Williams could wait until after the 2012 season before announcing whether or not Valtteri Bottas will replace Bruno Senna next year. At present, the general feeling is that the Finnish reserve driver will be promoted to the race line-up.
When speaking with GPUpdate.net on this day last year, Bottas admitted that he aimed for a Formula 1 race seat in 2013. He has already impressed in Friday practice sessions and seems destined for a race position; whether or not that will be announced before the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix remains to be seen.
“It’s too early to say,” Toto Wolff, Executive Director of Williams, told the official F1 website. “Sure, we are taking different looks at the issue, but the minute we discuss it we are going to mess-up Pastor and Bruno - and maybe others that we try talking to - so I would give it another month before we are going to have the first idea of what we want.
“Announcing a driver line-up is always an interesting topic, so I think we take the approach of making an announcement when it will excite people. Whether it will be in-season or not, I don’t know yet, but we don’t want to drag it out too long.”
Quizzed further over Senna’s imminent future, Wolff replied:
“Bruno is very intelligent and very sensitive and that means he is putting a lot of pressure on himself. Whether it is the name or not, I don’t know…but he has made his way into F1, which means that he is good. He has an extremely fast team-mate and he needs to follow his path. He is pushing very hard and we are trying to support him as best we can.”
Senna, nephew of late triple World Champion Ayrton, made his F1 debut with Hispania in 2010. He joined Williams at the start of the current campaign, having impressed after replacing Nick Heidfeld at Renault during 2011.
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Side-by-side: Maldonado versus Senna in 2012
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- Pastor Maldonado
Race wins: 1
Podiums: 1
Fastest laps: 0
Pole positions: 1
Front row starts: 1
Points finishes: 2
Top five finishes: 1
Race retirements: 5
Q1 eliminations: 0
Q3 appearances: 8
- Bruno Senna
Race wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Fastest laps: 1
Pole positions: 0
Front row starts: 0
Points finishes: 7
Top five finishes: 0
Race retirements: 3
Q1 eliminations: 1
Q3 appearances: 1
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Series
Formula 1
Personalities
Toto Wolff
Valtteri Bottas
Bruno Senna
Pastor Maldonado
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Williams
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| Pastor Maldonado | |||
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| Bruno Senna | |||
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| Valtteri Bottas | |||
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| Toto Wolff | |||
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