ESPNF1 Staff
August 27, 2011
Bruno Senna was not overly concerned with his mistake in FP1 © Getty Images
Bruno Senna shrugged off his accident during Friday's free practice as an unfortunate mistake, instead preferring to concentrate on what had been 'ideal conditions' for his Renault debut.
Senna was controversially selected ahead of Nick Heidfeld for the Belgian Grand Prix and did not get off to the best of starts, sliding off at turn nine and into the barriers in the morning. But the changeable conditions meant that Senna was able to get meaningful time behind the wheel on different tyre compounds and set-ups in preparation for the weekend.
"It was the ideal conditions for a debut in Formula One," said Senna. "But at the end of the day there's meaningful wet running as well so I got some experience out of it. Unfortunately I lost loads of time in the morning with my mistake and paid a bit for it in the end but the afternoon was alright. It was, unfortunately, a mistake, and I paid for it. I just put my wheel on the white line on the right hand side and that was that."
"In the afternoon I got my head clear and did a good job I think. We had so much to learn with the car, we had a few changes on the car. Also in terms of procedures; with the pit stops, with the pull-always, with the practice starts, with every procedure that the driver has to do in the car. So there was all in all a lot of learning, and I'm sure I'll have a very good night of sleep tonight to get my head around everything."
With rain set to return during Saturday's qualifying session, Senna admits there will be a tricky choice to be made in terms of making the right tyre choice at the right time.
"It depends, if it's qualifying with the intermediates or the wet tyres it should be straightforward, but the conditions in Spa are never straightforward," added Senna. "There's so much change all the time and I think if tomorrow is like this it's going to be a bit of a lottery again. Just being on the right tyres at the right time will be the way to go."
Although Senna has been confirmed to race in the next two races, it remains unclear whether or not Nick Heidfeld will return after that. But the likeable Brazilian says that he is merely concentrating on the immediate job in hand and feels no extra pressure to perform.
"To be honest with you I'm not thinking about that. The pressure would be the same if I were completely guaranteed to do the next three years or not. What I want to do is sit down in the car and deliver. I know that the pressure is there; my pressure is bigger than the pressure that comes from the outside, but that's how I work and I've been able to deal with this pressure before and I can deal with it now.
"If you look at the team right now there are no new stickers on the car or on myself, and that's not the reason that I'm in the car. I'm in the car because the team has been preparing me, they trust that I can do a good job and they're probably looking to the future. Of course there's a great commercial potential for the team with myself in it and hopefully we can exploit that, but I'm confident that the team is not giving me the opportunity just because of that but because they believe I can do a good job."
Credit: ESPN F1 (en.espnf1.com)
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