Money keeping De La Rosa from Campos seat

While Bruno Senna has been confirmed for a seat in 2010 with Campos Meta, it appears that a lack of sponsor backing is making it less and less likely that McLaren reserve driver Pedro De La Rosa will join him.

“I would like Pedro de la Rosa but he is Spanish and Spanish sponsors are in a bad way,” Team boss Adrian Campos told the sports daily Marca, according to a Reuters report.

And then he added this: “”There are other options from Russia and Venezuela but it all depends on the sponsor.”

Bernie Ecclestone must be salivating at the thought of breaking into Russian sponsorship.

Here’s more detail from Reuters, particularly about the potential drivers Campos alludes to above:

Team president Jose Ramon Carabante agreed that De la Rosa’s situation was difficult.

“Everyone asks me about De la Rosa but it all depends on the backing we can get. The situation is complicated in Spain. There is also Maldonado and the Russian kid,” he told the as.com website.

Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, 24, and Russian Vitaly Petrov, 25, both competed in the GP2 support series this year and have solid backers.

Maldonado is sponsored by the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA while Petrov, who would be the first Russian to race in Formula One, was overall runner-up for Campos’s Barwa Addax team in GP2 this year and also has wealthy backers.

Campos said Senna, whose name alone is expected to attract significant interest from sponsors, had signed a two year contract.

Does anyone find Senna’s two-year deal interesting? The kid has shown good pace, especially given the years he took off from racing, but I think the Romain Grosjeans and Jaime Alguersauris of the world combined with Kamui Kobayashi have proven just this year that it ultimately is difficult to scout driver talent.

But in the end, the Senna name, even if Bruno is putt-putting about at the back, is probably worth the two-year investment in him. Especially if he’s bringing sponsors to the team.