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Bruno ready for Macau GP
Bruno Senna, the 22-year-old nephew of late Brazilian racing great Ayrton Senna, has been racing in the British Formula BMW and Formula Three circuits.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:53 AM IST
Read Time:3 min
Macau:
The famous surname Senna has appeared in the professional racing circuit again for the first time in a decade. Bruno Senna, the 22-year-old nephew of late Brazilian racing great Ayrton Senna, has been racing in the British Formula BMW and Formula Three circuits. He is now all set for his Formula Three debut at the Macau Grand Prix. The younger Senna, representing Double R Racing in a Dallara Honda-Mugen/NB, came in second in the Formula Renault competition in Macau last year. He is also coming off a 10th place finish in the British Formula Three championship earlier this year. Bruno has gotten off to a lackluster start in Macau. Heading into Saturday's qualification race, Senna was ranked 22nd with a best lap time of 2 minutes and 15.520 seconds, about 4.2 seconds behind leader Loic Duval of France. In the second qualifying session Friday, Senna's car spun and crashed into a barricade. High expectations Bruno said his last name could bring unrealistic expectations. Ayrton Senna is a three-time Formula One world champion and No. 3 on the all-time list of leading Formula One Grand Prix winners, and people expect instant greatness from his nephew as well, he said. "I think people expect me to perform well whatever the situation. They don't take into account that I have absolutely no experience, that I'm racing just by feeling, not racing with technique," Senna said. "I'm still learning a lot of technique. ... This year I made many mistakes. I learned a lot, but there are still many situations where some drivers go for it and I avoid it," he said. "A few more years of experience will do me good." Learning experience Bruno said he sees his Macau Formula Three debut as a learning experience. "This year I'm going to take on the two races, do as many laps as I can, learn the circuit as best as I can, get experience and get prepared for next year," he said. He characterized Formula Three as a major step up from Formula Renault. "A Formula Three car is a proper racing machine. It's very, very fast," he said. Early start Bruno started racing go-carts at age five, trained by his grandfather, Ayrton Senna's father. The younger Senna's mother is Ayrton Senna's sister. He stopped for a decade after his uncle's tragic accident in 1994, which drove home to his family the risks of motor racing. Ayrton Senna died at the San Marino Grand Prix in May that year when he veered off the track and crashed against a concrete wall. Bruno was eventually able to persuade his family to let him give professional racing a shot. "I turned 18 and I started talking to my mother. In this case, I have my own responsibilities and I think she took that into account," he said. Like his uncle, Senna is paying his dues at the Formula Three level, and in Macau. Ayrton Senna won the inaugural Formula Three event in Macau in 1983. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
Formula 1 Bruno Senna
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