Bruno Senna says he does not regret doing his eight-race stint for Lotus Renault in the second half of 2011, even though he missed out on a race seat with the team for next year.
The Brazilian showed flashes of his potential by qualifying in the top 10 on four occasions and scoring his first points in Formula 1 with ninth place in the Italian Grand Prix. However, he was unable to deliver such form every time out and the team believed that his consistency was the key thing that needed addressing.
Although team bosses opted for Romain Grosjean to become teammate to Kimi Raikkonen in 2012, Senna thinks that only positives came out of his F1 return, as he remains in contention for a race seat at Williams next year.
"It raised my profile massively in F1," Senna said. "So it was a great opportunity, because before that I only had whatever was left as an image from 2010.
"Now, my profile has been raised and it's massively higher than it has ever been. Overall, it means I'm in a better position now even though the seat is not mine."
He admitted that Lotus Renault's eventual decision to take Grosjean did not come as a surprise, and that he was already looking for other opportunities by the time the news about his former French teammate was revealed.
"Of course it was disappointing not to be there, because there is good potential in the team, but it was not something that we were particularly surprised about. We had been looking at other options as we knew that it was not safe."