Bruno struggles in Ayrton's shadow

Motor Sport Formula One

Senna struggles in Ayrton's shadow. The name of Senna, one of the most evocative in Formula One, is back on the Monaco Grand Prix timesheets for the first time since 1993 but this time without the slightest hope of success.

Where the late triple champion Ayrton Senna dominated the streets like no other Formula One driver, winning a record six times including five in a row between 1989 and 1993, his nephew Bruno will be fortunate to see the chequered flag on Sunday.
"It's difficult," the Brazilian rookie told ‘Reuters’ in the harbourside paddock on Friday, the day after he finished last in practice and more than seven seconds slower than Fernando Alonso's Ferrari.

"I did a better lap time in my GP2 car than with a Formula One car," continued the 26-year-old, a past Monaco winner in that feeder series.
"It's quite a big challenge here, we need to work a lot to find performance and improve the car."

Senna is not lacking in popular support, with a throng of fans clamouring for his autograph and thrusting photographs, tickets and even their shirts through and over the paddock wire fence for him to sign.  He does not lack self-confidence or ability, either.
What he does lack, however, is a car capable of lapping at anything close to the pace of the frontrunners.

"I don't have any false hopes of coming here and doing some miracle," said the Brazilian, who has finished just two of the season's five races so far and crashed out after just four corners in last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

"On this track you need to have pure confidence in your car, you need to know what the car is going to do every corner. We have less downforce and less grip at the moment because we are a bit limited and that's causing us some difficulties."
Ayrton Senna is still the only Brazilian to win the Monaco Grand Prix, despite the best efforts of Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello over the years, and Bruno's GP2 win allows him to claim a Senna monopoly on victory in the principality as far as his country is concerned.

The younger Senna dismissed a suggestion that his struggles could diminish the legacy left by Ayrton, a mystique only heightened after the champion's tragic death at Imola in 1994.

"That's your job to rectify because people need to understand that there is no miracle that can be worked in a car that's inferior," he said.
"The driver will make three or four tenths of a second difference and that's on the best day compared to a bad day for the other guy," he added. "You can never outrun the car by seconds, there's no such thing nowadays in motor racing. "You always want to be in front and I know that I can be in front. I know that I can do a good job here in any car," he declared.

"It's just that it's not easy. We are struggling a little bit and we know that this will be the hardest weekend for us but we have something to look forward to and hopefully we can get performance and enhancement in the car sooner rather than later."
Monaco is in any case a home race of sorts for the Brazilian, who has an apartment in the principality -- although he said that had mixed benefits.
"Unfortunately, my home is too busy with my mother and sister and friends and everything but it's home and it's great that I can go cycling in the morning," he said.

Reuters