Biography

Like his surname, the comments from the legendary three-time champion, has proved to be something of a millstone around the neck of young Bruno who, as a nipper, would race against his Uncle in his go-kart.

In the aftermath of Ayrton's death at Imola in 1994, Bruno's mother Viviane (Ayrton's sister) put the youngster's karting activities on hold. A year later, when his father was killed in a motor-cycle accident, Viviane put a permanent block on her son's motor sport dream.

Ten years on and Viviane relented giving Bruno permission to head to England, the country where Ayrton had first come to the racing public's attention.

Starting out in Formula BMW UK with Carlin Motorsport, Bruno contested six rounds before switching to the prestigious British F3 Championship in 2005 - his Uncle having won the championship twenty-two years earlier in 1983.

Driving for the Raikkonen Robertson Team, Bruno finished tenth overall, his best results being second-places at the Nurburgring and Silverstone.

He remained with the team in 2006 this time finishing third overall courtesy of five wins including one at Donington scene of arguably one of his Uncle's finest ever performances the 1993 European GP.

Like his legendary Uncle, Bruno was no slouch in the wet, taking wins at both Oulton Park and Mugello in atrocious conditions.

The season was not without incident however, and Bruno was involved in a vicious accident at Snetterton when he touched wheels with Salvador Duran at 150 mph on the main straight. Senna's car went airborne before launching into a series of cartwheels and subsequently landing on a safety barrier and sliding along it for over a hundred yards. Amazingly he walked away from the accident but his was car was a total wreck and he had to miss the second race of the day. Amongst the wreckage littered across the Norfolk track was the car's rear wing emblazoned with the logo for the Ayrton Senna Foundation.

Also in 2006, Bruno contested the F3 support race at the Australian Grand Prix - winning three of the four races - and drove a Porsche in the Supercup event at Monaco, the track synonymous with his Uncle.

For 2007, having made no secret of the fact that he wanted to be in F1 by 2009, Bruno moved up to GP2 securing a seat with Christian Horner's Arden International.

Finishing the season eighth overall many might say that it was a good effort from the Brazilian especially as this was only his third full season of single-seater racing. However, while there were some excellent performances there were also too many needless mistakes.

He remained in GP2 for 2008 but moved to Paul Jackson's iSport International. This season was altogether better with the Brazilian finishing runner-up to Giorgio Pantano courtesy of six trips to the podium including two wins. However, surely no win was ever more poignant than that in the feature race at Monaco, the first time in 15 years that a Senna had held a winners' trophy aloft in the Principality.

In November 2008, Bruno underwent two days of testing with the Honda F1 team at Barcelona. Competitive times, which saw the Brazilian just 0.3s off Jenson Button' pace, suggested that he might realise his dream and be in F1 for 2009. A few weeks later however, Honda unexpectedly pulled the plug on its F1 programme.

Linked with the Brackley team throughout the winter as it sought a buyer, when Ross Brawn led a management buy-out and retained his 2008 line-up Bruno was forced to look elsewhere.

Not wishing to return to GP2, Bruno initially tested with the AMG Mercedes DTM team but subsequently decided he didn't want to do the entire series.

After testing an Oreca LMP1, Bruno joined the team for the Le Mans 24-hour race and the Le Mans Series. At the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe, Bruno - who was partnered by Stephane Ortelli and Tiago Monteiro - retired after 219 laps officially classified as 41st.

When the FIA revealed the identities of the new teams for the 2010 Formula One World Championship it was unsurprising that Bruno was at one time or another linked with all of them.

However, Bruno admitted that for sentimental reasons he was unwilling to consider Lotus since this was the team with which his Uncle had made his name, though in reality other than its name the Malaysian outfit has little in common with Colin Chapman's legendary team.

On October 30, Campos Meta announced that it had signed Bruno proclaiming that "sometimes dream come true".

As is often the case with relatives of legends, one tends to be over judgemental, and in Formula One there are few more famous names than Senna.

While Bruno does indeed have talent and raw pace - and let's not forget what Ayrton said - he is far too inconsistent. Then again while some rising stars have failed at the final hurdle other drivers who didn't look that magical suddenly found that something special once sat in an F1 car.

In Bruno's case, while the Senna name has opened many doors it is a monumental yardstick by which he will always be measured not only by the media and race fans but by himself. It is something we do not envy him.