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Thirty years on, Bruno Senna, nephew of Ayrton, drives a McLaren Senna hypercar at Donington Park in tribute to one in every of Components 1’s most excellent performances. Not solely was the opening lap spectacular, however Senna’s race victory was dominant. Ayrton Senna’s 1:18.029 lap document stays the quickest Formula 1 race time on the Leicestershire, UK, circuit.
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Now, extra Senna names enter the Donington historical past books, with Bruno setting a lap document for a manufacturing street automotive within the McLaren Senna on the ‘GP’ circuit. Produced in restricted numbers in 2018 – 2019, the McLaren Senna is essentially the most excessive road-going and track-oriented McLaren Final automotive ever.
The Senna identify has returned to Donington Park as one in every of a collection of McLaren milestone moments commemorating Ayrton Senna’s legacy, 30 years after the legendary Components 1 driver’s last race in Could 1994.
Reflecting on Ayrton Senna’s unbelievable efficiency on the 1993 European Grand Prix on the Leicestershire, UK, circuit, Ayrton’s nephew Bruno Senna took to the monitor in a McLaren Senna hypercar in tribute to his uncle’s epic drive.
Held on 11 April 1993, the Donington Park race is endlessly memorable, not solely because the scene of one in every of Ayrton Senna’s most achieved race victories but additionally what’s extensively considered one of many biggest laps in Components 1 historical past.
Driving the McLaren MP4/8 in more and more moist situations, by which repute as a particular driver was cast, the Senna drove from fifth to first place on the opening lap. Recovering from a poor getaway off the road with distinctive expertise and trademark Senna instinctive driving abilities, the Brazilian driver went off the traditional racing line in locations to go current and future world champions in unbelievable fashion with particular person passes at completely different elements of the two.5-mile circuit. This accomplishment, one in every of Senna’s most imperious performances, has develop into often known as the ‘Lap of the Gods’.
This iconic first tour across the circuit was the start of a dominant efficiency within the race. Senna received by greater than 1 minute and 23 seconds, lapping all however the second-placed driver to document the biggest margin of victory he had achieved in his Components 1 profession.
The McLaren and Senna names are intertwined so strongly. It’s a nice achievement that this workforce labored collectively to carry the McLaren Senna out, a automotive that might have undoubtedly made Ayrton extraordinarily proud.
Bruno Senna
Nephew of Ayrton Senna and former Components 1 driver
The race’s lore amongst followers of Components 1 and Ayrton Senna additionally extends to the unconventional winner’s trophy*, lifted by the victorious and triumphant Senna on the rostrum.
The Donington Park race was the precise type of efficiency that cemented Ayrton Senna’s legacy as a driver with exceptional talents who may lengthen past the most effective of the competitors by complete dedication to extracting the utmost from his expertise and automotive repeatedly—an ethos that McLaren stays impressed by three many years later.
Honouring the well-known show, Bruno Senna took to the monitor within the McLaren hypercar that bears the Senna identify and channels this entire dedication to on-track efficiency: the McLaren Senna.
The McLaren Senna is essentially the most excessive road-going McLaren ever constructed and essentially the most track-oriented of the McLaren Final vehicles. It stands out not just for its unbelievable stage of efficiency but additionally for its capacity to create an innate connection between automotive and driver, which is wholly applicable in a automotive impressed by Ayrton Senna’s driving fashion.
“Ayrton, on that first lap at Donington Park in 1993, was on one other planet, in one other dimension to all these elite drivers. Placing on such a drive in such advanced, tough situations and in opposition to extra aggressive vehicles was an unbelievable achievement. It’s a kind of races you could bear in mind, like Portugal in 1985 and Brazil in 1991.
“Donington is likely one of the enjoyable tracks, and naturally, the climate can play an element right here, however immediately was fairly completely different to the 1993 race! In a excessive downforce, super-lightweight automotive just like the McLaren Senna, you’ll be able to really feel the incredible stream and alter of elevation – and, after all, the velocity!
With a lightest dry weight of 1,198kg, enabled by its carbon fibre Monocage III chassis and physique panels, together with the 800PS energy output from its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine, the McLaren Senna has a power-to-weight ratio of an astonishing 668PS-per-tonne (659bhp). The intense aerodynamic package deal of McLaren’s most track-orientated Final automotive consists of energetic components entrance and rear, able to producing as much as 800kg of downforce. On the identical time, motorsport-derived brakes present unprecedented stopping energy: braking from 200km/h (124mph) to a standstill is achieved in simply 100 metres.
Bruno echoed his uncle’s exploits, taking the McLaren Senna across the circuit in 1m30.5s to set a brand new unofficial lap document for a road-going manufacturing automotive on the identical Donington Park Grand Prix configuration at which Ayrton was famously victorious.
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