RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -Bruno Senna has signed a deal to drive next year for new Formula One team Campos.

A Brazilian official involved in the negotiations says the 26-year-old nephew of three-time world champion Ayrton Senna completed a deal to drive for the Spanish team last weekend.

No other details were disclosed and the official asked on Thursday not to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the deal.

Calls to Campos' Madrid office weren't immediately unanswered.

Senna had said during this month's Brazilian Grand Prix that he was in talks with three teams, including Campos.

Before Ayrton Senna died at the San Marino GP in 1994 he had predicted his nephew would one day be an F1 star. He lauded his then 8-year-old nephew's driving skills, which he witnessed on the family farm near Sao Paulo.

Shortly after Ayrton Senna's death, Bruno's father was killed in a motorcycle accident. The combination of the deaths made racing off limits for young Bruno.

``It was kind of a taboo. I just had to respect the pain and the family, I just had to cope with it,'' Senna told the Associated Press last year.

His mother, Viviane, refused to let auto racing enter her son's life for the decade after his father's death, even if her brother had seen promise in Bruno as he tore around the family farm.

But when he was 18 and she asked him what he wanted to do with his life - he was working at a car dealership to stay close to cars - the answer was simple: He wanted to race.

In 2005 he was invited to test a Formula 3 car in Valencia, Spain, before eventually competing in the series.

Senna jumped to GP2 for 2006. Last year he finished second in driver standings in the F1 feeder series. He then left to focus on finding a seat in F1.

Earlier this year, Senna tested a Brawn GP car, but was passed over for fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.