Senna: To finish will feel like a podium

The Brazilian, like his team-mate Karun Chandhok, had no opportunity to test prior to this weekend, and Senna admitted that getting to Bahrain and competing through the weekend was a major achievement in itself.

"Obviously you can't expect much performance from us," the former GP2 Series race-winner told the BBC. "We had a car that went through some big changes in terms of balance. The car was very hard to drive in qualifying.

"But at the end of the day we managed to do all practice sessions and that is a big victory for us. It will be like being on the podium if we can manage to finis the race tomorrow with both cars in one piece."

Chandhok, who failed to get any practice time at all prior to qualifying thanks to a multitude of 'new car' dramas, was delighted to have just got some track time having completed seven laps in Q1.

"We got out and it was a massive panic," said the Indian, who will start from the back of the grid. "To be honest I don't even know what lap time I have done. It was just installation laps.

"The team was on the radio asking if things were okay, checking if all the gears went up and down. So I think the lap time was respectable, but there are so many things we can improve in the car.

"I am not even comfortable in the seat, my bum is off the bottom of the car so that's the first thing I need to adjust. But these were all things we should have done in Silverstone two months ago."