Renault have revealed that Bruno Senna will replace Nick Heidfeld at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.
It seems the 27-year-old Brazilian, who is 14/1 with bookmaker to be the first driver to retire on Sunday, will race for the team in the eight remaining races of the season, alongside Russian Vitaly Petrov.
Senna, currently a Renault test and reserve driver, is set to bring several million pounds of sponsorship to the team. He made his debut for Hispania last season but didn’t score a point.
Heidfeld came in for the injured Robert Kubica at the start of the year and is eighth in the drivers’ standings with 34 points, but has come in for criticism from Renault’s majority shareholder Gerard Lopez.
“I’m happy with his first part of the season but not totally happy with his leadership and performing within the team,” said Lopez.
“We brought Nick in because he’s a much more experienced driver than Vitaly [Petrov] and he did a very good job with the podium in Malaysia but he has not consistently been what we would want from an experienced driver like him.”