F1 Fanatic

@prisoner-monkeys
I agree that he hasn’t had any real standouts other than the last race, but this is a little unfair.

He hasn’t done anything to make us sit bolt upright and pay attention, like when Alonso drove 53 qualifying laps at Suzuka in a Minardi, or when Raikkonen won a race from 17th on the grid.

Raikkonen was already an established star by that point in his 4th full consecutive year. You may as well mention Alonso’s last win.

People are acting as if Senna is a World Champion in the making, but he hasn’t actually done anything becoming of a World Champion.

Who is? The OP is a bit fanatical, but otherwise most people in support seem to be fairly moderate. I’m a fan and I certainly don’t claim he’ll be great. To be honest I doubt he’ll ever find himself in a position to win a race, but I think he may have the potential to achieve that if he has a good year (I mean by having a good year this year so as to set himself up for betters results/drives in the future, I don’t mean I think he would win a race this year), or at least have several respectable years running in the sport in the midfield (Heidfeld-like).

@Prisoner-Monkeys

Senna has had eighteen months.

A very exceptional and atypical 18 months though. Expecting someone to just pick up F1 and start performing after being shuffled around, dropped, picked up and then not used, having almost 12 months without driving an F1 car and then put into a fairly decent car and all the rest of what he’s dealt with is a bit over-the-top.

I think people are getting carried away by a) his surname

Undoubtedly, yes, there is a lot of that. But I know many of the people here choose to see Bruno as his own person. As far as I see it, he gets equally as much criticism for having that surname.

and b) Ayrton Senna’s comments about how good he was.

I think that was Ayrton being nice to his nephew and nothing more.

But above all, I don’t think I could ever dislike someone based on driving ability alone. When you get to this level, the differences in ability are so minimal that it comes down to differences in style in my opinion. So for the time being, I’ll keep my mind open to Bruno because a) he’s one of the nicest and most genuine characters on the grid (something his uncle never was) and b) I firmly believe his time in F1 has been too chaotic and atypical to accurately judge him.

Would teams be willing to take on a driver they didn’t feel could get them good results? I’d rather see Barrichello in his seat, but Senna brings money and a fair amount of pace to Williams. They’re two things the team needs if they want to get back to where they were.

@Prisoner Monkeys I agree that the senna surename helped him alot in becomming an f1 driver and it probably continue to help him. After reading all the posts it seems its a bit devided some are pro others are contra. And i wouldn’t want it any other way.

I guess were just have to wait and see what resuslts he can drive in the upcomming races

Can you honestly tell me you’ve seen anything from him that suggests he’s world championship material or that he’s rubbish?

Yes – most of what he achieved in Australia. And it probably would have been the same in Malaysia were it not for the race stoppage.

Maybe he’s got more chances than others because he’s a Senna, but it’s not like he doesn’t deserve them.

I disagree, Senna doesn’t deserve a third chance. I realise he’s had a tough start to F1, but you still have to make the best of those chances, which Senna hasn’t done.

He was thrown in mid-season, with little or no experience of KERS, DRS and Pirellis. And he did out-qualify Petrov on those occasions, which is already a good achievement – Petrov did a very good job in qualy last year.

I disagree with the opening post (has it been changed?) – Senna hasn’t shown much yet. But it’s too early to write him off. As you say, Button is a good example – it takes time sometimes.