Anyone who happened to attend the Historic Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, or at least followed it online, witnessed a rare spectacle: cars driven by Ayrton Senna at various stages of his career drove around the legendary circuit.
This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the great Brazilian racing driver’s death, and the Auto Club of Monaco decided to honor his memory in a special way. The organizers of the historic Grand Prix managed to collect material that was somehow connected with Senna, and held demonstration races of it, although rather it could be called a parade. Which, of course, is symbolic in its own way, because six times he won the races that took place in the narrow streets of the Mediterranean principality.
Gabriel Bortoleto, the reigning Formula 3 champion, drove Senna’s old kart – this car, produced in 1977, is now in the personal collection of Zak Brown, head of McLaren Racing.
Cristina Gutierrez is a student at the McLaren Racing Academy and has driven the Formula Ford car that Senna drove for Van Diemen in 1982, winning the British and European Championships. Eddie Irvine drove around the circuit in a Formula 3 Ralt RT3 – the car with which the Brazilian won the Macau Grand Prix in 1983. Stefan Johansson was Senna’s teammate in 1984, when the future three-time world champion made his Formula 1 debut with the Toleman team – that weekend the Swede piloted Ayrton’s very first car, the Hart-powered TG184.
Thierry Boutsen is one of those who can say that he was a friend of Senna, and now in Monaco he has driven the Lotus 95T on the circuit where he raced in 1985 and achieved his first victories by winning the Portuguese and Belgian Grands Prix .
Finally, Bruno Senna was assigned to drive a few laps in the McLaren MP4/5B, which his uncle drove in 1990 and won his second title.
On Saturday, all these riders were personally greeted by Prince Albert II, although Johansson was unable to participate in the ceremonial event because the engine of Hart’s Toleman car treacherously failed during the practice race. However, this is nothing surprising, after all, the technology is old and was created four decades ago, but you have to assume that this little incident did not spoil the mood of the riders and the public.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
