AUGUST 18, 2004

Bruno Senna to compete in BMW UK Championship

Bruno Senna, the nephew of the late Ayrton Senna is set to compete this weekend in the Formula BMW UK Championship at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent. Senna will be driving for top team Carlin Motorsport.

Bruno raced karts until the age of 10 but has not raced anything since then. He is being groomed by team boss Trevor Carlin for an eventual move into his championship-winning British Formula 3 squad and will complete the three final round of the Formula BMW series, starting with Brands.

Bruno told reporters, "I have done a test program at two UK circuits and now feel that I am familiar enough with the car to go racing," he said. "I am planning to do the last three rounds of Formula BMW at Brands Hatch, Rockingham and Donnington."

"I have never run on these tracks, so it won't be easy as the other drivers have tested or raced at two of them. But I'm not worried about this. The important thing is to try to qualify in the top 10 places and then get used to racing against the other drivers. I'm looking forward to it."

Team boss Trevor Carlin said, "Bruno's testing has been very good and now he needs to get into competition with others - to ascertain his level of competitiveness in qualifying and also to give him the racing experience that he will need to compete successfully next season."