On 30 October 2009, Senna announced that he had signed a deal to race in Formula One in 2010; on 31 October 2009, Adrián Campos confirmed that Senna would be driving for Campos Meta. It was unclear whether Senna still had the drive after the takeover of Campos by José Ramón Carabante, with new team principal Colin Kolles saying the new-look team would need to find extra funding, review the existing operation, and announce the driver line up in due course, with no mention of Senna. On March 2, Campos announced a name change to Hispania Racing. Two days later, Karun Chandhok was confirmed as Senna’s team-mate.

After nine races, Senna was replaced for the British Grand Prix, with Sakon Yamamoto filling his seat. Senna returned to the driver’s seat for the German Grand Prix with Yamamoto replacing Chandhok in the team’s other car.

On 7 January 2011, HRT announced that Senna would not drive for them during the 2011 season.