Bruno Senna
Bruno Senna Lalli is a Brazilian former racing driver who competed in Formula One from to. In endurance racing, Senna won the 2017 FIA Endurance Trophy in the LMP2 class with Rebellion.
Born and raised in São Paulo, Senna is a nephew of three-time World Drivers' Champion Ayrton Senna. He made his debut in Formula One for HRT in 2010, raced for Renault from August 2011 as a replacement for Nick Heidfeld, and drove for the Williams team in 2012. Between 2014 and 2016, he drove for Mahindra in Formula E.
Early life
Bruno Senna Lalli was born on 15 October 1983 in São Paulo, Brazil, the second eldest of three to businessman Flávio Pereira Lalli and Viviane Senna Lalli, who worked as a psychotherapist and businesswoman. His mother was raised in São Paulo with his two uncles, Ayrton and Leonardo, and his grandparents Milton Teodoro Guirado da Silva and Neide Senna da Silva. Senna's family owns multiple businesses in Brazil which involve agriculture and cars.Senna started karting on the family farm at the age of five and was taught by his grandfather Milton and his uncle Ayrton, who was a Formula One driver for McLaren at the time. Senna stated his main influence was his grandfather and Ayrton, having learnt mechanics by fixing the engines of jet skis or go-karts that his uncle owned. Ayrton regarded Senna's potential very highly during his youth, saying in 1993, "If you think I'm fast, just wait until you see my nephew".
Career
Early career
Ayrton's death while driving a Williams at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, however, brought Bruno's own racing career to an abrupt halt. Despite these setbacks, including the death of his father in a motorbike accident in 1996, Bruno's mother and his uncle Ayrton's sister Viviane had reluctantly backed her son's interest in motor racing.At Imola in 2004, on the tenth anniversary of his uncle's death, Senna was given an example of his uncle's 1986 Lotus 98T as a gift from an Italian friend. Senna drove the car at the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix meeting in São Paulo, at Interlagos, where Ayrton had won in 1991 and 1993. Ayrton's McLaren teammate from to, Gerhard Berger, is a close friend of the Senna family and has advised Senna on his career. Senna's sister, Bianca, meanwhile, has managed his affairs and sponsorship acquisition.
In 2004, Senna competed in six races of the Formula BMW UK series for Carlin Motorsport, scoring six points.
Formula 3 (2005–2006)
In 2005, Senna moved on to the British Formula Three Championship, driving for the Räikkönen Robertson Racing team owned by then-McLaren Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen and his business managers David and Steve Robertson. His results included three podium finishes in the last seven races of the season, as he finished tenth in the final standings. In 2006, he stayed with the team and finished third in the series standings behind champion and teammate Mike Conway and Oliver Jarvis, taking five victories. He won the opening two races of the series at Oulton Park in the wet. He again won the first race at Donington Park and then won the second race at Mugello in Italy, again in the wet.File:Bruno Senna 2006 Australian Grand Prix-3.jpg|thumb|Bruno Senna driving a Dallara F304 in a support race at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix
Senna had a massive crash during the first race of round five of the series at Snetterton. On lap 2, he and Hitech Racing's Salvador Durán clashed wheels on the Revett Straight at nearly. Senna's car took off just before the bridge and may have even clipped it, while cartwheeling through the air. His car landed violently and careered along and down the safety barrier for some distance, but Senna walked away. His car, however, was damaged beyond immediate repair and Senna missed out on the second race of the day. On the rear wing of the car he had advertised his uncle's foundation.
In 2006, Senna competed in the Formula Three support races at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, winning three of the four races. Driving a Spiess Opel powered Dallara F304, Senna set the Formula Three lap record of 1:50.8640 in the first race of the meeting which as of 2016 remains the fastest ever non-F1 lap of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit. Senna finished third in the race, the only one of the four races he did not win over the weekend.
On 28 May, Senna made his first appearance on the Monaco circuit, as a guest in the Porsche Supercup event. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire at the first corner because of a clutch failure.
In October 2006, Senna appeared in an eight-part weekly series called Vroom Vroom on British TV station Sky One. Each week, he would drive a different car being tested on the show, as quickly as possible, to the top of a multi-storey car park.
GP2 Series (2007–2008)
In October 2006, Senna was said to be targeting a seat on the Formula One grid by. He signed to drive for the Red Bull-sponsored Arden International team for the 2007 GP2 Series. He finished fourth on his debut at Bahrain and soon after scored his first win in the feature race in Spain. In the single-race Monaco event, Senna struggled owing to poor tyres.During the four-week break in the GP2 series between the Monaco and French races, Senna took part in the third round of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli European series at Silverstone on 9 and 10 June 2007. Driving an F430 on a weekend devoted to the 60th anniversary of Ferrari, Senna won both races, starting each from pole. The purpose of this involvement was to gain a better understanding of the circuit, which is on the GP2 calendar.
File:Bruno Senna 2008 GP2 Silverstone.jpg|thumb|left|Senna driving for iSport International at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series
At Silverstone, a mistake during qualifying on the Friday meant Senna started 26th and last. After a great start, Senna was able to finish 11th in the feature race. The sprint race was not any better in terms of points, with a 10th-place finish. A poor qualifying session at the Nurburgring for the feature race meant Senna started 16th but was up to ninth after a cleverly timed first pit stop. However, he was given a drive-through penalty after being involved in a collision with Adam Carroll and ended up finishing a poor 15th. The Sprint race ended on the first lap after a collision. In Hungary, for both races, Senna finished out of the top ten after struggling with the set-up of the car. The feature race in Turkey brought another poor result; however, Senna finished sixth in the sprint race and with it came his first points since France. At Monza, Senna finished fourth after starting fourteenth. Starting fifth for the sprint race, Senna had an excellent start by moving up to second; however, after contact with Luca Filippi resulted in bent steering, Senna managed to finish third and on the podium for the first time since France in July. At Spa, Senna showed raw pace through practice and set the third fastest time early on during Qualifying for the feature race. However, a stall on the grid meant he started 22nd, and while fighting to make up ground, he got a bit of oversteer and then the camber changed, ending his day in the tyre barrier. Starting at the back of the grid for the sprint race, Senna finished eighth, leaving Belgium pointless. At the season finale in Valencia, Spain, Senna ended the feature race with a DNF and thus started the sprint race from 19th, but could only manage to finish 14th. This was a positive season on the whole for Senna, finishing in the top-ten in only his third full year of single-seater racing, with one win and three podiums.
Senna switched teams for the 2008 season, moving to iSport International, where his teammate was Karun Chandhok. He also drove for the team in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series. In the second round of the season at Istanbul, Senna collided with a stray dog during the sprint race. The suspension of Senna's car was damaged in the incident, causing him to retire. Senna himself escaped without injury, while the dog died in the incident. Senna won the GP2 Feature race at Monte Carlo, the first time in 15 years since the Senna name has shown at the top of the leaderboards at the principality. It also moved Senna to first position in the points table, although he was to eventually finish runner-up in the championship to Giorgio Pantano.
Le Mans Series (2009)
Senna had been holding out for a Formula One drive for, and after he realised this would not happen, he began looking at other opportunities to keep him "race fit" ahead of negotiations for a drive in Formula One. He tested with the Mercedes-AMG DTM team, but after holding talks with the outfit he decided he did not want to commit himself to the series.After testing an Oreca LMP1 car, Senna joined the team to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Le Mans Series. His first race was the 2009 1000 km of Catalunya, teamed with Stéphane Ortelli, finishing third.
Formula One
Senna sampled a contemporary Formula One car for the first time in November 2008 when he tested for Honda in Barcelona. Honda assessed the Brazilian during their first winter test at the Circuit de Catalunya on 17–19 November. His tasks included an initial familiarisation with Honda's RA108 car and its systems before progressing to a full programme during which the team intended to evaluate his performance, technical skill and ability to work within a large team organisation.Despite Senna, over the course of the three-day test, coming to within 0.3 seconds of then Honda F1 racing driver Jenson Button, the later announcement that Honda would withdraw from Formula One with immediate effect amid the economic crisis appeared to have significantly lessened his opportunity of a 2009 race seat in Formula One, unless the squad were to find a buyer before the beginning of the season in March. Senna was expected to be the team's second driver were it to make the 2009 grid, until Rubens Barrichello was reported to have re-signed with the team. Senna decided not to sign with Mercedes for the 2009 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season "to focus completely on his Formula One chances". Bruno Senna said to the BBC in an interview that he did not want to negotiate with Lotus because of sentimental reasons as his uncle Ayrton Senna took his first win with Team Lotus. He also told the BBC that "I felt important to enter F1 now otherwise I would never be in it". He also told the BBC he had been negotiating with Manor GP, Campos Meta and one existing outfit rumoured to be Brawn GP as he was close to securing a drive the previous season but Barrichello renewed his contract with Brawn.
Rubens Barrichello admitted he was lucky to be driving for Brawn. Barrichello said, "I'm just lucky that at this time F1 has changed a little bit". He also wished Bruno the very best in the future, saying he only had a position as Ross Brawn chose the more experienced person because of the lack of testing time. He also said he was sure, due to Senna's potential, that he would get a drive next season.