Bruno Senna: The protege/prodigy to end all proteges/prodigies [for now at least]

Ok I kinda don't know the specific title to adorn on young Senna but seeing someone follow in the footsteps of an elder family member is nothing new to F1.

Michael Andretti entered F1 for 1 season with hopes of following in the footsteps of his father, Mario ['78 Champion] but fell out due to not really being able to fully familiarize himself with the sport. Jaques Villeneuve was able to fill and surpass his father's and uncle's legacy by becoming 97 world champion in only his 2nd season, his results went downhill from there. Nelson Piquet Jr. wasn't as lucky as his father was [81, 83 & 87 champion] his 2 year stint at Renault saw him play as Alonso's bridesmaid, he left to a career in NASCAR. Ralf Schumacher didn't even come close to his brother, Michael's 7 world championships [94, 95, 00-04] but so far they are the only brother's to win an F1 race. So far Damon [1996] and Graham Hill [62 and 68 champion] are the only father/son team to win the Driver's championship. For the 2010 season only 2 of these prodigies/proteges remain, Nico Rosberg [son of 82 champion Keke Rosberg] and Bruno Senna [nephew of 88, 90 and 91 champion Ayrton Senna]. Although Nico is still young and doing quite well in F1, there is a whole lot more pressure on Bruno.

I started watching F1 in 2003 going on into 2004 and around this time the peak of Ayrton's legendary status shone the most. At the 2004 San Marino GP, to memorize the 10th anniversary of Ayrton's death, Bruno was given Ayrton's old Lotus 98T, which he drove around the track in memory of him. Despite only being 20 at the time, many long awaited and speculated of the return of the Senna name to the world of F1. Just like his uncle he adopted his mother's maiden name to compete with, he looks like him and even has a similar helmet design as him, but is as fast as him?

[didn't want to post a shirtless pic of them, but this is the only good pic I could find of both Sennas]

Bruno's first call to fame was when his own uncle, Ayrton, bragged about how good and how promising he was. Ironically Ayrton's own death caused Bruno's family to put his racing on hold. . In 2004 he returned to racing world with an entry into the Formula BMW series. 2005-2006 saw him one step closer to F1 by moving into the British F3 series where he saw ok success. 2007-2008 saw make another jump closer to F1 with an upgrade to GP2 where he placed as runner up in 08. 2009 he was almost a guaranteed a seat at Honda, but unfortunately lost it when Honda dropped out of F1 and was replaced by Brawn GP. Even though Brawn could have hired him they chose to opt for the more experienced Rubens Barichello. This left him seat less for the 09 season except with a few spots in the Le Mans Series. Outside of official racing Senna also busied himself with spots on British programmes 5th Gear and Vroom Vroom

2010 saw an entry of more F1 teams meaning seats for him to pick choose and refuse. Of the new teams, Lotus seemed to be the likely choice, but he declined instead opting for HRT. Now HRT is the worst of the worst teams in F1 currently, not only are they the slowest cars but also the least reliable. So far, Bruno has failed to score a point and has only finished 5 of the 13 races he entered in.

With more seats being available in 2011, the usual F1 musical chairs might see him move up to a team with a fighting chance where his skill can be accurately compared with the best. So far 8 drivers slots are available, 2 are at HRT [which I doubt he will return to] 1 for Virgin Racing [which I also doubt he shall end up at] 1 at Renault [which is being tossed up between Petrov and Raikkonnen] 1 at Force India [which may have a reserved spot for Karun Chandok] and 1 at Sauber [who are still sorting out this year's drivers line up]. So out of elimination his likely choices may be at Mercedes GP [replacing Nico Rosberg, which I highly doubt] and Williams [alongside fellow Brazilian, Rubens Barichello]. Will Senna live up to the name? Only time will tell, and at only 26, he still has a lot of time.

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