Bruno Senna says he has family support to drive for Williams F1 team

Bruno Senna says his family has given its full blessing to his tie-up with Williams this year, despite his uncle Ayrton losing his life with the team back in 1994

Williams ended months of speculation about the identity of its second driver on Tuesday when it announced that Senna will line-up alongside Pastor Maldonado for 2012.

The move comes 18 years after three-time world champion Ayrton Senna was killed in a crash during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

Reflecting on the emotions of driving for the team that has carried the badge of his uncle ever since that Imola weekend, Bruno said: "I believe that things happen in life for a reason, but there is no negativity from my family. They are thrilled about it.

"Everybody is ecstatic; I spoke to my grandparents before I spoke to my mother. My grandmother was so happy, and my grandfather had a great laugh. In the family everyone is smiling, everyone has worked hard for it, and it is a family business. We have a great unity and everyone is super happy."

Senna believes there will be no more pressure on him to deliver with Williams that there has been since he began racing.

"It is something that has been constant in my career," he said. "I've been in the spotlight and it hasn't been a problem. It has made me learn the hard way about how to cope with pressure, and I've been able to deal with it. Last year there was a great deal of pressure with the circumstance, and in some ways it went the right way."

And although the Williams deal means that fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello has almost certainly been left without an F1 drive, Senna reckons it will not affect his relationship with the most experienced man in F1 history.

"I haven't had the chance to speak to him, but me and Rubens have had a great relationship ever since we met," he explained. "It is motor racing, it is sport. There is always the chance that one person going in will be another going out, and there is no personal feelings on that. It is just sport. Rubens is well aware of that."