McLaren and Unique & Limited are about to unveil a special art print, as well as a line of five posters, in honor of Ayrton Senna and the most dominant F1 car ever: the McLaren MP4/4, which was driven by the three-time champion and Alain Prost in the 1988 season. They won 15 out of 16 races that year, culminating with Senna’s first F1 title.

The art project was launched this week, at the Retromobile Car Show, in Paris. Among the guests were Nigel Moss, from McLaren, and Philip Rathgen, CEO of Classic Driver. One of the original McLaren cars was taken to the event in the French capital.

“I was very glad to take part in another tribute to my uncle.  I’m sure his first win with McLaren was really special, and what could be better than a beautiful print to capture that great moment in his career?”, says Bruno Senna, who was photographed for the project so his eyes could be reproduced in the print. Bruno’s face is visible inside Ayrton’s helmet, as he drives his McLaren MP4/4 at the 1988 San Marino GP.

The print depicts a moment in Senna’s first win as a McLaren Driver, with the three-time champion just ahead of Nelson Piquet’s Lotus. The limited-edition prints will be available to fans and collectors in three different sizes: 5 large, 30 medium and 130 small ones.

The line of posters launched on Tuesday also commemorates that special moment experienced by Senna and McLaren. The Brazilian driver’s triumph at Imola was also McLaren’s first one-two in the season, since Alain Prost finished the race right behind Ayrton. They both finished the race one lap ahead of the driver in third place, making it clear how dominant the British team was about to become.

To buy the posters

The five 19,5 cm x 27,5 cm posters on display at the Retromobilie Paris will be available for purchase at Automobilist.com.

This is the second time McLaren and Unique & Limited team up to honor the team’s drivers. In 2016, they celebrated the 40th anniversary of James Hunt’s world title with a print of the driver and his iconic M23 at the Fuji track, in Japan, in the rain.

About the project: 

In creating the project, Unique & Limited put a lot of effort in research and image design, working alongside McLaren to develop concepts in order to faithfully recreate the original race car. The process took approximately 4 months, and a 3D model of the MP4/4 was created so that every single detail of the car, in the race at San Marino, could be recreated in the print.

The Ayrton Senna Institute and Bruno Senna also collaborated in the process. Bruno acted as a model in a photo shoot, posing as his uncle, for the prints made in October 2017 in Prague, in the Czech Republic.

Part of the proceeds from the prints and posters will go to the Ayrton Senna Institute’s educational initiatives.