Bruno Senna has now been officially confirmed by Lotus Renault for the Italian GP, in addition to Belgium.
The team adds that it intends to keep him for the rest of the year – although bizarelly despite saying that, it can’t formally confirm it yet. The team is still in a legal debate with Nick Heidfeld, who has been ousted to make way for Senna.
Senna’s deal for the Italian GP was revealed in a press conference at Spa by his team mate Vitaly Petrov, and then was reiterated by Bruno himself.
“Well, right now, I’m confirmed for this race and the next race,” said the Brazilian. “But, for some legal issues still to be resolved, they can’t confirm the rest of the year or not. The intentions are that I do it but it still cannot be confirmed.”
The team later issued a statement saying that its “present intention is to give Bruno the opportunity to race for the rest of the season. However, some legal issues have not been fully resolved as yet and, as a result, the team will make another announcement on this matter in due course.”
It added that “Nick Heidfeld remains contracted to the team.” Indeed the German is present at the track in team gear and clearly wants to get his job back.
Senna meanwhile admitted that Spa won’t be an easy weekend for him as he tries to get up to speed.
“It is going to be a big challenge to come back into the middle of the season – or a bit later than the middle of the season – into racing,” he said. “But I have been participating in all the meetings with the engineers so I have been very much up to date with what is going on in the team. The Friday in Hungary was very useful for me to get a feel for the car and get a feel for how the car can go.
“But, of course, it is going to be a big uphill battle to get up to the level of these guys who have been racing for 11 races now. The fact that it is here, in Spa, is very special. It is my favourite circuit and a circuit that historically I have done very well on so I am really looking forward to it. I hope I can progress fast and hopefully do a good job for these guys because it is the best way to appreciate the opportunity that they are giving me.”
Adam Cooper F1 
I feel bad for Nick, he seems to have become the forgotten man of F1. However it will be interesting to see if Bruno has anything.
I like Nick, but he’s been off his game and LRGP has very high expectations. I’d say at this point its just as well that they try Senna, there’s less to lose, and he is young enough to show some development as a driver yet.
Why have you started calling them Lotus, rather than Renault ?
You don’t call them Vodafone McLarens or Petronas Mercedes…
Technically Lotus Renault is correct as they are the title sponsors. Plenty of times i’ve heard Mclaren being Called Vodafone McLaren.
Adams doing a much better job than the BBC anyway. They in the space of 2 paragraphs said Senna was off back to the Team Lotus garage after his crash then called Lotus Renault just Lotus.
Rumours going round today seem to be saying that Fernandes has done a deal with Renault to hand over the name and Team Lotus will become Team Caterham anyway.
Bit gutted about that if its true, as I thought Fernandes’ team properly carried the spirit of the original Team Lotus.