How Senna has revived Renault

Despite having to abide so strictly with the laws of physics, and being judged so harshly by the unwavering march of time, there remain many facets of Formula 1 where success and failure cannot be judged by a piece of paper or a stopwatch. Instead, good or bad is dictated by simple gut feeling.

While some argue that the history books only care about the winners, and that all that matters is winning, when you are actually in the middle of the competition, how you go about achieving that end result can be just as important.

That immeasurable human spirit is a vital factor for any driver or team, and it's something that can only come from inside. It's why we love one-time winner Jean Alesi just as much as Michael Schumacher, who has 91 triumphs to his name.

It doesn't just count for fans, because for teams sometimes it is better to have a driver delivering something on track or in the garage that excites the staff or stirs something inside them, rather than coldly touring around on a Sunday and finishing in the points.

And so it was with Bruno Senna last weekend. His end result of 13th place was less than Nick Heidfeld may have managed if he had remained in the car. But of much more importance to Renault was that he delivered something over the weekend that his predecessor would have struggled to do.

You only needed to take a peek inside the Renault garage at a couple of minutes past 2pm last Saturday to see that for yourself.

As Senna and Vitaly Petrov returned to their garage after one of the most challenging qualifying sessions of the year, the smiles, backslapping and applause from the team members told its own story about just how lifted their spirit was on that damp Spa afternoon. If you didn't know otherwise, you would have thought the team had just won the race!

Renault has faced its fair share of troubles this year - with the moments of happiness, such as that time-topping performamce at the opening Valencia test and the early-season podiums, being outweighed by the down days.

First corner clash broke Senna's front wing © sutton-images.com

The worst, of course, was that Sunday morning in February when news of Robert Kubica's injuries filtered out of Italy; but there have been difficulties on track too; disappointments with results, paddock rumour mongering of internal strife and - of course - a difficult driver swap decision on the eve of Spa.

The ditching of Heidfeld for Senna was a controversial one and team principal Eric Boullier found himself on the receiving end of some pretty harsh questioning over the weekend about why he had got rid of his highest scoring driver and replaced him with an unproven, inexperienced youngster whose best result up to that point had been 14th.

Yet to believe that Heidfeld had been dropped in favour of Senna purely to deliver improved results is to totally misunderstand the motivation behind it. This was a call based on spirit, on gut feeling - and about shaking up an outfit to get its mojo back.

As became Boullier's mantra over the weekend, he said: "For many reasons, and not just speed, it would be better for the team to have a different driver line-up.

"In the end if you talk about management, not just speed, when you have the negative spin starting, the negative loop, it is complicated to stop it."

What Senna's appointment is about is putting the team back on a positive footing; having a driver the team personnel believe in - one they know that if they go the extra mile to help, will bring them an extra mile himself.

There is no suggestion that Senna is going to go out there, grab pole positions, win a race for Renault, and put the team back in title contention straight away. What he will do though is work incredibly hard to do his best for the team; he will bring a positive attitude to the team through his friendly and positive attitude - and that will be enough to provide a unifying force for everyone at Enstone that can only help its efforts to get back to the front.

That much was proven last Saturday afternoon when that applause rang out in the Renault garage after qualifying.

Boullier said that such clapping had not been seen since post-race in Malaysia - when Heidfeld delivered the team's second and last podium finish of the year. Other team members reckoned the delight had never been so strong and so passionate at any point this year.

Heidfeld was at Spa, but not in the car © sutton-images.com

The fairytale did not continue into raceday as Senna's first experience of heavy braking with cold tyres and brakes on a heavy fuel load resulted in him getting it slightly wrong and sliding into Jaime Alguersuari at the first corner - effectively ending his chances of a points finish there and then.

But there will be further opportunities; and Senna has justified his opportunity well. Few would argue he doesn't deserve it: having come so close to that Honda drive for 2009 before the Japanese pullout (what would he have done in that Brawn GP car?), and then keeping his head held high during a character building year for HRT in 2010.

If Boullier and Senna want to be sure that the story of Spa is a good omen for the future - and one that can help the team start building up that positive loop - perhaps they should look at a few coincidental moments from the weekend.

After all, this was a tale of a driver getting his F1 breakthrough at Spa only after his predecessor had been in court in London; this was a tale of a stirring performance that delivered delight and happiness as the driver put his car in a surprising seventh place on the grid; and this is a tale of 'what might have been' as this driver's race was finished just moments after the start as it all went wrong at the first corner.

Didn't something like that happen to a young kid called Michael Schumacher exactly 20 years ago?