Bruno Senna had a lot to live up to when he reached the Formula 1 grid given he arrived with one of the most famous surnames in the sport’s history.
Having previously been told by Red Bull supremo Helmut Marko that he would never been good enough for F1, in 2020 he finally earned his opportunity to race at the highest level of motorsport.
However, speaking on the Beyond The Grid Podcast, Senna has shared how his experience at one team left him with less confidence than when he’d arrived in Formula 1.
Bruno Senna only started racing in single seaters in 2004, making a few appearances in Formula BMW UK.
In 2006, he finished 3 in British Formula 3’s International Series, earning him a spot in GP2 the following year.
He competed against the likes of Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi and eventually found himself named as Honda’s test driver.
In 2010, Bruno Senna finally earned his spot on the grid with newcomers HRT.
Also known as Hispania Racing, the team really struggled and found themselves losing their spot on the grid after just a few seasons.
Bruno Senna says his spell at HRT F1 ‘destroyed’ his confidence
After being granted a spot on the grid in 2009 for the following season, Adrian Campos set about building his Campos Meta team for the 2010 campaign.
Bruno Senna was confirmed as one of HRT’s drivers at the end of the 2009 season although the journey to reaching the grid wasn’t smooth sailing.
Campos ran out of money and needed Jose Ramon Carabante to take full control of the team before the start of the season.
HRT headed to the season opener in Bahrain having done no pre-season testing and Senna was joined in the team by Karun Chandhok who was also making his F1 debut.
The car was miserably slow that season, with both HRTs 6.6 seconds off the pace of the polesitter at the Australian Grand Prix.
Chandhok lasted just ten races before being replaced by Sakon Yamamoto and later Christian Klien, while Senna featured throughout the season except for being dropped at the British Grand Prix with no explanation.
Bruno Senna admitted that his introduction to Formula 1 with HRT was far from ideal, but didn’t prevent him from finding another team the following year.
Hispania Racing went from bad to worse during three-year F1 stint
Speaking about his experience with the team, Senna said: “There was a lot going on there. It was a team that was struggling and there was lots going on within the team that sort of put a lot of pressure [on] but also each race they had some different issues.
“We didn’t have any new parts, so we had loads of parts fail that people didn’t see.
“When the car broke down it was obvious, but we floors falling apart so the car was half a second off the pace because we had no downforce.
“I had twice a suspension failure where I just drove off the track. It was a team that was just falling apart.
“I think, if I didn’t do that year in racing, I would have been a much more confident driver for the future because that year destroyed my confidence completely as a driver.
“I mean, I was not experienced anyway, I had very little experience and then suddenly you go into a situation that’s completely random.
“What’s going on when you’re driving was absolutely totally random, so one day you’re doing well relatively well for that car, and then other days you were nowhere and you just had no idea why.
“A tough year for sure.”
Bruno Senna’s Formula 1 career lasted as long as HRT’s
HRT did have some notable drivers after Bruno Senna’s exit at the end of 2010, with Daniel Ricciardo and Pedro de la Rosa both turning out for the Spanish outfit.
However, in 2011, Senna joined Lotus Renault GP as their reserve driver and was thrown into the car for the final eight races of the season in place for Nick Heidfeld.
That earned him a full-time seat with Williams for 2012 and while he performed well alongside Pastor Maldonado, that spelled the end of his time in Formula 1.
Bruno Senna was more successful than his first employer’s HRT during the same spell in F1 and has gone on to have a very successful career in other series.
However, he may be left wondering what could have been had he not accepted an offer to drive one of the slowest cars in modern Formula 1.
The post ‘Falling apart’: Bruno Senna says failed F1 team ‘destroyed’ his confidence, the car was ‘completely random’ appeared first on F1 Oversteer.