by Russell Atkins
Bruno Senna will embark upon his maiden GP2 campaign this weekend in Bahrain – but with his meteoric rise through the motor racing ranks, it is sometimes easy to forget he has only actually been competing in the sport since 2004.
The young Brazilian – nephew of the late, great
Ayrton Senna – raced in Formula
BMW and Formula Renault before he burst onto the hotly-disputed British F3 scene two years ago – capping an impressive sophomore season in which he finished third in the drivers’ standings in 2006 with no fewer than five victories, three pole positions and nine podium finishes. Now having made the leap up to Formula 1’s feeder series GP2 with multiple race-winning squad Arden this year, the 23-year-old would certainly seem to be on the fast track to future grand prix glory…
Q:
Bruno, how are you looking forward to your first campaign in GP2?
Bruno Senna:
I’m looking forward to it very much. It’s going to be a massive challenge this year, another really steep learning curve. Last year was a bit less of a learning curve driving-wise than 2005 was. This year I think is going to be quite hard, but I will try to enjoy it to the full.
Q:
You are competing with the Arden team, one that has won both races and championships in GP2 (formerly F3000) before. How excited are you about that and how are you settling in there?
BS:
We are getting along very well; every single day we spend together we are getting along even better. I am getting to know the engineers better and better, and this is helping to take us forward and improve little by little both myself and the car. I hope we will start achieving good results together sooner rather than later.
Q:
What were your initial impressions of the GP2 machine when you drove it for the first time after spending last season racing in F3?
BS:
My GP2 friends were all giving me a lot of ‘you are going to feel so tired’ before I tried it out, so I was expecting the car to be a killer. It was much harder to drive than my F3 car, but fortunately it wasn’t the killer they had been describing. It’s a much faster car and quite different to drive. It takes a while to adapt 100 per cent to the car and get everything out of it, but my first experience with it was quite nice. It’s just a shame it was at a circuit I didn’t know very well. I would probably have done better if it had been somewhere I had driven before.
Q:
What would you say are the major differences between the F3 and GP2 machines, and what was the hardest thing you had to get to grips with?
BS:
With the F3 car you have to be extremely smooth so as not to lose any speed; in GP2 you can be a bit more aggressive. The braking distances are also very hard to get used to – it takes a long time to get the right brake pressures and braking points for the speed you arrive at the corner. Those are the biggest challenges.
Q:
Looking back on last year, how would you rate your British F3 season overall?
![Bruno Senna - Arden International [pic credit: GP2 Series media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/297576.jpg)
