De naam Senna wellicht terug in de Formule 1

[117ayrton]

Misbruik, die jongen heeft toch best wel talent en dat heeft ie laten zien door de F3 race te winnen in Melbourne.

http://www.f1racing.nl/nl/news.php?newsID=113914

niemand die ook beweerd dat hij geen talent heeft

[rsh_scuderia]

Bruno Senna vestigt naam
bron: Formule 1 RaceReport


Bruno Senna lijkt in de voetsporen te gaan treden van zijn legendarische oom, wijlen drievoudig wereldkampioen Formule 1 Ayrton Senna.


De 21-jarige Braziliaan won afgelopen weekend op het circuit van Oulton Park (GB) beide races in het Brits Formule 3-kampioenschap. Senna liet ook nog eens de snelste rondetijd aantekenen. Zijn oom Ayrton Senna veroverde in 1983 de Britse Formule 3-titel, alvorens in 1984 (met Toleman-Hart) in de Formule 1 te debuteren. De Braziliaan won vervolgens 41 Grand Prix' en vertrok 65 maal van pole-position. Senna 'senior' verongelukte dodelijk tijdens de Grand Prix van San Marino in 1994 op het circuit van Imola.

Bruno lijkt het toch wel "te hebben". Ik schrok alleen van een shot van zijn helm. Ik zag een gelijke kopie van de Ayrton Senna helm, toen ik het "S" logo herkende.

[boerke04]

:D eigenlijk misbruikt bruno de naam van zijn oom,want het is niet zijn naam ,want is de zoon van zijn zus .

Om hier nog even op terug te komen, ik heb eens wat nagezocht over achternamen in Brazilie en het schijnt daar dus normaal te zijn om de achternaam van je moeder eerst te noemen en vervolgens eventueel die van je vader. Bruno Senna is dus z'n echte naam, ze hebben daar dus alleen een ander systeem qua achternamen dan hier .

[117ayrton]

dat wist ik ook wel ,hoor ,maar ik vond het enkel jammer dat hij ook bijna de zelfde helm ook draagt ,maar ik ben er wel zeker van dat hij talent heeft,dat bewees hij verleden week-end in engeland.of hij zo groot zal worden dan zijn oom ,dat valt nog af te wachten .pittig detail nog weet je ook dat zijn vader verongelukte met de bugatti motor die hij erfde van ayrton senna ,de eerste keer dat hij met dat ding ging rijden was ook de laatste keer,want werd dood gereden door een taxi als ik het mij nog goed weet te herrinneren .wat dan ook ik zal zeker de prestatie's van bruno blijven volgen ,het doet enkel pijn om weer die legendarische helm weer te zien rijden ,maar dat is heel persoonlijk.
groeten victor

[rsh_scuderia]

Dat verhaal van zijn vader had ik niet eerder gehoord

Ik heb hetzelfde gevoel als jij Vic, het gaat me niet om de naam, maar de helm is een verwijzing naar Ayrton Senna, welke ik best pijnlijk vind. Dan spreek ik op eigen titel uiteraard.

[Jolly Club]

Je kan het op twee manieren uitleggen denk ik.

Laten we eens uitgaan van de goede bedoelingen van het meneertje in kwestie en zeggen dat het zijn ultieme eerbetoon aan zijn gestorven oom is. Als de weduwe van Senna er problemen mee had gehad, zou ze vast al in de telefoon geklommen zijn om neef Bruno eens flink de oren te wassen

Jean Alesi reed jarenlang rond met het originele helmdesign van Elio de Angelis (die in 1986 verongelukte in die schitterende platte Brabham) en ook dat was bedoeld als persoonlijk eerbetoon aan een coureur die hem na aan het hart lag

[rsh_scuderia]

Ik bekritiseer Bruno Senna niet om de helm, voor mij is een auto met die helm alleen een pijnlijk gezicht.

Als je het beschouwd als eerbetoon is het niet verkeerd.
Maar ook dan had hij het anders kunnen doen, maar dat is weer een persoonlijke keus uiteraard.

[117ayrton]

Ik bekritiseer Bruno Senna niet om de helm, voor mij is een auto met die helm alleen een pijnlijk gezicht.

Als je het beschouwd als eerbetoon is het niet verkeerd.
Maar ook dan had hij het anders kunnen doen, maar dat is weer een persoonlijke keus uiteraard.

ik kan niet anders dan mij hier bij aan te sluiten ,ook om zeer persoonlijke redenen

[boerke04]

Deze Sennafan vindt 't juist weer mooi om (een variant op) de beroemde helm te zien in een racewagen. Ik hoop dan ook echt dat Bruno ooit in de F1 terechtkomt en daar mee kan strijden voor de prijzen. Iedereen kijkt er natuurlijk anders tegenaan en dat is ook begrijpelijk .

[autofreakie]

Vermits ik Senna niet van mijn tijd was heb ik toch een paar beelden van zijn wedsrijden bekeken en ik vond het een goede strijder. Bij mij heeft hij ondertussen ook al een klein plekje in men hart verrovert . En dat nu Senna zijn neefje misschien in de F1 komt vind ik eigenlijk wel leuk. Dus ik zeg : LAAT MAAR KOMEN !!

[Markopolo]

Deze Sennafan vindt 't juist weer mooi om (een variant op) de beroemde helm te zien in een racewagen. Ik hoop dan ook echt dat Bruno ooit in de F1 terechtkomt en daar mee kan strijden voor de prijzen.

Right on!

Hier nog een leuk stuk(je) over Bruno en wat zelf Senna nog over hem zegt

Ayrton Senna always said his nephew Bruno was an outstanding talent, something he recognised as he battled with the youngster on the go-kart track he had built on the family farm in Tatui. Senna died before the promise could be fulfilled and Bruno’s career was frozen in time. Unfrozen again, he has come to Europe with his sister Bianca to see if the Brazilian magic can work a second time around.

Bruno Senna arrived in the United Kingdom just over a year ago and settled in the English seaside town of Brighton. Nine months later he was joined by his sister, Bianca, and three months ago the two moved to London. He is 21, she is 25. His mission in life is to become Formula One world champion. Hers is to hone her management skills, become a sponsorship expert and help him to the maximum. It is all eerily similar to 23 years ago when their uncle, Ayrton Senna, arrived in February 1981 as a 20-year-old with his young wife Liliane.

Ayrton, however, had certain advantages, including a long career in karting and a proven track record, with dozens of kart races under his belt. Bruno had done no races and his experience was mainly restricted to the time he had spent speeding around the go-kart track built by Senna at the family farm in Tatui back in Brazil.

While Ayrton paid US$15,000 for his first year of Formula Ford with Ralph Firman’s Van Diemen works team, Bruno paid US$80,000 for 14 days testing and his three races in Formula BMW in 2004 with Trevor Carlin’s team.

If Ayrton Senna hadn’t died in 1994 then almost certainly young Bruno’s career would have been very different, likely arriving in England at 18 to do Formula Ford, like his uncle before him, and working his way up to Formula One in a comfortable five-year time frame.

That Senna thought highly of his nephew is reflected in private comments he made to McLaren team manager, Dave Ryan, in 1993. His words to Ryan, shortly before he left the team for Williams, were: “If you think I am good wait until my nephew arrives.â€￾ Senna had duelled with Bruno around the Tatui go-kart track and there is no question he intended his nephew to follow him to Europe at the appropriate time.

But that was not to be. Senna’s fatal accident forced the then 10-year-old Bruno to suppress his racing ambitions, pretending to his grief-stricken family they no longer existed. In reality, after Senna’s death his ambitions were frozen, although the passion to race still burned within him. At 12, his ambitions were dealt a second blow when barely 18 months after his uncle’s death, his father, Flavio Lalli, was struck down suddenly in a chance motor accident. The circumstances were arguably even more terrible and shocking than his uncle’s death. It happened when Lalli arranged for Ayrton Senna’s personal MV Augusta 750cc F4 Sport motorbike – which the three-time world champion had endorsed in 1992 – to be brought into Sao Paulo from the Tatui family farm to be serviced by a local dealer. The bike was duly delivered back from the dealer and was just about to be loaded onto the family van, which was returning to the farm. Suddenly Bruno’s father noticed there was no fuel in the bike’s tank and said he would ride it to the local gas station, a few blocks away, to have it filled up. Barely five minutes later he was dead. By all accounts, he was stationery at a junction, waiting to proceed, when a taxi ploughed into him. Julian Jakobi, Ayrton Senna’s former manager recalls: “Flavio was a lovely, lovely man, the nicest man you could ever meet.â€￾ The family was devastated once again and for young Bruno it meant the two big influences on his life were gone within a few months.

The deaths, now a distant memory, hit Bruno in different ways. Despite their age difference, his relationship with his uncle was more like that of a brother. Bruno says now: “I was really young when Ayrton died so it is something that kids do not take the same way as adults. Ayrton was like my reference as a sportsman because I did go-karts, as he raced, and he was more someone that I was ready to fight with.â€￾ His father’s death was altogether different: “When my father died I was a bit more mature but not much more, and it was really difficult to cope with as both deaths were really close together. I was really young and these things they pass in a different way. I did not really absorb that in the moment. It came slowly and made it easier for me to absorb.â€￾

Until the age of 10, go-karting and dreams of a racing career, encouraged by his uncle, had dominated Bruno’s short life. It was almost a secret between them. But on 1st May 1994 that all ended. Bruno recalls: “It was obvious for me to stop and then I never spoke about it with my family, but I wanted to race. They thought I had dropped it just because I did not say anything.â€￾

Unlike his uncle’s death, however, Bruno does not believe his father’s death hindered his racing, as he says: “I had stopped two years earlier and it didn’t really make much difference.â€￾ But he does believe that without the tragedy, the crucial heart-to-heart he was to have with his mother when he was 18 years old would have happened with his father when he was 16, thus saving him two years.

Bruno says the situation had been made more difficult because Ayrton’s father, Milton da Silva, felt guilty about the accident. It was he who financed Senna’s career and was responsible for him getting into a racing car. As a result he feels a responsibility that will never go away. The world lost a great hero but Milton lost a son. Consequently Bruno’s grandfather has shown little interest in his career, although his grandmother Niede, is more supportive. The problem for Bruno after Senna’s death was that all his experience of going to races had been through his grandfather and that all stopped with his uncle’s demise. Bruno explains: “After the accident he did not take me anymore.â€￾

Quite understandably, no one dreamt Bruno would want to race after what had happened. For some eight years it lay in his mind and he discussed his latent ambitions with no one. Consequently, when he confided in his mother, Viviane, on his 18th birthday, she was taken totally by surprise. That conversation was the most difficult of his life: “Talking to my family was a very delicate subject. It was really painful. I was not confident because I thought the family really did not want me to do it. So I had just kept it quiet and it really started bothering me again.â€￾ He says he dared not raise the subject with his mother before then: “Everyone had got used to the idea that I would not race anymore because of the history. It did not work.â€￾

It had meant eight wasted years, all so different to when his uncle was alive and he had spent endless days on the family go-kart track in Tatui. He remembers: “I did go-karts from five to 10 years old, but I never raced, I just tested.â€￾ For eight years after that he did not step into any competitive machine. The pain was just too great and the latent unsaid disapproval of the family just too strong.

After the conversation with his mother, she agreed he could resume his karting career but made it clear he must also finish his education. But competitive karting at 18 was to prove impossible. The top level is designed for 15 and 16 year olds. And every time he now raced a kart, he broke some ribs. He explains: “I tried to do go-karts for one year and I just broke my ribs every time.â€￾ The problem was that he had grown too tall, taller than his uncle was, and could not adapt. And although it is not unusual for a karter to break a rib during a race, even at the top level – for instance when current Grand Prix racer Tonio Liuzzi won the world championship in Italy in 2001, he fractured a rib – for Bruno it was an acute problem and he was forced to give up. But it did not stop the passion he had to race. And so it was that two years later, aged 20, with his education finished, he went back to his mother and she agreed he could go to Europe. But even at only 20 years old, he was already 10 years behind in the modern time frame of development of a driver – a time deficit that corresponded exactly to how long his uncle had been dead.

The comparisons with his contemporaries, someone like Tonio Liuzzi, who is a few years older, were not good. Liuzzi started karting in 1991 when he was 12. By the time he was 14 he was winning races and starring in championships. At 20 he was karting world champion and into Formula Three, and then Formula 3000.

Before Bruno could leave for Europe, his mother insisted he prove he had the speed to race. Family friend, Gerhard Berger, arranged a half-day test in a Formula Renault in Brazil. The test was, in hindsight, extraordinary. In that half day, he had to prove he was good enough for the family to invest US$100,000 to send him to Europe. He did enough for his mother to sign the cheque, in fact he did better than that. His first time in a race care was sensational by any standards. He merely says: “I was pretty quick with the Formula Renault.â€￾

He landed in England with no deals and no clear plan. He chose Brighton to live in because he had heard of it in Brazil and he figured the climate would be closest to what he was used to. It was also near the Carlin Motorsport headquarters. Bruno says: “There was a beach so I could get used to the country. But I had a big shock because the cultural difference is really, really huge and staying near the sea made everything easier for me.â€￾

Having arrived he was undecided whether to do Formula BMW or Formula Renault. He again turned to Senna’s old friend Gerhard Berger for advice. In typical Berger fashion he told him to try both and arranged a test day for each. Bruno remembers: “I spoke to Gerhard and he put two days together for me. I tested the Formula BMW and I was pretty quick and when I tested with the Renault I was not that quick, I was a bit off. I preferred the Formula BMW as a driving style.â€￾

In order to make up time, again following Berger’s advice, he signed a deal with Carlin Motorsport to take part in the last three races of the British Formula BMW championship. Formula BMW is an entry-level championship where a season costs around US$260,000 to race competitively. Senna paid Carlin around US$80,000 for some intensive testing and three races. He remembers: “I tested 14 or 15 days in a Formula BMW with Carlin. I was doing some very good lap times.â€￾

But he was under no illusions about his late arrival and although it was not completely unprecedented, it was a difficult barrier to overcome. The late Graham Hill’s son Damon, who spent most of his youth racing motorbikes came to cars late and ended up as world champion. But Kimi Räikkönen had changed all the rules when he burst through to Formula One in 2001 at the age of 21. Bruno is aware of all the problems he faces and says: “It is late. I don’t have any racing experience but maybe I have the speed to be there and racing is only learning and every race that I do I learn a lot.â€￾

Bruno immediately made a lot of friends at Carlin and formed a close bond with its top engineer, Anthony Hieatt, better known in motor racing by his nickname of ‘Boyo’. Bruno proved he had the same ability as his uncle in getting good people to come and work with him. Bruno recalls: “He was the top engineer in Carlin and another driver told me to get him as my engineer. I got a really good relationship with him.â€￾ It was a union that was to prove very significant later.

Although his best placing was sixth at Donington in the last race of the 2004 season, he put the car on the front row for both of the rounds. That impressed a lot of people, notably Steve Hollman, commercial director of Carlin, no fool when it comes to judging young drivers. Hollman was cautiously impressed: “He had done nothing before he got in the car. The first race he did for us was the first race he had ever done. In the last meeting of the season he took two front rows.â€￾ But more impressive was his technical understanding of how a racing car, particularly the BMW car, worked. The feedback he gave to engineers was amazing for such an inexperienced driver. It was a talent his uncle had which Bruno had clearly inherited. Hollman says: “He had an immediate ability to understand the dynamics of the race car. That takes ages to pick up and I wondered where it came from.â€￾

He also went to Macau and entered the Formula Renault race there. The visit was very successful and he came in second, his best result to date. It was a pleasant interlude between preparations for 2005.

2005 would be shaped by the decision of whether to stay in Formula BMW or make the big leap into Formula Three. On paper the idea of Formula Three was ludicrous for a driver who had only done six races. No one had attempted that before. There was also the monetary difference. Some US$700,000 was required for a Formula Three season as against US$300,000 for Formula BMW.

But Bruno was worried he was too old for Formula BMW and would be under a lot of pressure to win the championship in what would be his first full year. A driver in Formula BMW is typically aged 15 to 18. He admits: “I did not have any experience so I made many mistakes. You see in Formula BMW the accidents all the things that happen in the race because all the guys come from go-karts and they think it is go-kart racing but it is not. And I thought that I could really learn more in a Formula Three season.â€￾ With that decision made, ordinarily he would have stayed with the Carlin team but managing director, Trevor Carlin’s move into Formula One changed all that.

The Formula BMW experience with Carlin was a happy one and there is little doubt he would have stayed with Carlin for 2005 Formula Three had Anthony Hieatt not had ambitions to be an entrant himself. Bruno recalls: “He came to me and said, ‘you know that Trevor is going to Formula One and Carlin is going to change because of that, so I am not going to stay at Carlin’.â€￾ Bruno, amazingly astute for his age, found his thinking entirely in tune with Hieatt’s. He says now: “I was really afraid of how Carlin would be this year with Trevor going away, and many people say Carlin is really different now to the way it was last year, and I was afraid that it would not have enough structure to be competitive.â€￾ In any case he was determined to stay with Hieatt. The Carlin team decided not to stand in his way, as Hollman says: “We would have loved to have run Bruno but we didn’t and we wouldn’t have got in his way.â€￾

Hieatt’s plans involved a partnership with David and Steve Robertson and their driver Kimi Räikkönen, who also wanted to set up a F3 team. The three eventually formed Räikkönen-Robertson Racing, better known as Double-R Racing.

Although it was a new team, Bruno felt with Hieatt in charge it would be competitive. He says: “I started negotiating with them and then he introduced me to David and Steve. He was actually Steve’s mechanic or engineer when Steve drove in some races in British Formula Three.â€￾ Little did Bruno realise he was being introduced to the top management pairing in Formula One. Something that could do him no harm at all. But first he had to get the financial details out of the way.

Meeting the Robertsons opened up the possibilities. The duo had made themselves wealthy when they financed Jenson Button and Räikkönen’s early careers by virtually buying up their lives in a long-term contract, which swapped career support for as much as 35 per cent of their earnings later.â€￾ Whether the Robertsons offered this deal to Bruno no one will say. But in any case Bruno didn’t want that. He preferred to pay his own way and make decisions about a manager later.

But as the negotiations were going on his sister Bianca arrived in England to help with her brother’s commercial affairs. Just in time for some tough negotiations with David Robertson. Bianca says: “There were some very tough negotiations as you can imagine with David and Steve. So in the end we eventually worked it out together and we started testing on the 29th of December last year.â€￾

The deal wasn’t cheap but British Formula Three has long ceased to be cheap. A deal for a season’s racing was struck at US$750,000. With everything else and extra testing, the two Sennas are spending close to US$1 million in 2005. Ninety per cent is provided by the Senna family with 10 per cent from sponsors. US$100,000 is being provided by two sponsors, the Brazilian airline Varig and I-house, a Brazilian computer firm. Bianca says: “Basically it is family money.â€￾ Although the Senna-Da Silva-Lalli family is a wealthy one, the money is hard fought for. Since Ayrton Senna’s death the family has devoted itself to the Senna Foundation he founded.

Luckily Bianca and Bruno’s mother, Viviane, the public face of the Senna Foundation, is very supportive, making frequent trips from Brazil to show support for her son. Bianca says: “Our mother has this way of thinking that you have to have a chance to be yourself. She could not be the one that says we are not going to do it because I do not like it. So you have a go, see if it is bad or not. That is why she is the one supporting us financially. Every time she can she comes to see a race. Now she is enjoying it very much, she gets more nervous than Bruno.â€￾

As the season started, after nearly a year living in Brighton, Bruno and Bianca moved into a flat in Queensgate, London, a stone’s throw from Bernie Ecclestone’s HQ at Princes Gate, near the Albert Hall.

The decision to enter British Formula Three was a brave one. There were plenty of less demanding championships available but Senna is adamant he wanted to be tested. Like all racing drivers he thrives on competition, as he says: “I like to push myself to the limit.â€￾ His sister believes he has made the right choice even though he has spent a year struggling. She says: “If you want to do something do it properly. It is better to be one year struggling to get on the pace but he will learn.â€￾ Until his Formula Three entry, Bruno’s career had been a relative cakewalk, impressing at every race and test. Formula Three was to prove a real reality check. As much as had previously gone right started to go wrong. In Formula Three he is the right age competing against drivers who are mostly 20 to 23. But straight away he was hindered by a lack of race experience. He admits: “In winter testing I was very quick but then I got to the races I was miles behind the other guys.â€￾

But he had the benefit of starting the season at a track he knew well, Donington Park. It was the scene of his uncle’s first drive in a Formula One car in 1983 and his greatest ever race in 1993. His uncle established an affinity with the circuit and so did Bruno. He has always driven fast there. He doesn’t know why the Sennas do well at Donington, just that they do. He says: “I think I had a really nice start to the year. When I got to Donington, I know I was going to be quick. I almost got pole position in the first qualifying and I had a mistake and got fifth. I had the pace but in the races I had some mistakes and I did not go to the potential that I had in qualifying.â€￾ After Donington he didn’t know any of the other circuits, which some of his competitors had visited at least 10 times over four years. It is an obstacle he has not been able to get over, as he says: “Some circuits really caught me out. Some of the guys raced for four years, I was struggling.â€￾ He has made plenty of mistakes, ruining many race finishes. But in qualifying he has regularly been in the top third of the field. And there lies his weakness. He simply has no race craft. That has been felt acutely in 2005, when Christian Bakkerud, a driver he easily beat in Formula BMW, turned the tables in the far more competitive world of British Formula Three. Like everyone he comes up against, Bakkerud has competed in hundreds of races, whereas Bruno has fewer than 20 under his belt.

Last year in Formula BMW, Bruno was a star in the making and had the measure of the field, despite having no experience. This year everything has reversed and he is very much the rookie. Bruno is adamant it is unfamiliarity with circuits that has caused his problems and the ongoing problem with race craft. He says: “Every circuit was pretty much new.â€￾ As a result, because his learning curve is sharper every mistake is magnified and affects his mood for days: “Everything has been a big experience so it is difficult to pick a worse moment than when I do a stupid mistake. When I made a mistake in the last race in Monza I was really in pain for that stupid mistake. It really got to me.â€￾ A mistake that puts him out of a race is really bad news as race experience is what he needs most.

The pain of the mistakes is relieved only by the pleasure of getting it right. He had such a moment, briefly, at the Spa-Francorchamps race in the rain when he thought he had pole position, until he was pipped by three cars in the dying moments. He remembers: “My team showed me P1 and then it was the chequered flag and I was like pole position, but I did not have the radio, it was not working. But it was still one tenth of pole position.â€￾

He has been overshadowed this season by his team-mate Dan Clark, who has much greater experience. But Bruno believes that when everything is equal, he is the faster driver, as he says: “In France it was new for me and it was new for my team-mate. And I was much quicker than him straight away, and it kept like that. But when I have the disadvantage of not knowing the circuit, then it is really difficult.â€￾ It is getting less of a problem as he gets more experience: “Every circuit that I go to, it gets much easier.â€￾ One problem he hasn’t had is over the competitiveness of his new team. After nine races it scored its first victory when Clark took the chequered flag at Castle Coombe.

Apart from gaining experience, the two young Sennas have virtually written off the rest of 2005. The focus has switched to 2006 and another year of Formula Three, this time with a load of experience under their belt. It is likely they will stay with Double-R as he has no wish to disturb his partnership with Hieatt.

Bianca Senna is very important to her brother’s future at this point in his career. She was an executive for the Senna Foundation and is savvy beyond her years. She already has her own take on the movers and shakers that shape Formula One today and can be amazingly astute.

But it is not her relationship with other people that will make or break the mission, it is her relationship with her brother, who has all the frustrations of a young racing driver on the make to contend with. She says of their relationship: “He respects me, I respect him and, you know.â€￾ The success or otherwise of her mission is all wrapped up in the ‘you know’. For now she is the closest he has to a manager and she will be working hard to fulfil the role. But she is under no illusion that eventually she may have to make way for someone more experienced. For now she believes the fact he knows she is there 100 per cent for him makes the difference. She also wants time to suss out who the best managers are. She says: “For sure it is really good to be able to have someone who is 100 per cent and know that she does not want to do anything bad. For now we decided not to have anyone. We are still looking, we like learning everything ourselves. There are lots of people who want to help us but people really have to care because of the Senna name. There are good people and bad people and eventually I will find someone who I think fits the plan.â€￾

Bianca is an open book and is aware of the past influence of Julian Jakobi, a trustee of the Senna Foundation. But it is clear that Gerhard Berger is the biggest influence on them. Bianca says: “Gerhard really helps us and I always call him, he is always there and he has been great with his helping. Since the beginning he has been a key person.â€￾ It was Berger who told Bruno to give up karting when he kept breaking his ribs. He also masterminded his single-seater outings. In fact they won’t move a step without his advice and approval. Bruno says: “He put the Formula Renault and Formula BMW tests together for me. He was there. He has loads of experience so he really pointed me in the right way.â€￾

Like his uncle, Bruno Senna has surrounded himself with a very strong commercial team. Bianca doubles as unofficial manager, PR and general minder. Celso Lemos, business director of the Senna Foundation and a close business associate of Ayrton Senna, looks after the commercial side and provides the heavyweight business expertise.

The subject occupying much of Bianca’s time currently is raising sponsorship for 2006. She is looking for a million dollars in sponsorship for a full year of testing and racing intensively, to try and win the championship Bruno’s uncle fought Martin Brundle so hard for in 1983.

Interestingly, Bianca says sponsorship has proved really difficult, initially because of the spectre of failure that hung over the project. She says sponsors knew the exposure would be high because of who Bruno is, and if he failed to make the grade the negatives would be high as well. It is a legacy of the wasted years. Bruno adds: “It was really difficult to get the sponsorship money for this year because everyone was afraid to connect themselves with my name. They knew that it was going to be big exposure, which would be good for them, but then again they did not know whether I was going to perform or do bad things.â€￾ That said, the pair have been close to some big deals, especially in the Far East after Bruno’s Macau performance.

Although the sponsorship hunt for 2006 is just starting, there are many prospects in Brazil already. Bianca says: “There are many possibilities.â€￾ She has done a deal with television companies for exposure, and her brother’s exploits are getting publicity back home. That will really kick in when there are some tangible results, like a podium, a win or a pole. They both know the publicity will explode when that happens and looking at the scorecards it is just around the corner. But both are aware the corner may not be turned until 2006 and that will make landing a big sponsor deal more difficult.

The Sennas have some good contacts with Brazilian companies because of the work of the Foundation in Europe. Bianca says: “They know the figures and they know what we do. Outside Brazil it is not the same so that is why Bruno has the Senna logo on the car, to explain basically what we are trying to do here. We think that Ayrton built a philosophy so this philosophy means to be a champion in many fields you have to have values, determination and all those things.â€￾

Bruno sees the family’s backing of his career in the early stages as an investment, but he is determined to raise the next chuck of cash himself, as he says: “I do not want to be spending my family money on my personal project. In the beginning it is an investment, but afterwards not anymore.â€￾

There is no question that if Bruno Senna succeeds the Foundation will benefit and that is why it is doing everything it can to help his career. The Senna Foundation is a serious ongoing charitable organisation in Brazil, having huge effect on poor children’s status in the country. Sponsors aligning themselves with the driver are also going to get a feel-good rub-off from the Foundation, the value of which cannot be underestimated.

Some US$2 million will be needed to get Bruno into Formula One. After another year of Formula Three in 2006 he will need a year, maybe two of Formula GP2 to make the leap. Because of his lack of experience those years are inevitable. Bianca says: “In Brazil the figures are quite high. When you talk about pounds it is unbelievable. The problem here is that most of the people have had so many proposals – there are so many drivers. It is not easy and Bruno is in his first year as well. We do think next year he will win races.â€￾

The problem is that they need to start negotiating some relatively big deals now, on faith. But the rewards for a sponsor taking a risk could be huge. His uncle stuck with the Brazilian bank that first sponsored him in the early days right through his career and had the clout to negotiate space for it on his cap and the front of his overalls, something that was worth many times what it eventually ended up paying him.

Bianca’s objective is to get her brother a paid drive by 2008, by which time he will either be in his second championship-dominating year of GP2 or doing his first year as a Formula One rookie.

After 10 years in the wilderness, Bruno seems in no hurry to get where he is going. But just like his uncle, he seems to be on a divine mission, as he says: “I really am not in a rush to get into Formula One but I really want to develop my race craft.â€￾ Measured progress is a hallmark of the Senna family. Many people forget that Ayrton Senna gave up after his first season in England and returned to Brazil, before coming back. This family is a patient one.

Although Bruno admits the pressure will be on him to win the British Formula Three championship next year, he thinks the most likely outcome is the top three. He says: “That would be realistic. It would also be very nice.â€￾ By then he will be 22 years old going on 23. He has a goal to get into F1 by the time he is 25.

He says in answer to all those people (and there are many) who believe he has left it all too late: “I have the burning desire, you cannot imagine how much I push myself to do it. Everything that I can do to make it better, I do it and this year especially I am not going crazy because I have not won a race yet and got a pole position yet because everything is new. And when it comes to race circuit matters and all these things are coming to my mind you know, getting more and more in the racing thing. Even this year I can win a race, I can get a pole position.â€￾

Surprisingly no Formula One teams have yet moved to form a relationship with the young man. It is an astonishing re-run of the situation with his uncle when he was virtually ignored by every Formula One team and was forced to take a no-hope drive at the obscure tailender Toleman. Bruno simply says: “I think that Formula One teams are really waiting to see what happens.â€￾ In many ways not much has changed in 25 years.

Bron: f1i.com

[117ayrton]

amaai polo heel het dagblad boven gehaald voor bruno senna

[Markopolo]

P.s. Die helm ziet er zo uit omdat hij vorig jaar gesponsord werd door de Ayrton Senna Foundation en dat bracht zoveel geluk dat ze hem maar zo gehouden hebben.

[Jolly Club]

P.s. Die helm ziet er zo uit omdat hij vorig jaar gesponsord werd door de Ayrton Senna Foundation en dat bracht zoveel geluk dat ze hem maar zo gehouden hebben.

Nou is oude Jolly in de war...heeft die Bruno nou talent of gewoon veel geluk

[Markopolo]

P.s. Die helm ziet er zo uit omdat hij vorig jaar gesponsord werd door de Ayrton Senna Foundation en dat bracht zoveel geluk dat ze hem maar zo gehouden hebben.

Nou is oude Jolly in de war...heeft die Bruno nou talent of gewoon veel geluk

Hij heeft talent en geluk, oh nee dat wordt teveel voor die oude J., ze hadden niet verwacht dat alles zo snel zou lopen, qua racen en het vinden van een goed team, dat bedoelen ze met geluk, maar dat komt waarschijnlijk door zijn talent.

Yep, iets wat ingewikkeld is maak ik nog ingewikkelder