McLaren Will Run This Awesome Ayrton Senna Tribute Livery In Monaco
The Monaco Grand Prix is almost upon us, and that means a few things: not a whole lot of overtaking, the overuse of the words âglamorousâ and âhistoricâ to the point where they lose all meaning, and plenty of references to that 1988 Ayrton Senna pole lap, when the Brazilian driver somehow eked out nearly a second-and-a-half advantage over his McLaren teammate and rival Alain Prost.
In fact, the combination of Senna, McLaren and Monaco is a special one. Senna, who won his three world championships with the Woking team, claimed victory at Monaco six times â five of them with McLaren (ironically, that transcendent 1988 pole lap didnât lead to one of them â a rare mistake 67 laps into that yearâs race saw put him it in the barrier at Portier).
McLaren Senna in ‘Senna Sempre’ livery – detail
To commemorate this remarkable level of success, just over 30 years after Sennaâs untimely death at Imola, McLaren will run this yearâs Monaco Grand Prix with a special âSenna Sempreâ (âSenna Foreverâ) livery.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastriâs MCL38s will wear the one-off livery thatâs heavily inspired by the flag of Sennaâs native Brazil, featuring a unique yellow, green and blue look â a far cry from the teamâs usual papaya.
McLaren Senna in ‘Senna Sempre’ livery – detail
To further celebrate its most storied driver, McLaren has decked out a Senna road car in a version of the livery, too. On the road car, the colours blend together with a âwashâ technique thatâs been specially developed by McLarenâs MSO personalisation division, allowing the paint to blend without a new colour being created. It also features intricate dot-matrix depictions of Senna himself that only become apparent when viewed from a distance.
McLaren MCL38 and Senna in ‘Senna Sempre’ livery
The one-off Senna will be on display in Monaco during the Grand Prix weekend, while Norris and Piastri do their best to add to McLarenâs victory tally at the glamorous and historic race (damn). With Lando Norris managing to snatch victory from Max Verstappen in Miami, and very nearly doing it again last weekend at Imola, that, for once, is not out of the question. Wouldnât it be extra special to see it happen with this livery?
