The Senna name will be back in Formula One next season after the new Campos Meta team announced yesterday they had signed late world champion Ayrton's nephew Bruno.

"For Campos Meta it is an extraordinary honour to be returning the name of Senna to Formula One," Campos Meta CEO Enrique Rodriguez de Castro said in a statement.

"The deal with Senna confirms and reinforces our prime objective of being not only the first Spanish Formula One team, but rather the first Iberian-American F1 team," he added.

Triple champion Ayrton Senna, revered and mourned as one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time, died when he crashed his Williams in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

His 26-year-old nephew was runner-up in the GP2 support series last year and has competed in the Le Mans sportscar series since then.

"I'm absolutely delighted to fulfill a lifetime dream," said Senna.

"Now it is time to set new targets."

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone welcomed the news, and suggested he could even pair up with compatriot Nelson Piquet, whose father was a triple champion and rival of Senna in the late 1980s.

Piquet junior was dropped by Renault in August before triggering a race-fixing scandal that left the team with a suspended permanent ban.

"It's good for everybody. Good for him (Senna), good for Campos and good for the sport," he told Reuters.

"I am happy, I hope the car is up to him, that's important."

Asked about the possibility of a Piquet return, perhaps alongside Senna, Ecclestone added: "It would be good wouldn't it? Another good name... that's what's been talked about actually."

Senna, whose mother Viviane was Ayrton's sister, had been lined up to race for Honda this year before that team decided to withdraw from Formula One.