Formula One Fathers and Sons: Chasing the Dream in the Shadow of Your Elders

"If you think I'm good, just wait until you see my nephew Bruno," said Ayrton Senna late in 1993 about his young apprentice. However, not long after these words of praise, Ayrton had passed on, bringing young Bruno's career to an abrupt halt for a time.

In 2005 the talent that one of, if not the, greatest driver had spoken about was on show when Bruno resurfaced and raced in British Formula BMW and Formula Renault.

No sooner had he joined than he had moved onto the British Formula Three International Series racing for Räikkönen Robertson Racing, archieving numerous podium finishes in seven races.

It was around this time that the Senna name was back in the rumour mill and the media focused attention on shy Bruno, making the inevitable comparisons to his uncle.

In 2006, he entered the British F3 championship and won the first two events, only to fade away and finish a respectable third place overall.

But this didn't dampen his spirits as he exclaimed to the motor racing world that he is "targeting a seat on the Formula One grid by 2009." But for the meantime, the Formula One feeder series, GP2, became Senna's hunting ground and a place to hone his skills.

He signed to drive for the Red Bull-sponsored Arden International team. Although Senna didn't win the championship with Arden, it was still a positive step on the whole for him, with a top-10 finish in only his third full year of single-seater racing, with one win and three podiums.

To help boost and realize his dream, he moved to iSport International, with constant comparisons to Ayrton still around.

This placed added pressure on Bruno—however, every cloud has a silver lining.

Toro Rosso team chief Gerhard Berger is a close friend of the Senna family and has advised young Bruno on his career. He was recently linked with a drive for Toro Rosso to replace young superstar Sebastian Vettel. This would allow him to achieve his target and dream of reaching the pinnacle of racing by 2009.

However, the Senna name isn't the only name to be recycled back into F1. Younger generations certainly aren't a new thing to the Formula One World Championship. This started as early as 1950, when Alberto Ascari followed in his father Antonio's footsteps to great success

Two of the most famous sons of famous fathers raced for the same team in 1996 when Jaques Villeneuve and Damon Hill joined up at Williams. That year Hill became the first ever world champion son to accompany a world champion father.

A year later in 1997, Villeneuve dethroned Hill and did something his father never lived to do. He won the world championship. Hill is currently mentoring the third generation of Hills to enter motorsports. Maybe one day we will see the Hill name back at the top.

However, sometimes the sons don't live up to their fathers' names.

Michael Andretti tried and failed in his attempt to emulate his father's achievements in a highly challenging and un-competitive season for McLaren in 1993.

Jackie Stewart's son Paul started racing in 1989. Jackie supported his son all the way, even to the extent that he started Paul Stewart Racing in 1991.

After two seasons, Paul realized he would never be good enough to race in F1 and gave up driving to manage Paul Stewart Racing, which eventually became Stewart Racing in 1997.

Williams have two young, fast, up-and-coming drivers with one thing in common: they both have famous fathers with F1 pedigree.

Nico Rosberg, son of 1982 world champion Keke, and Kazuki Nakajima, son of former Lotus driver Satoru.

When Nico hit the F1 scene in 2006, every pore in the 20-year-old's body oozed the same self-confident signal: "I'm simply the best."

In late 2007 he was joined by Kazuki, 20 years after his father's debut at the the same event, the Brazilian GP.

Not only does the 2008 Formula One world championship boast of two sons of former drivers, but a third in Nelson Piquet, Jr.

So how long will it be before we see Hamilton Jr. or Räikkönen Jr. on the F1 grid? And does having a famous father add pressure on a driver?