Lorenzo Bandini

Born	(1935-12-21)21 December 1935
Died	10 May 1967(1967-05-10) (aged 31)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Italian
Active years	1961 - 1967
Teams	Scuderia Centro Sud, Scuderia Ferrari
Races	42
Championships	0
Wins	1
Podiums	8
Career points	58
Pole positions	1
Fastest laps	2
First race	1961 Belgian Grand Prix
First win	1964 Austrian Grand Prix
Last win	1964 Austrian Grand Prix
Last race	1967 Monaco Grand Prix

Bandini at 1965 1000km Nürburgring with Ferrari Dino

Bandini at 1966 German Grand Prix with Ferrari 312

Lorenzo Bandini (21 December 1935 – 10 May 1967) was an Italian motor racing driver who raced in Formula One for the Scuderia Centro Sud and Ferrari teams.

Career[link]

Bandini was born in Barce,^[1] Cyrenaica,^[2] Libya, then an Italian colony. The family returned to Italy in 1939 and resided near Florence, Italy. When he was 15 his father died. Bandini left home and found a job as an apprentice mechanic in the Freddi workshop in Milan.^[2]

He made his way into auto racing from competing on motorcycles.^[3] He started racing cars in 1957 in a borrowed Fiat 1100. The wealthy and kindhearted Freddi moulded Bandini's career and assisted him from the start of it.^[2]

He achieved a first class victory at the Mille Miglia, in a Lancia Appia Zagato, in 1958, and a class win the same year in the 500cc Berkeley in the 12-hour race at Monza. He then raced in Formula Junior until 1961. Bandini purchased a Volpini Formula Junior car and placed third in his first race in Sicily. In 1959 and 1960 he drove a Formula Junior Stanguellini. In 1960 he placed fourth in the Formula Junior World Championship.

In 1961 Bandini became disappointed when Giancarlo Baghetti, also of Italy, was selected to drive a sponsored Ferrari by the association of Italian motor clubs FISA. However he had the attention of Mimo Dei, the team patron of Scuderia Centro Sud. He was invited to join the Scuderia Centro Sud in Formula One. At a non-championship race, he finished third at Pau. Bandini drove his first world championship race at Spa later in 1961. He retired with engine failure. During the winter of 1961-1962 he drove in the Tasman races in Australia and New Zealand.^[2]

The Maranello based Ferrari team's success had declined after the triumphs of Phil Hill and Wolfgang Von Trips in the new rear-engined cars. Hill won the Formula One World Championship in 1961.^[2] After Bandini was hired by Ferrari for the 1962 and 1963 seasons, he did fairly well. His debut in a works Ferrari was good one at the Monaco Grand Prix. He placed third.

For 1963 Bandini was retained by Ferrari for sports car races only. Dei once again assisted him by purchasing for him a BRM discarded by Graham Hill. Bandini campaigned the BRM in Scuderia Centro Sud colors.^[2]

Bandini, along with Ludovico Scarfiotti, won the Le Mans 24 Hours race for Ferrari in 1963. He again became the number one driver for Ferrari, replacing John Surtees who left in mid-season of 1966. He was unlucky not to win the French and U.S. Grands Prix that year which he dominated before mechanical problems intervened while he was holding a huge lead. Bandini's best finish was a second place at the Monaco Grand Prix in a 2.4 liter V-6 Ferrari behind Jackie Stewart's BRM.

In 1964 Bandini won the first Austrian Grand Prix at the Zeltweg circuit, his only GP win. He also achieved victories for Ferrari in sportscar racing, notably the previously-mentioned 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1963, the Targa Florio in 1965, and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967 and the 1,000 kms of Monza, both with Chris Amon.

Bandini was married to Margherita Freddi in 1963 and managed a garage owned by his wife's parents in Milan. He resided in Maranello, near the Ferrari headquarters.^[4]

During the making of the movie "Grand Prix" directed by John Frankenheimer, Bandini recommended the location at the harbour chicane for a crash scene in the movie filmed at the Monte Carlo circuit. According to actress Eva Marie Saint in "The Making of Grand Prix", this location was ironically the site of his own death in the race one year later.

Accident and death[link]

In May 1967 Bandini was racing at the Monaco Grand Prix, running second to Denny Hulme on the 82nd lap, when he lost control of his car at the harbour chicane. He had just entered an S-turn when his Ferrari's left rear wheel hit the guard rail, sending him into an erratic skid. It impacted a light pole and overturned.^[5] The car hit straw bales which lined the harbour side, rupturing the fuel tank, and sparks ignited the fuel as the car rolled over, with Bandini trapped beneath it. Marshals flipped his car upright and pulled Bandini, unconscious, out from the flaming Ferrari. It is thought that, during the effort to right the overturned car, gasoline leaked on the hot brake line or the exhaust pipe and exploded. A second fire occurred when the gas tank exploded after Bandini had been pulled away from the Ferrari.^[1]

Bandini's burns were extensive, with third degree burns covering more than 70% of his body. The worst burns were on his arms and legs with slight burns on his face. Doctors were forced^{[citation needed][clarification needed]} to wait for twenty-four to forty-eight hours before resolving to move Bandini to a hospital in Lyon, France, which specialized in the treatment of burns. Other options considered, by the doctors, were flying in skin grafts from Italy ^[1] or a specialist burns unit team from East Grinstead in England. The burns caused severe lesions. He also sustained a chest wound and ten chest fractures.^[5]

Three days later, Bandini succumbed to his injuries. He died at Princess Grace Polyclinic Hospital in Monte Carlo. There were concerns about the promptness of Bandini's rescue. However, investigators from the Principality of Monaco ruled on 10 May "that the security operation had functioned properly."^[3] The straw bales, having been banned from all Formula 1 races in response to the accident, were replaced by an extended guard-rail the following year.^[6]

Bandini was buried in Reggiolo on 13 May.^[7] 100,000 people attended the funeral.^[8]

Complete Formula One results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Non-Championship results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

See also[link]

• Lorenzo Bandini Trophy

References[link]

External links[link]

• Lorenzo Bandini's fatal accident

Bruno Senna

Born	(1983-10-15) 15 October 1983 (age 28) São Paulo, Brazil
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Brazilian
2012 team	Williams-Renault
2012 car #	19
Races	32
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	17
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last race	2012 Monaco Grand Prix
2011 position	18th (2 pts)

Bruno Senna Lalli (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈbrunu ˈsenɐ], born 15 October 1983 in São Paulo) is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver and the nephew of the late three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna. His mother is Ayrton's older sister, Viviane. His father, Flávio Lalli, died in a motorcycle crash in 1996. He wears a slightly modified version of his uncle's helmet. Senna made his Formula One début in 2010, driving for Hispania Racing. He moved to Renault in 2011, replacing Nick Heidfeld as a driver from August of that year,^[1] and since January 2012 he is signed to the Williams team.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

As a child, Bruno raced go-karts against Ayrton on the family farm, and Ayrton regarded his nephew's potential very highly. When leaving McLaren at the end of 1993, Ayrton said: "If you think I'm fast, just wait until you see my nephew Bruno".^[2] Ayrton's death while driving a Williams at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, however, brought Bruno's own racing career to an abrupt halt.

At Imola in 2004, however, on the 10th anniversary of his uncle's death, Senna was given an example of his uncle's 1986 Lotus 98T as a gift from an Italian friend. Senna drove the car at the 2004 Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix meeting in São Paulo, at Interlagos, where Ayrton had won in 1991 and 1993.

Ayrton's McLaren team mate of the 1990–1992 seasons, Gerhard Berger is a close friend of the Senna family and has advised Senna on his career. Senna's sister, Bianca, meanwhile, has managed his affairs and sponsorship acquisition.

In 2004, Bruno competed in six races of the Formula BMW UK series for Carlin Motorsport, scoring six points.

Formula Three (2005–2006)[link]

In 2005, he moved on to the British Formula Three International Series, driving for the Räikkönen Robertson Racing team owned by then-McLaren Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen and his business managers David and Steve Robertson. His results included three podium finishes in the last seven races of the season, as he finished tenth in the final standings. In 2006 he stayed with the team and finished third in the series standings behind champion and teammate Mike Conway and Oliver Jarvis, taking five victories. He won the opening two races of the series at Oulton Park in the wet. He again won the first race at Donington Park and then won the second race at Mugello in Italy, again in the wet.

Senna had a massive crash during the first race of round five of the series at Snetterton. On lap 2, he and Hitech Racing's Salvador Durán clashed wheels on the Revett Straight at nearly 150 mph (240 km/h). Senna's car took off just before the bridge, and may have even clipped it, while cartwheeling through the air.^[3] His car landed violently and careered along and down the safety barrier for some distance, but Senna walked away. His car however was damaged beyond immediate repair and Senna missed out on the second race of the day.

Bruno Senna driving a Dallara F304 in a support race at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix

On the rear wing of the car he had advertised the Ayrton Senna Foundation web page.

In 2006, Senna competed in the Formula Three support races at the 2006 Australian Grand Prix, winning three of the four races.^[4][5]

On 28 May Senna made his first appearance on Monaco circuit, as a guest in the Porsche Supercup event. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire at the first corner because of a clutch failure.

In October 2006 he appeared in an eight-part weekly series called Vroom Vroom on British TV station Sky One. Each week he would drive a different car being tested on the show, as quickly as possible, to the top of a multi-storey car park.

GP2 Series (2007–2008)[link]

In October 2006 Senna was said to be targeting a seat on the Formula One grid by 2009.^[6] He signed to drive for the Red Bull-sponsored Arden International team for the 2007 GP2 Series. He finished fourth on his debut at Bahrain and soon after scored his first win in the feature race in Spain. In the single race Monaco event, Senna struggled owing to poor tyres.

During the four week break in the GP2 series between the Monaco and French races, Senna took part in the third round of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli European series at Silverstone on June 9 and 10, 2007. Driving an F430 on a weekend devoted to the 60th anniversary of Ferrari, Senna won both races, starting each from pole. The purpose of this involvement was to gain a better understanding of the circuit, which is on the GP2 calendar.

Senna driving for iSport International at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season

At Silverstone, a mistake during qualifying on the Friday meant Senna started 26th and last. After a great start Senna was able to finish 11th in the feature race. The sprint race was not any better in terms of points with a 10th place finish. A poor qualifying session at the Nurburgring for the feature race meant Senna started 16th but was up to ninth after a cleverly timed first pit stop. However he was given a drive-through penalty after being involved in a collision with Adam Carroll and ended up finishing a poor 15th. The Sprint race ended on the first lap after a collision. At Hungary for both races, Senna finished out of the top ten after struggling with the set-up of the car. The feature race in Turkey brought another poor result, however Senna finished sixth in the sprint race and with it came his first points since France. At Monza Senna finished fourth after starting fourteenth. Starting fifth for the sprint race Senna had an excellent start by moving up to second, however after contact with Luca Filippi resulted in bent steering, Senna managed to finish third and on the podium for the first time since France in July. At Spa Senna showed raw pace through practice and set the third fastest time early on during Qualifying for the feature race. However a stall on the grid meant he started 22nd and while fighting to make up ground he got a bit of oversteer and then the camber changed, ending his day in the tyre barrier. Starting at the back of the grid for the sprint race, Senna finished eighth leaving Belgium pointless. At the season finale in Valecia Spain, Senna ended the feature race with a DNF and thus starting the sprint race from 19th could only manage to finish 14th. This was a positive season on the whole for Senna finishing in the top 10 in only his third full year of single seater racing, with one win and three podiums.

Senna switched teams for the 2008 season, moving to iSport International, where his team-mate was Karun Chandhok.^[7] He also drove for the team in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series. In the second round of the season at Istanbul Senna collided with a stray dog during the sprint race. The suspension of Senna's car was damaged in the incident, causing him to retire. Senna himself escaped without injury, while the dog died in the incident. Senna won the GP2 Feature race at Monte Carlo, the first time in 15 years since the Senna name has shown at the top of the leaderboards at the principality. It also moved Senna to first position in the points table, although he was to eventually finish runner-up in the championship to Giorgio Pantano.

Le Mans Series (2009)[link]

Senna driving for Oreca at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Senna had been holding out for a Formula One drive for 2009, and after he realised this would not happen, he began looking at other opportunities to keep him "race fit" ahead of negotiations for a 2010 drive in Formula One. He tested with the AMG-Mercedes DTM team, but after holding talks with the outfit he decided he did not want to commit himself to the series.^[8]

After testing an Oreca LMP1 car, Senna joined the team to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans^[9] and the Le Mans Series. His first race was the 2009 1000 km of Catalunya, teamed with Stéphane Ortelli, finishing 3rd.

Formula One[link]

Senna demonstrating a Ferrari 312B2 Formula One car at the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Bruno Senna sampled a contemporary Formula One car for the first time in November 2008 when he tested for Honda in Barcelona. Honda assessed the Brazilian during their first winter test at the Circuit de Catalunya on November 17–19. His tasks included an initial familiarisation with Honda's RA108 car and its systems before progressing to a full programme during which the team intended to evaluate his performance, technical skill and ability to work within a large team organisation.

Despite Senna, over the course of the three day test, coming to within 0.3 seconds of then Honda F1 racing driver Jenson Button, the later announcement that Honda would withdraw from Formula One with immediate effect amid the economic crisis appeared to have significantly lessened his opportunity of a 2009 race seat in Formula One, unless the squad were to find a buyer before the beginning of the season in March. Senna was expected to be the team's second driver were it to make the 2009 grid,^[10] until Rubens Barrichello was reported to have re-signed with the team.^[11] Senna decided not to sign with Mercedes for 2009 DTM season "to focus completely on his Formula One chances".^[12] Bruno Senna said to the BBC in an interview that he did not want to negotiate with Lotus because of sentimental reasons as his uncle Ayrton Senna took his first win with Team Lotus. He also told the BBC that "I felt important to enter F1 now otherwise I would never be in it". He also told the BBC he had been negotiating with Manor GP, Campos Meta & one existing outfit rumoured to be Brawn GP as he was close to securing a drive the previous season but Barrichello renewed his contract with Brawn.^[13] Rubens Barrichello admitted he was lucky to be driving for Brawn. Barrichello said "I'm just lucky that at this time F1 has changed a little bit". He also wished Bruno the very best in the future, saying he only had a position as Ross Brawn chose the more experienced person because of lack of testing time. He also said he was sure due to Senna's potential that he would get a drive next season.^[14]

Hispania (2010)[link]

Senna driving for Hispania Racing at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix, his Formula One début

On 30 October 2009, Senna announced that he had signed a deal to race in Formula One in 2010;^[15] on 31 October 2009, Adrián Campos confirmed that Senna would be driving for Campos Meta.^[16] It was unclear whether Senna still had the drive after the takeover of Campos by José Ramón Carabante, with new team principal Colin Kolles saying the new-look team would need to find extra funding, review the existing operation, and announce the driver line up in due course, with no mention of Senna. On March 2, Campos announced a name change to Hispania Racing. Two days later, Karun Chandhok was confirmed as Senna's team-mate.^[17]

Senna wore a plain yellow helmet at the 2010 Belgian Grand Prix to advertise a competition where fans could design his helmet for his home race later in the year

After nine races, Senna was replaced for the British Grand Prix, with Sakon Yamamoto filling his seat.^[18] Senna returned to the driver's seat for the German Grand Prix with Yamamoto replacing Chandhok in the team's other car.

On 7 January 2011, HRT announced that Senna would not drive for them during the 2011 season.^[19]

Renault (2011)[link]

Senna scored his first F1 points for Renault at the 2011 Italian Grand Prix.

On 31 January 2011, Senna was announced as a test and reserve driver for the Renault team.^[20] On 9 February, the team confirmed that Senna would be sharing testing duties with Nick Heidfeld on the Saturday and Sunday of the four-day test at Jerez. This was to evaluate the drivers in preparation of replacing the injured Robert Kubica for the 2011 season.^[21] Heidfeld was given the race seat on 16 February 2011.^[22] On 24 July 2011, after the conclusion of the German Grand Prix, it was confirmed that Senna would make his first appearance of the 2011 season, replacing Heidfeld in the first free-practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix.^[23]

On 22 August, Eddie Jordan reported that Senna would replace Nick Heidfeld for the remaining races of the 2011 season.^[24] On 24 August this was confirmed by Renault.^[1] He qualified seventh for his first race with the team, the Belgian Grand Prix, and finished 13th after colliding with Jaime Alguersuari at the first corner, for which Senna received a drive-through penalty. He finished ninth at the Italian Grand Prix, scoring his first Formula One points. In Singapore, the Renault cars struggled with grip on the slow street circuit, with Senna qualifying and finishing 15th, however he still finished ahead of teammate Petrov. Senna finished 16th in Japan, 13th in Korea, and 12th in the first Indian Grand Prix, after being forced to change tyres late in the race. In Abu Dhabi, Senna again finished 16th after receiving a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags, and suffering a KERS failure.^[25] In the final race of the season, his home race in Brazil, Senna outqualfied Petrov for the third time, by starting ninth on the grid. On lap 10 of the race, Senna was involved in a collision with Michael Schumacher, for which Senna received a drive-through penalty,^[26] and finished the race in 17th place.

On 9 December, it was announced that Romain Grosjean would partner Kimi Räikkönen at the team in 2012, leaving Senna without a drive.^[27]

Williams (2012)[link]

Senna driving for Williams at the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix.

On 17 January 2012, Senna was confirmed as a Williams driver, where he partners Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado.^[28] As his uncle had been racing for Williams at the time of his death, Senna first sought out his family's blessing before joining the team.^[29][30] Senna qualified 14th for the Australian Grand Prix, and retired in the race's closing stages after contact with Felipe Massa; both drivers later agreed that it was a racing incident.^[31] He was classified 16th, having completed around 90% of the race distance. On 25 March, Senna scored his first points for Williams at the Malaysian Grand Prix, finishing in sixth place, for which he earned eight points after coming through the field in changeable conditions. Senna's result in Sepang gained more points for the team than Williams had earned throughout the whole of the 2011 season. Three races later, his teammate Pastor Maldonado won his first Grand Prix in Spain. After the race, a fire broke out in the Williams garage. Senna's car was damaged and four crew members were treated for injuries.

Helmet design[link]

Bruno Senna's helmet is a modified version of his uncle's helmet design: a yellow helmet with a green and blue S shaped stripe. The green stripe has a blue and white outline, while the blue stripe has a green and white outline. There is a green stripe under the chin area and a blue rounded rectangle in the top area.

Racing record[link]

Career summary[link]

^† As Senna was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.
^* Season in progress.

Complete GP2 Series results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)