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LinkedInAyrton Senna’s Grand Prix-winning McLaren heads to auction
The McLaren-Ford MP4/8 driven to victory at the Monaco Grand Prix by Ayrton Senna is set to go under the hammer at Bonhams Monaco sale, 25 years after winning there.
The 1993 car, in which Senna took a record 6th victory at the glamorous city circuit came in the first season after the team split with engine supplier Honda, and before it formed its Peugeot partnership in 1994. Senna was initially sceptical that Ford’s compact HB V8 engines would be able to compete with Renault’s dominant V10s, but the MP4/8A model demonstrated such technological and mechanical sophistication, that by the end of the season it was very competitive, ultimately taking Senna to 2nd in the Drivers’ Championship.
The car going on the block is chassis 6, which Senna drove in eight of the 1993 season’s Formula 1 World Championship-qualifying Grand Prix races. Including the Spanish, Monaco, Canadian, French, British, German , Belgium and Italian Grands Prix.
“Ayrton Senna was the most charismatic Grand Prix car driver of the modern era, and the MP4/8A was the car with which his team, McLaren, surpassed Ferrari as the most successful team in Formula 1 World Championship history,” said Bonhams global head of motorsport, Mark Osborne. “This particular chassis, number 6, cemented Senna’s legend as The Master of Monaco. We at Bonhams are both honoured and thrilled to be presenting one of the most significant Grand Prix cars of all time. It is his Monaco winner, it is a runner, and now it could be yours.”
