Bruno Senna, the nephew of three-time
Formula One world champion Ayrton, headlines a competitive 25-car Australian F3 field contesting the support races at this weekend's Fosters Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
With the 2006 championship series just one round old, a record field has entered for the non-points scoring event at Albert Park with a host of drivers ready to try and impress the
F1 elite they hope will be watching from pit-lane. However, current points leader Ben Clucas will step aside for the meeting, allowing Senna to take over the John Deere-supported Team BRM Dallara for a one off appearance 'down under'.
Senna comes to Australia with a season of British F3 under his belt, and should prove a strong benchmark for the local competition before he heads back to Britain for a second campaign with the Raikkonen Robertson Racing team.
A host of local talent will be aiming to unseat the Brazilian driver, however, with a number of drivers taking some home ground advantage into the meeting.
Michael Trimble will be one such contender, the Astuti Motorsport driver one of the key championship protagonists this season with his Melbourne-based team running on 'home' soil this weekend. The 21-year old missed last year’s AGP event in what was his inaugural F3 season, but will line up in a Renault-powered Dallara this weekend, hoping that the brand's recent F1 form rubs off on the Astuti Motorsport team.
"It wasn't good to miss last year's event, so I'm really looking forward to getting out there this year," Trimble admitted, "We struggled at [round one at] Wakefield Park and, since then, we have changed heaps of things on the car. We had a four-hour debrief after Wakefield with Sam Astuti and my engineer, and we actually learnt a lot and found out some different options we can take with the car. We@ve now got some good momentum heading into the weekend and I'm really looking forward to going well."
