Bruno Senna to drive as a race driver for Lotus Renault GP in remainder of 2011 Formula 1 season
Bruno Senna, Lotus Renault GP’s test driver is going to drive for the team as a race driver for the rest of the 2011 Formula 1 season as a replacement for Nick Heidfeld.
At first, it was revealed that the young Senna would replace Heidfeld just until the Italian Grand Prix but now, it seems that things have changed and the team claims it has reached a settlement with Heidfeld, which means he will not take any part for Renault
in the remainder of the season.
“Bruno Senna has been named as a race driver alongside Vitaly Petrov for the remainder of the 2011 Formula One season. This announcement enables both parties to bring the matter to a close and concentrate on their respective sporting challenges in the future,”
said the team.
This means that Senna is now going to team up alongside Vitaly Petrov for the remaining 7 races of the 2011 Formula 1 season and one has to admit that this is the best opportunity the young Brazilian driver is going to get in a long time.
Since Robert Kubica is expected to return to the team in 2012, Senna would have to really outperform his teammate Petrov in order to secure a race seat with the team for next year as well or he might even get a better opportunity next year based on this
year’s performance.
Heidfeld on the other hand might not be a part of the team anymore but the team stated that it is thankful to the German driver for his contribution despite the fact that the team went through a pretty rough time with him.
“Our separation process was already a painful one, and neither of us wanted to go through another legal hearing. We're very grateful to Nick for the highly valuable contribution he's made to the team,” said the team principal Eric Boullier.
Nevertheless, the team is hoping to improve its performance in order to catch up with its rivals Mercedes GP in the constructors’ standings.
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