Bruno Senna will hold onto his race seat at Renault for the Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, with a view to racing for the team until the end of the season.
On Wednesday Renault confirmed that Senna will replace Nick Heidfeld at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend but did not give any further details on the deal. But in the Thursday press conference at Spa, Senna revealed that the team is hoping to keep in the car for the remaining eight races.
"Right now I'm confirmed to do this race and the next race but for some legal issues, which need to be resolved, I can't confirm if I'm going to do the rest of the year or not," he said. "The intention is that I'm going to do it but it still cannot be confirmed."
Senna has not raced an F1 car since the final round of last year when he drove an HRT at Abu Dhabi. He admitted that it will be a steep learning curve this weekend to step up from his role as a reserve driver to full racing duties.
"It's going to be a big challenge to come back in the middle of the season, or a bit later than the middle of the season to racing," he said. "But I've been participating in all the meetings with the engineers so I've been keeping up-to-date with what is going on in the team. Last Friday in Hungary was very useful for me to get a view for the car and how the car can go.
"But of course it is going to be a big uphill battle to get to the level of these guys who have been racing for 11 races now. The fact that it's here in Spa is very special. It's my circuit and a circuit that historically I've done very well at. Hopefully I can progress very fast and hopefully do a job for these guys, because that is the best way to appreciate the opportunity they have given me."
Senna said his recent run in the R31 during Friday practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix will only be of limited use and is hoping just to keep team-mate Vitaly Petrov in his sights.
"Friday was very tough at Hungary, it was really difficult, but I only had one set of tyres," he added. "I'll have to learn how to deal with the tyres from the first set all the way to the tyres in qualifying, and then with the tyres in the race because it will be my first experience with the Pirelli tyres going from high fuel to low fuel. So all this experience that I don't have I have to learn for the first time. If I can be anywhere near Petrov that will be a good reference."
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