of Liuzzi, Glock, Ricciardo and others as well, because none of these drivers have achieved anything in HRT or Virgin, nor should they be expected to. And you can’t rule him out based on an underwhelming half season with Renault either. I actually think he showed a lot of potential and would almost certainly have outperformed Vitaly Petrov with a full pre season of testing and the other half of the races under his belt as well.

What I would say though is that this season is make or break for him.