F1: A second Senna-Williams experiment

Bruno Senna has joined the F1 team with which his legendary uncle's career so tragically ended

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The Formula One driver line-up for the season starting in Melbourne two months from today is almost complete, with Bruno Senna snaring a seat at Williams.

It reunites the Senna name with the Williams team that triple world champion Ayrton Senna died racing for almost 18 years ago – and ends the F1 career of fellow Brazilian and Senna family friend Rubens Barrichello.

Veteran of a record 326 GPs, including 11 wins and 68 podiums, the 39-year-old Barrichello has generously tweeted: "I won't be driving the Williams car this year. I wish my friend @BSenna all the best."

Meanwhile, testing of the new Toyota petrol-electric sports car that will take the Japanese manufacturer back to the Le Mans 24-Hour has begun.

Two-time Le Mans winner Allan McNish predicts a new golden era of sports car racing, with Honda also involved, Porsche working on a return and McLaren re-entering the GT class.

'Difficult to set objectives' at Williams

When Ayrton Senna joined Williams in 1994 he was widely regarded as the greatest driver in F1 history and the team was the best in F1.

This year Williams is coming off its worst season in history, having scored just five points in 2011, and Bruno Senna – nephew of the legend – has secured his drive with a bundle of sponsorship from the businessman (reputedly Brazil's richest) Eike Batista, head of the EBX conglomerate.
The Williams line-up of second-year Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado and Senna means the team has two paying drivers – neither of them a genuine No.1 for any F1 team.

The only vacancy remaining in the field now is at small Spanish team HRT, formerly Hispania, although doubts remain over Italian veteran Jarno Trulli's place at Caterham, which for the past two years was Team Lotus.

Senna, 28, made his debut with Hispania in 2010 but a year ago did not have a race seat.

He was upgraded from Renault's test driver to replace German Nick Heidfeld during last season but scored only two world championship points in eight GPs.

Now rebranded Lotus Renault, that team preferred 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen, returning from two years in the world rally championship, and Frenchman Romain Grosjean, who raced in F1 in 2009 and is the reigning GP2 champion, ahead of Senna for this year.

Other than Barrichello, German Adrian Sutil – formerly of the Force India team – was a contender for the Williams seat but his chances were not helped by a grevious bodily harm case against him due to come to court in Munich at the end of this month.

Sutil attacked Eric Lux, a part-owner of Lotus Renault, at a party in a Shanghai nightclub celebrating Lewis Hamilton's victory for McLaren in last April's Chinese GP. Lux had 24 stitches inserted in his neck after being slashed with a broken champagne glass.

Ayrton Senna's career at Williams ended in only the third race, when he crashed fatally in the San Marino GP at Italy's Imola circuit, but he had gone there from McLaren with expectations of more world titles.

Almost two decades on Bruno Senna says it is "difficult to set objectives" as he joins the team that is only a shadow of what it was for so long and where Mike Coughlan – a central figure in the 2007 McLaren-Ferrari "Spygate" – has replaced Australian Sam Michael as technical director.

Senna hopes simply to be able to say at the end of this year that he had "extracted 100 per cent of the performance from the Williams-Renault FW34".

Williams has regained Renault engines that were such a part of its success in the same year that it has recruited the second Senna. "It is true that they didn't have the best season last year, but it is clear that the team is on a new path," Senna said.

Williams team principal Sir Frank Williams says that the younger Senna's two seasons in F1 "have not given him an ideal opportunity to deliver consistently".

"It was essential that we spent as much time with him as possible to understand and evaluate him as a driver. We have done this both on track [but not with F1 machinery] and in our simulator and he has proven quick, technically insightful and above all capable of learning and applying his learning quickly and consistently," Williams said. "Now we are looking forward to seeing that talent in our race car."

Senna said: "I feel very privileged that Williams has selected me as one of their race drivers. The team has a great heritage and I hope I can help write a good chapter in their history.

"The evaluation process has been intense and methodical, but the time I have spent in the factory has demonstrated that the team has great people and all the resources needed to achieve better things this season.

"It will be very interesting to drive for a team that my uncle has driven for, particularly as quite a few of the people here actually worked with Ayrton. Hopefully we can bring back some memories and create some great new ones too.

"I also want to get some good results in return for the support my country has given me to help get me to this position today. Knowing people have chosen me to bear their name gives me even more motivation to create some good memories for them. I am very proud to be Brazilian and more motivated than ever to demonstrate what I can do."