Timo Glock’s continuing tenure at Toyota means that Kazuki Nakajima, who races with the backing of the Japanese carmaker, is likely to stay with Toyota-powered Williams in 2009.
However, there may also be moves within the Grove-based Williams team to look seriously at Bruno Senna, the nephew of F1’s famous triple world champion Ayrton Senna.
Senna, 24, has been increasingly impressive in the feeder series GP2 this year, attracting not just the attention of his late uncle’s former McLaren teammate Gerhard Berger, who has a vacancy at his team Toro Rosso for next year.
Race seats at Honda and Williams may also be up for grabs, and paddock rumours indicate that the Brazilian oil company Petrobras – which already sponsors Williams – could be willing to substantially support Senna’s graduation to F1.
Test seats at BMW-Sauber and Toyota may also have been discussed for 2009 with Senna’s management.
“If a very good team offered me a test drive for a year and a race drive for the next year, that’s a good prospect. But I’d primarily prefer to have a race seat,” he is quoted as saying by GPWeek.
Honda chief executive Nick Fry does not deny he has his eye on Senna.
“But there’s been no specific move in that direction,” he insisted.
