Bruno Senna

Congratulations to young Bruno Senna for a fantastic qualifying session today.

I'm sure his uncle would be very proud knowing he's starting the Belgian Grand Prix - his first race of the year - from 7th on the Grid.

Spa-Francorchamps is a special circuit. A real challenge and known as a "driver's circuit" which "separates the men from the boys".

Add to that the tricky, greasy conditions you had today and Bruno's consistency in ALL 3 sessions at this circuit means there's some talent there.

The Renault is by no means a Top 4 car...so to be 7th on the grid ahead of the likes of World Champions Alonso and Button (both of whom have superior Ferraris and McLarens) and his somewhat highly rated teammate Petrov, is a very good achievement.

Good luck in the race tomorrow Bruno!

C'mon Boy...Make Brazil Proud of it's Formula One drivers again! :cheer:
 
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Bruno's speed is there clearly from his quali in Spa , Suzuka and Brazil three real driver tracks when given his chance in a Renault. However his race craft is still rusty and needs improving seriously
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It's an old adage that you can make a fast driver consistent, but it's very hard to make a consistent driver fast, the question is: Is there enough time to make Bruno consistent?
 
RasputinLives said:
I should imagine HRT are quite glad they don't have him anymore. Lets not forget that whilst they had Bruno and Sakon Yamamoto as their drivers that feedback from the drivers was so poor they had to bring Christian Klein in espeically to help develop the car



I completely agree that Hulkenberg would have done better than Maldonado but I'm not sure what that has to do with Maldonado beating Senna. To me Hulkenberg is in a different division to the pair of them.

Love him or loathe him for it Pastor has shown an aggressive desire to win in an F1 car and a great deal of qualifying pace. Not only do I think he'll have the legs on him in quali but I think if it came to them fighting head to head on the track that Maldonado wouldn't think twice about driving Bruno off the road if it meant he'd finish in front of him.

Also I'll go back to my point about him being beaten by Pantano in GP2 (Pantano by the way had the same number of retirements as Senna and was excluded from the entire weekend at Belguim so lets stop using the stray dogs thing as an excuse for Bruno) to me it showed he doesn't have the win at all costs in him - The unfancied Maldonado on the other hand beat the very highly rated Sergio Perez to the title by making sure he got the results he needed.

So on that basis Pastor is my tip.
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Pantano though did have 2 or 3 years GP2 experience so you 'd expect him to beat Bruno

Remember Bruno is making up for lost time not racing for 10 years after Aytron died

Strangely despite Pastor beating Perez to the GP2 title Perez is the one people rate more highly
 
Il_leone said:
Strangely despite Pastor beating Perez to the GP2 title Perez is the one people rate more highly
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Because Pérez' history before GP2 is more impressive, as well as his GP2 results.

Being runner up in your second season is more impressive than winning it in your fourth (and only managing to finish in the top 5 final championship standings once before that)


Anyway, this is not about them.
I know he's making up for lost time but he's clearly ready for F1 or else he wouldn't be racing for Williams this season. If he wasn't ready yet he should've stuck around in GP2. That argument holds little weight imo.
 
So Yamamoto, Ide, Yoong, Petrov, Grosjean, Karthikeyan, Scott Speed and several others were ready for F1 as they got a race seat?

I know Senna isn't comparable to Yamamoto, Ide, Yoong or Khartikeyan, but getting a drive doesn't mean you are ready for F1.
 
TBH - I think Senna has probably found the correct team for him now. He was wasted at HRT, but at Renault there was to much pressure on him to perform. I think the Senna and Williams team fits well together and this has nout to do with his Uncle BTW. I just think Williams now have drivers that they can only afford and bring money in.
 
Il_leone said:
Pantano though did have 2 or 3 years GP2 experience so you 'd expect him to beat Bruno
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In the six seasons its run GP2 has been won 3 times by a driver in his rookie year (Rosberg, Hamilton and Hulkenberg) who all faced experienced drivers from the GP2 and F3000 catogry.

Il_leone said:
Remember Bruno is making up for lost time not racing for 10 years after Aytron died
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Bruno now has 26 Grand Prix under his belt, he'll be the 15th most experienced driver on the grid and even with his 10 year gap he still has more years of experience in single seater racing than the likes of Ricciardo, Vergne, Pic, perez etc - in fact Bruno had his first year in single seater racing at the same time as Sebastian Vettel did so I think thats stopped being an excuse.
 
Slyboogy said:
So Yamamoto, Ide, Yoong, Petrov, Grosjean, Karthikeyan, Scott Speed and several others were ready for F1 as they got a race seat?

I know Senna isn't comparable to Yamamoto, Ide, Yoong or Khartikeyan, but getting a drive doesn't mean you are ready for F1.
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This is his third season and his second full season. I don't think he was really ready in 2009 but he should be more than ready by now. That was my point but it was late and I was tired so it wasn't very clear :embarrassed:
 
RasputinLives said:
I'd take a £5 wager with someone he won't last the full season.
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I think BRuno will because of his name and the only reason he won;t is if he has an almighty fall out with Adam Parr who would like absolute stupid for taking him on the first place when he had more experienced drivers he could have turn to

Bruno lacks his uncle's selfishness - Ayrton despite signing 3 years with Toleman was prepared to rip it up to join Lotus

and one more thing the only GP2 champion to have had any success in F1 is Hamilton as a race winner and world champion

so the old saying just because someone looks good in junior formula does not mean they will succeed in F1 - Jan Magnussen , Pantano, Heidfeld belong in this list
 
HammydiRestarules said:
TBH - I think Senna has probably found the correct team for him now. He was wasted at HRT, but at Renault there was to much pressure on him to perform. I think the Senna and Williams team fits well together and this has nout to do with his Uncle BTW. I just think Williams now have drivers that they can only afford and bring money in.
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I agree I think Bruno's career wise seems a bit like Jenson Button's was moving around in teams in his early career - not all his fault and then when finally getting the car and the right people he looks like a different driver

Bruno's had a tough baptism to F1... no one is going to achieve much in a HRT when it not even ready before the season started and it changed ownership from when he signed for the team as Campos

Renault - there is a lot of infighting or uneasy tension between the guys at Enstone, Genii capital management and Proton and really as previously they relied on one driver - Kubica to perform miracles to mask their difficiencies

At Williams he will be looked after and treated better certainly because there is no point the team within fighting each other after enduring their worst season.

If Bruno does not beat Pastor his F1 career will be short lived unless his sponsors keep backing him
 
Il_leone said:
and one more thing the only GP2 champion to have had any success in F1 is Hamilton as a race winner and world champion

so the old saying just because someone looks good in junior formula does not mean they will succeed in F1 - Jan Magnussen , Pantano, Heidfeld belong in this list
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Very true - but can you name me a recent champion that hasn't had a good junior formula record? Lets face it the only reason Lewis Hamilton is the only GP2 champion to have any success in F1 is that the majority of other younger drivers have been so succesful in the junior formula they've skipped that stage and gone straight into F1! Vettel, Alonso, Button, Kimi, Massa - they all missed that stage out because they were spotted and brought to F1 before. Lewis only went in GP2 because Mclaren were waiting for a space to clear
 
RasputinLives said:
Very true - but can you name me a recent champion that hasn't had a good junior formula record? Lets face it the only reason Lewis Hamilton is the only GP2 champion to have any success in F1 is that the majority of other younger drivers have been so succesful in the junior formula they've skipped that stage and gone straight into F1! Vettel, Alonso, Button, Kimi, Massa - they all missed that stage out because they were spotted and brought to F1 before. Lewis only went in GP2 because Mclaren were waiting for a space to clear
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I agree Lewis had to do GP2 because MClaren wanted him to do more single seater and did not want to throw him into the deep end straight away into their team

Alonso's record in junior formula is not as impressive as Hamilton if I am right. Its just that he found the right people backing him and was smart enough to see the Ferrari contract would mean he would be No 2 to Schumacher and jumped at the chance that Flavio offered at Renault

You have to go back to Jacques Villeneuve because he got into F1 because of the name and Damon Hill because he started his career late in single seater but impressed Williams and Prost wanted a non competitive teammate when Damon joined Williams

Then Nigel Mansell has he never won any junior titles if I am right
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Bruno not had a full season or a car at least to show his abilities. Now at WIlliams he should have a decent car not a HRT and he should beat Pastor as no one rates Maldonado am afraid and don;t see him as a race winner

If Bruno loses to Pastor then he will miss his chance to get the big boys to notice him
 
Il_leone said:
Alonso's record in junior formula is not as impressive as Hamilton if I am right. Its just that he found the right people backing him and was smart enough to see the Ferrari contract would mean he would be No 2 to Schumacher and jumped at the chance that Flavio offered at Renault
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It's also about context. Alonso was driving for Astromega, who were one of the minnows of F3000, compared to ART or iSport, who Hamilton and Senna drove for respectively. Even in a spec series not all teams are equal, and winning a race for Astromega should carry a lot more weight, IMO.

You could advance the same argument for Kobayashi and d'Ambrosio with DAMS in F3000 too. Good performances in a mediocre team, even if they weren't title challengers.
 
Galahad said:
It's also about context. Alonso was driving for Astromega, who were one of the minnows of F3000, compared to ART or iSport, who Hamilton and Senna drove for respectively. Even in a spec series not all teams are equal, and winning a race for Astromega should carry a lot more weight, IMO.

You could advance the same argument for Kobayashi and d'Ambrosio with DAMS in F3000 too. Good performances in a mediocre team, even if they weren't title challengers.
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Yes but I don't believe Alonso won that many junior titles as some of his peers in F1
 
Il_leone said:
Yes but I don't believe Alonso won that many junior titles as some of his peers in F1
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I suppose Fernando's skills are taking a car, improving it with his technical feedback (the "six-tenths") and then performing at eight-tenths consistently, building a team around him politically at the same time. I'd say those skills may be more applicable in F1 than in F3000.
 

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