OK, so I admit it, I get a nostalgic little tingling inside whenever the name Bruno Senna comes up. He has more to live up to than he ever possibly could, and credit where credit is due, a name only gets you so far, he's worked hard to get where he is. But I have a niggling question in the back of my mind... is Bruno Senna the real deal?!
It's been an interesting year for Bruno. After taking the decision to switch from a race seat to a testing seat with a more competitive team in Renault (which I think was the right thing to do), disaster strikes for Renault No 1 driver Robert Kubica and it looks momentarily as if Bruno may wind up with a race seat after all. However, instead of promoting their newly signed test driver Renault decides to go with the known quantity of Nick Heidfeld as replacement for Kubica in the 2011 season. Now, much later in the season, Heidfeld is dropped from the team due to "lack of leadership" (another blog post surely) and Senna's number comes up again. This time he's announced as the race driver for the squad to the end of the season. Here is THE opportunity. His performance at HRT left a lot of people scratching their heads... now he gets one more chance to prove himself.
So he goes out and completes an amazing qualifying performance on Saturday at Spa winding up 7th on the grid in front of Alonso, and more importantly in front of team mate Vitaly Petrov. Great pace and an outstanding performance in the first competitive drive for Renault... we all sit up to watch what will happen next. Unfortunately what came next was very disappointing. A clumsily overcooked entry into Turn 1 off the starting grid on Sunday resulted in him taking out the hapless Jaime Alguersuari on the first corner after his stunning qualifying effort, and cost Senna a drive-through penalty. In the end his Renault finished outside the points in 13th place.
Mistakes happen... blah, blah, blah. I had to smile when I read F1.com's post-race Q & A with Senna here: http://tiny.cc/hjhm1 OK, it's his first race back and there is a lot of pressure, but seriously, 8.5 out of 10 for performance? I wonder what his famous Uncle would have said if asked the same question? I wonder what someone like Alonso would have said? I'm pretty sure it would have been along the lines of 0 out of 10... You race to win. No points is not acceptable, especially in a car that is entirely capable of scoring points. Mistakes like the one Bruno made into Turn 1 are complete race spoilers and utterly unacceptable. He cost himself, and more importantly his team, any chance of a points position. You don't get 8.5 out of 10. You get 0.
I don't know, maybe I'm just getting old, but to me first race back or not that type of soft self-critique displays a different breed of driver... someone who doesn't have the fire of a Champion burning deep inside. And he's not the only one.
Despite all that, he's got that name. Senna. It brings viewers and sponsors and gives people like me a buzz to think about the possibilities. And if he can get points finishes and outshine Petrov over the next couple of rounds, 2012 may be shining very brightly for him. And, let's all be honest, there is something positively AWESOME about seeing that famous green/gold/black helmet design poking out of the cockpit from a car dressed in such evokative black/gold livery. Nostalgia plus! Come on Bruno... show us you've got what it takes... show us some SENNA magic!!
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