Bruno Senna (middle) has recently been for a seat fitting to the Dallara factory in Italy. The Brazilian has youngster previously tested an F1 Honda (middle) while between 1988-92 Dallara built grand prix cars for the BMS Scuderia Italia team (top).

The return of the famous Dallara name to F1 after nearly two decades away took another step forward as the Campos Meta team's first signing, Bruno Senna, has visited the Dallara factory in Italy for a seat fitting in the new single-seater. Despite the non-starting of the proposed budget cap that attracted the Campos team, and several others into joining up with F1 for 2010, the Spanish outfit is confident that all is going well to be ready for its first F1 season.

Senna is the first driver to be signed by Adrian Campos, which the Spaniard is running in collaboration with the Meta organisation. Dallara is designing and building the cars for the project. "With each visit to Dallara, the advances in the car are more evident and we are starting to see it in its final size after having observed the development on scale during the wind tunnel working stage," said Campos.

This of course will not be Dallara's first experience in F1 having previously been involved some years ago from 1988-1992 as the constructor of the racing cars used by the less-than-successful BMS Scuderia Italia team, and it has subsequently collaborated with Honda (1998) and Midland (2006) in a similar capacity as will be the case with Campos Meta F1.

Toni Cuquerella, the Campos engineer overseeing Dallara's work, added that the team had been able to get a head-start on its preparations for the 2010 races. "The project is really advanced and we have already passed all the internal tests of homologation," he said. "Dallara has been working extraordinarily hard for months and we are really happy with the results up to now. Thanks to the current advanced development of the car and the data provided by Dallara, we have been able to carry out the first simulations in almost all the circuits that will organise a Formula 1 grand prix in 2010."

Senna was also delighted with current progress - and particularly the significant moment of his seat fitting. "Being able to sit inside the car, do a seat fit and allow Dallara to make a tailor made, moulded seat, taking into account my exact height and proportions, constitutes another step forward in order to be present in the F1 group test sessions in February," said the Brazilian. "I have raced in cars made by Dallara before and I trust completely in their way of working as well as their experience and quality. We are a new team and we are going to struggle at the beginning for sure, but if we keep on working in this direction, we will be able to make a good debut in our first season."