Bruno Senna has said that Honda Racing’s difficulties could work in a positive way for him personally, by reducing the pressure on the young Brazilian if he gets the second seat with the team. The nephew of legendary three-time champion Ayrton Senna is the foremost candidate for the seat alongside Jenson Button at the Brackley-based outfit, and told Autosprint that the adverse circumstances around the team would reduce the expectations for 2009.
“It would be a difficult debut, I know, but initially there won’t be big pressure or expectations, because at the moment no-one considers the ex-Honda squad a top team.
“So the pressure would be less and I’ll eventually adapt in a quicker and easier way,” added the young Brazilian.
Senna admitted, however, that the lack of testing the team has suffered from and the lack of time he has had in the car might make his first season in the sport a tough one.
”It would certainly be a big challenge: I think no driver in the last few years has had his F1 debut with so little testing mileage. However, it’s always better to be in F1, even under difficult conditions, than to be out of it.”
Senna reminded observers that the Brackley team had continued to work in spite of the uncertain future, and that if and when a buyer emerges, he hopes to get some time on track with the car at a late stage of development.
”Since Honda announced its retirement, the team have carried on working. Maybe not as intensively as they would have had Honda kept going, but the technicians have nevertheless carried on with the project of the new car according to schedule. Let’s just say that, if before the Australian GP I managed to run for at least three, four days, doing about 1,200 kms, then that’d be a dream,” said Senna.
Honda represents Senna’s only chance of racing in F1 in 2009 after negotiations for one of the Toro Rosso seats ended fruitlessly. Senna remarked that Toro Rosso was not his best opportunity, and that after Gerhard Berger left the team he made a decision not to pursue the seat further.
”Talks progressively died out after Berger left the team. At that point, without him, my interest in racing for that team went down to zero completely.”
