- The McLaren Senna’s Sempre livery honors Ayrton Senna, the iconic racer who won three F1 world championships for the manufacturer.
- In addition to running a special one-0ff livery for the MCL38 at the Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren painted a separate tribute on Senna’s eponymous hypercar.
- The road car’s livery was hand-painted by McLaren’s in-house Special Operations team, it’ll be on display at the Monaco Grand Prix.
It’s been 30 years since Ayrton Senna died during the San Marino Grand Prix. Now McLaren is honoring the late driver by running a Senna-inspired livery on both MCL38 race cars at the Monaco Grand Prix on May 26 to mark the occasion.
While Senna was driving for Williams at the time of his death, he spent a very productive five years at McLaren from 1988 to 1993, winning three Formula 1 world championships in that time. He remains such an important part of McLaren’s history that the brand dedicated its fiercest car after the driver.
Fittingly, in addition to the F1 cars, McLaren pulled a pre-production Senna hypercar from its heritage collection and gave it a matching hand-painted livery it is calling “Senna Sempre” meaning Senna Always.
Both the race cars and the road car take on the colors of Senna’s national flag of Brazil, using yellow, green, and blue throughout each livery. The prominent yellow on the race cars is broken up with a blue stripe and green stripe and is reminiscent of Senna’s personal race helmet.
According to McLaren, the livery on the road car was hand-painted by its in-house Special Operations team team. The car is littered with tribute messages throughout the paintwork. The ‘double S’ logo is painted on the wing endplates as well as on the hood of the car. The sides of the car feature opposing paintings of Senna, both in and out of his race car. Inside the car, the door panels are marked with a signature and quote by the driver reading: “I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.”
Jack Fitzgerald’s love for cars stems from his as yet unshakable addiction to Formula 1.
After a brief stint as a detailer for a local dealership group in college, he knew he needed a more permanent way to drive all the new cars he couldn’t afford and decided to pursue a career in auto writing. By hounding his college professors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he was able to travel Wisconsin seeking out stories in the auto world before landing his dream job at Car and Driver. His new goal is to delay the inevitable demise of his 2010 Volkswagen Golf.