Born to businessman Flávio Pereira Lalli and Viviane Senna Lalli, Senna grew up in São Paulo alongside his uncle Ayrton, who at the time was a Formula One driver for McLaren. His grandparents were Milton Teodoro Guirado da Silva and Neide Senna da Silva. Senna began karting at age five on the family farm, taught by his grandfather Milton and his uncle Ayrton. In 1993, Ayrton remarked: "If you think I'm fast, just wait until you see my nephew."
Ayrton's death while driving a Williams at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix halted Bruno's early racing ambitions. His father died in a motorbike accident in 1996. Senna eventually resumed racing with the reluctant support of his mother. In 2004, at Imola on the tenth 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, and drove the car at the Brazilian Grand Prix meeting at Interlagos. Ayrton Senna's McLaren teammate from 1990 to 1992, Gerhard Berger, is a close friend of the family and advised Senna on his career. His sister Bianca has managed his affairs and sponsorship.
In 2004, Senna competed in six races of the Formula BMW UK series for Carlin Motorsport, scoring six points. In 2005, he moved to the British Formula Three Championship with Räikkönen Robertson Racing, a team owned by then-McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen and his managers David and Steve Robertson. He finished tenth in the standings with three podium finishes in the final seven races.
In 2006, Senna remained with the same team and finished third in the championship behind champion and teammate Mike Conway and Oliver Jarvis, taking five victories. He won the first two races at Oulton Park in wet conditions, won again at Donington Park, and took a further win at Mugello in the wet. During round five at Snetterton, Senna was involved in a high-speed collision with Hitech Racing's Salvador Durán on the Revett Straight at nearly 150 mph. His car became airborne and may have clipped a bridge before landing violently against the safety barrier; Senna walked away unhurt.
Also in 2006, Senna competed in the Formula Three support races at the Australian Grand Prix, winning three of the four races and setting a Formula Three lap record of 1:50.8640 at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit — still the fastest non-F1 lap at that venue as of 2016.
In 2007, Senna joined the Red Bull-sponsored Arden International for the GP2 Series. He finished fourth on debut at Bahrain and scored his first win in the feature race in Spain. At the season finale in Valencia, he ended the year inside the top ten in the standings — only his third full year of single-seater racing, with one win and three podiums.
For 2008, Senna moved to iSport International, with Karun Chandhok as his teammate. During the sprint race at Istanbul that season, Senna's car struck a stray dog that had entered the circuit, damaging his suspension and forcing retirement; the dog died in the incident. He won the GP2 feature race at Monte Carlo — the first time in 15 years the Senna name had appeared at the top of the leaderboards in the principality. He finished runner-up in the championship to Giorgio Pantano.
After testing a Honda in November 2008 in Barcelona and coming within 0.3 seconds of Jenson Button, Senna signed for Campos Meta, which was later renamed Hispania Racing. Karun Chandhok was confirmed as his teammate on 4 March. After nine races, Senna was replaced for the British Grand Prix by Sakon Yamamoto; he returned for the German Grand Prix with Yamamoto replacing Chandhok. On 7 January 2011, HRT announced Senna would not drive for them in 2011.
On 31 January 2011, Senna was announced as test and reserve driver for Renault. In August, following the conclusion of the German Grand Prix, it was confirmed that Senna would replace Nick Heidfeld for the remaining races of the season. He qualified seventh for his first race with the team, the Belgian Grand Prix, and finished 13th after a collision with Jaime Alguersuari at the first corner, receiving a drive-through penalty. At the Italian Grand Prix, he finished ninth — scoring his first Formula One points. He was not retained for 2012.
On 17 January 2012, Senna was confirmed as a Williams driver alongside Pastor Maldonado. As his uncle had been driving for Williams at the time of his death, Senna sought his family's blessing before joining the team. His most significant result came at the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he finished sixth in changeable conditions — earning more points than Williams had accumulated in the entire 2011 season. He finished seventh in China and recorded the fastest lap at the Belgian Grand Prix after a late puncture dropped him from eighth to twelfth. He ended the season 16th in the Championship on 31 points and was replaced by Finnish rookie Valtteri Bottas for 2013.
In 2013, Senna joined Aston Martin Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He and his co-drivers won the season opener at Silverstone and collected another podium at Spa. At Le Mans, the No. 99 Aston Martin Vantage GT2 — shared with Rob Bell and Frédéric Makowiecki — started from pole in the GTE class but retired following a serious crash with five hours remaining, when running third. Makowiecki was not seriously injured in the accident.
On 9 February 2015, Senna was confirmed as a factory driver for the McLaren GT3 project.
For 2017, Senna joined Rebellion Racing, driving the No. 13 car in the LMP2 class. In the season-deciding final race — the 6 Hours of Bahrain — Senna and Julien Canal's No. 13 car raced Jackie Chan DC Racing for the title. With Senna at the wheel in the final stint, the car suffered a loss of power steering. He muscled through the final 50 minutes to win the race and the championship. Canal, Senna, and Nico Prost shared the title-winning car.
In May 2014, Mahindra Racing confirmed Senna and Karun Chandhok as their Formula E drivers for the 2014–15 season. Senna remained with Mahindra for the 2015–16 season before leaving the series.
In 2009, Senna joined Oreca to race the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Le Mans Series. His first race was the 2009 1000 km of Catalunya, teamed with Stéphane Ortelli, where he finished third.
In 2022, the Airspeeder eVTOL racing series confirmed Senna as a development pilot and global ambassador, working with engineers on onboard safety technology ahead of the first crewed Airspeeder Grand Prix events in 2023.
On 15 July 2012, Senna was awarded the Lorenzo Bandini Trophy in Brisighella, Italy, becoming the 19th driver to receive the honour. His helmet design is a modified version of his uncle's: a yellow helmet with green and blue S-shaped stripes.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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