Honda looks back on the history of Bruno Senna
With Bruno Senna testing a Honda F1 car later this month, HondaRacingF1.com looks at the history of the young Brazilian, as well as the special relationship between Honda and his legendary uncle Ayrton.
The Senna name holds a very special place in F1 history. Ayrton is regarded as one of, if not the greatest grand prix drivers of all time. 96 of his 161 race starts were Honda-powered and he took 32 of his 42 wins in that time, making him the most successful of Honda’s grand prix pilots.
At the time of Ayrton’s tragic death at Imola in 1994, Bruno was a 10-year-old budding kart racer himself. The tragedy naturally rocked the Senna family and it was not surprising that Bruno’s mother Viviane put an end to his racing. This was compounded when, just two years after his uncle’s death, he also lost his father in a motorcycle accident.
“My heart was being pulled in all different directions,” Bruno Senna told the British Sun newspaper. “On the one hand, my mother was appalled that I was going into a profession that had already caused so much unhappiness. Then, naturally, she would have been thinking about what happened to my father. Against that she had to balance what I wanted to do, what would make me happy.”
But the racing blood had not stopped pumping through Bruno’s veins and eight years on he felt a need to get back into the cockpit. “To be honest I had been moaning about getting back into racing since I was 15. It was an important tradition to maintain. To many in Brazil, my uncle was a god.”
In 2004 his wish was finally fulfilled when he moved to England to test in the British Formula BMW championship. One year later he progressed to British F3 and in 2006 achieved 3rd in the same championship, which earned him a seat in GP2 for 2007. His career well and truly back on track, this year he finished 2nd in the GP2 championship, completing his 4th year of motor racing. It is in recognition of this achievement that Honda has decided to try Bruno out in its RA108 F1 machine.
