HRT must look beyond finishing races – Senna

Finishing races is good, but not good enough, Bruno Senna said after Sunday’s Malaysian grand prix.

Having barely survived the winter, and then making its track debut in Bahrain without any prior testing, the fact that HRT’s Senna and Karun Chandhok both reached the chequered flag in Malaysia was hailed by boss Colin Kolles as a “fantastic day”.

But rookie Senna, 26, told Globo: “Everyone is happy (with the double finish) because it is a feat for a team that did not have any testing and started the season with so many problems.

“But we cannot stay content just to finish.  The car was very bad under braking,” said the Brazilian.

Virgin, famously with too small a fuel tank, was also happy just to get Lucas di Grassi across the line, with technical boss Nick Wirth saying “fuel saving techniques” were deployed “to excellent effect”.

Much less happy was Rubens Barrichello, however, whose lapped Williams was not competitive throughout the Sepang weekend.

“I’m smiling, because otherwise I would be crying in the corner,” joked the veteran.

© RIF|GMM