Senna slots in at Williams

Bruno Senna has been confirmed as a Williams driver alongside Pastor Maldonado for the 2012 season. The decision means that ex-Force India driver Adrian Sutil and Grand Prix veteran Rubens Barrichello are both still on the sidelines.

“Bruno only started racing when he was 20 years old,” said team principal Frank Williams, “but quickly proved his talent in F3 and GP2. The circumstances of Bruno’s two seasons in F1 [at HRT and Lotus Renault] have not given him an ideal opportunity to deliver consistently so it was essential that we spent as much time as possible to understand and evaluate him as a driver.”

Senna, whose uncle Ayrton raced for Williams in 1994, added, “I feel privileged that Williams has selected me as one of their race drivers. The evaluation process has been intense and methodical, but the time I have spent at the factory has demonstrated that the team has great people and all the resources needed to achieve better things this season.”

Now that Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne have replaced Jaime Alguersuari and Sébastien Buemi at Toro Rosso the only seat still to be filled on the F1 grid is at HRT, alongside Pedro de la Rosa.