Bruno Senna

Bruno Senna Lalli
File:CRW 1348.jpg
Nationality	Brazilian
Related to	Ayrton Senna
GP2 Series career
Debut season	2007
Current team	iSport International
Car number	2
Former teams	Arden International
Starts	22
Wins	1
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	8th in 2007
Previous series
2005-2006	British F3 Championship

Bruno Senna Lalli (born October 15 1983 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian racecar driver and the nephew of late three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna. His mother is Ayrton's sister. His father died in a motorcycle crash in 1995.

Career

Early career

When leaving McLaren at the end of 1993, Ayrton Senna had said: "If you think I'm good, just wait until you see my nephew Bruno". Bruno raced go-karts against Ayrton on the family farm, and it was clear that Ayrton regarded his nephew's potential very highly. Ayrton's tragic death while driving a Williams at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, however, brought Bruno's own racing career to an abrupt halt.

At Imola in 2004, however, on the 10th anniversary of his uncle's death, Bruno was given an example of his uncle's 1986 Lotus 98T as a gift from an Italian friend. Bruno drove the car at the 2004 Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix in São Paulo, at Interlagos, where Ayrton had won in 1991 and 1993.

Ayrton's McLaren team mate of the 1990-1992 seasons, Gerhard Berger is a close friend of the Senna family and has advised Bruno on his career. Bruno's sister, Bianca, meanwhile, has managed his affairs and sponsorship acquisition.

By 2005, after just five races in British Formula BMW and Formula Renault he moved on to the British Formula Three championship. His results included three podium finishes in the last seven races of the season, all achieved driving for the Räikkönen Robertson Racing team owned by then-McLaren Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen and his business partner Steve Robertson.

"If you think I'm good, just wait until you see my nephew Bruno."

Ayrton Senna, speaking about Bruno in 1993.

2006: British F3

In 2006, Bruno competed in the Formula Three support races at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, winning three of the four races [1] [2]. He also entered a full season in the British F3 Championship with Räikkönen Robertson Racing finishing the season in 3rd place with 269pts and 4 wins. He won the opening two races of the series at Oulton Park in the wet. He again won the first race at Donington Park and then won the second race at Mugello in Italy, again in the wet.

Bruno had a massive crash, during the first race of round 5 of the championship at Snetterton. On lap 2, he and Hitech Racing's Salvador Durán clashed wheels on the Revett Straight (the fastest straight in Britain) at nearly 150 mph. Bruno's car took off just before the bridge, and may have even clipped it, while cartwheeling through the air. His car landed violently and careered along and down the safety barrier for some distance, but Bruno walked away. His car however was damaged beyond immediate repair and Senna missed out on the rest of the race.

Bruno Senna drives a Dallara F304 in a support race at the 2006 Australian GP.

On the rear wing of the car he had advertised the Ayrton Senna Foundation web page.

In October 2006 he appeared in a five-part weekly series called Vroom Vroom on British TV station Sky One. Each week he would drive a different car being tested on the show, as quickly as possible, to the top of a multi-storey car park.

2007-2008: GP2

In October 2006 Bruno was said to be targeting a seat on the Formula One grid by 2009. He signed to drive for the Red Bull-sponsored Arden International team for the 2007 GP2 Series. He finished 4th on his debut at Bahrain and soon after scored his first win in the feature race in Spain. In the single race Monaco event, Senna struggled owing to poor tyres.

During the four week break in the GP2 series between the Monaco and French races, Senna took part in the third round of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli European series at Silverstone on June 9 and 10, 2007. Driving an F430 on a weekend devoted to the 60th anniversary of Ferrari, Bruno won both races, starting each from pole. The purpose of this involvement was to gain a better understanding of the circuit, which is on the GP2 calendar.

At Silverstone, a mistake during qualifying on the Friday meant Bruno started 26th and last. After a great start Bruno was able to finish a brilliant 11th in the feature race. The sprint race was not any better in terms of points with a 10th place finish. A poor qualifying session at the Nurburgring for the Feature race meant Bruno started 16th but was up to 9th after a cleverly timed first pit stop. However he was given a drive-through penalty after being involved in a collision with Adam Carroll and ended up finishing a poor 15th. The Sprint race ended on the first lap after a collision. At Hungary for both races, Bruno finished out of the top ten after struggeling with the set-up of the car. The Feature race in Turkey brought another poor result, however Bruno finished a fighting sixth for the Sprint race and came with it his first points since France. At Monza Bruno finished a superb 4th after starting fourteenth. Starting fifth for the Sprint race Bruno had an excellent start by moving up to second, however after contact with Luca Filippi resulted in bent steering Bruno managed to finish a fine third and on the podium for the first time since France in July. At Spa Bruno showed raw pace through practice and set the third fastest time early on during Qualifying for the Feature race. However a stall on the grid meant he started 22nd and while fighting to make up ground he got a bit of oversteer and then the camber changed, ending his day in the tyre barrier. Starting at the back of the grid for the Sprint race, Bruno finished eighth leaving Belgium pointless. At the season finale in Valecia Spain, Bruno ended the Feature race with a DNF and thus starting the Sprint race from 19th could only manage to finish 14th. This was a positive season on the whole for Bruno finishing in the top 10 in only his third full year of single seater racing, with one win and three podiums.

Senna will switch teams for the 2008 season, moving to iSport International where his team-mate will be Karun Chandhok. He is also driving for the team in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series.

GP2 Series record

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Pos.	Points
2007	Arden International	BRN FEA 4	BRN SPR 8	ESP FEA 1	ESP SPR 4	MON FEA 11	FRA FEA 3	FRA SPR 7	GBR FEA 11	GBR SPR 10	GER FEA 15	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA 13	HUN SPR 12	TUR FEA 10	TUR SPR 6	ITA FEA 4	ITA SPR 3	BEL FEA Ret	BEL SPR 8	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 14	8th	34
2008 Asia	iSport International	UAE FEA 2	UAE SPR 19	IND FEA 7	IND SPR 2	MAL FEA Ret	MAL SPR 8	BHR FEA 4	BHR SPR Ret	UAE FEA DSQ	UAE SPR 12												5th	23
2008	iSport International	ESP FEA 2	ESP SPR *	TUR FEA *	TUR SPR *	MON FEA *	MON SPR *	FRA FEA *	FRA SPR *	GBR FEA *	GBR SPR *	GER FEA *	GER SPR *	HUN FEA *	HUN SPR *	EUR FEA *	EUR SPR *	BEL FEA *	BEL SPR *	ITA FEA *	ITA SPR *		2nd*	8*

* Season in progress.

See also

• Official site
• Pictures of Bruno's car on the Crash.net website
• Career details