Bruno Senna not ruling out a reserve driver role for Renault in 2012 – Formula 1 news
Bruno Senna has said that he would be willing to accept a seat as a third driver for the 2012 season for Renault if he is allowed to get more track time on Friday practice sessions.
Renault have already announced their two drivers for the 2012 season. They lured Kimi Raikkonen back to Formula 1 to the pleasure of all involved with Formula 1 and the young Romain Grosjean.
While the inclusion of Raikkonen was expected it was only a matter of if the former world champion would actually go ahead with the deal this time, Grosjean’s inclusion was a little surprising as he replaces Vitaly Petrov. Although Petrov’s name did not
show up in FIA’s list of drivers the driver himself was confident of retaining his seat as he was still contracted till the end of 2012 with the team. In a surprising turn of events, Grosjean was named as the second driver to partner the Raikkonen.
Senna analysing the situation has not ruled out a possible situation of becoming a reserve driver for 2012 hoping that he can gain from the experiences through driving in the Friday practice sessions and if required can bid for a race seat for 2013.
“To take a third driver place it would have to be a similar type of role to what certain people had this year with driving on Fridays,” Senna told Autosport. “That allows you to be active and do something relevant with the team. It would have to be with
the right team, but it could be an option.”
Senna had replaced Nick Heidfeld before the Belgian Grand Prix in the 2011 season, and found it difficult early on to adjust to the Renault car because of lack of practice appearances in the R31.
“There is still a chance of that (staying with Renault); I still have a good relationship with the engineers and everybody at the team. But we would need to discuss terms and see what else is in the market,” he further added.
It would be interesting to see what Renault decides to go with this proposition, but it would make for strong bench strength for a team looking to improve on all aspects for the 2012 season.
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