This One-of-a-Kind McLaren Has a Paint Job Inspired by Ayrton Senna’s Helmet
McLaren has found another way to pay tribute to Ayrton Senna.
The British automaker has just unveiled a one-off example of the Senna hypercar that was hand-painted with a special livery inspired by the late racing legend. The high-performance coupé is one of three cars that have been painted with the special “Sempre Senna” (which translates. To “Senna Always” in English) design.
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The Brazilian-born Senna is widely regarded as one of history’s greatest race car drivers. He only competed in Formula 1 for a decade, but won three driver’s championships during that time, all of which came while he was racing for McLaren. He would have almost certainly added to those totals but his career came to a tragic end 30 years ago when he died following an accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.
The one-off Senna’s design combines the colors of the Brazilian flag—green, yellow, and blue—just like the driver’s iconic helmet. The livery was applied to the car by hand by McLaren’s Special operations team and also features images of the driver on its flanks as well as a special “double S” on the hood and wing endplates. Additionally, the vehicle’s black-and-yellow interior is adorned with Senna’s signature as well as a quote outlining his personal philosophy: “I have no idols. I admire work, dedication and competence.”
The hypercar that has been used for the tribute isn’t a production model but is instead a pre-production version from the marque’s heritage collection. No specs were provided, but the road car is powered by a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 that pumps out 789 hp and 590 ft lbs of torque.
There seem to be no plans to sell this Senna tribute but were it ever to go up for grabs—at auction or in a private sale—it would almost certainly sell for far north of the production car’s $900,000 sticker price. In fact, it is not hard to imagine it topping the $1.4 million it costs to take home the track-only Senna GTR.
The Sempre Senna livery can also be seen on the two McLaren MCL38 race cars that will be competing at the Monaco Grand Prix on Sunday. We have a feeling that the company wouldn’t mind if Senna’s skills were to rub off on drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
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