Podium Legends Collection # 1.

Ayrton Senna - British Grand Prix, Silverstone, 1987 NFT

Ayrton Senna will forever remain one of the greatest F1 legends to have ever graced a racetrack. Even nearly 30 years after his tragic death, Senna’s name and reputation still carries mythical status far beyond the worlds of F1 and motorsports. This image perfectly captures not just his steely and often detached look, in the paddock at the 1987 British GP, but also reflects what he had in abundance: ’Old School Cool’

This fine image captures the maturity of Senna’s 1987 season, when he was driving for the Camel tobacco-sponsored Lotus Team in its 99T car, the year of the team’s switch to the Japanese power unit after 2 years with the Renault turbo.

Senna had burst upon the Grand Prix scene in 1984, after triumphing in the 1983 British Formula 3 championship, winning a drive in the Toleman Hart turbo car and coming so close to a stunning debut win in the rain-shortened, half points, Monaco GP. Scoring 10 more points in an unreliable car in that first season, joint 9th (with Mansell) in the World Drivers Championship (‘WDC’), was enough to ensure Ayrton had team options for 1985, and he signed for the multiple champion team at JPS Lotus based in Norfolk, England.

1985 was Ayrton’s breakthrough year, teamed alongside the stylish and highly-rated Italian, Elio de Angelis who had finished 1984 3rd in the WDC, with Senna’s first GP win, in the rain in Portugal and then a second F1 victory at Spa in Belgium. That was enough for 4th in the 1985 WDC, impressively ahead of team-mate de Angelis with a total of 38 points, just behind Prost, Alboreto and Rosberg.

Into 1986, Ayrton’s ruthless determination to build a team around him led to driver line-up changes, with de Angelis fatefully moving to Brabham, and the addition at JPS Lotus of the ex-Formula 3 winner Johnny Dumfries, whose season amassed just 3 points and many retirements, while team leader Senna enjoyed triumphs in Spain and the US, as well as 4 seconds and 2 thirds for a total of 55 WDC points, 4th behind Prost Mansell and Piquet – now a real contender for his first world title.

Our NFT image, taken in Britain 1987, shows the now cool professional top international sporting star in a moment of thoughtful concentration during practice, dressed in the yellow Camel branded race suit, a nice match for the famous yellow helmet with its Brazilian flag banding. Perhaps the most important element of the team and car that year was the arrival of Honda – a link which was to stretch for most of the rest of Senna’s career. Senna’s extraordinary competitive focus and analytic strength appealed to the Honda engineers – it was to be a crucial link to his future career domination. Silverstone in 1987 saw a podium, 3rd behind Mansell and Piquet’s famous battle and by year’s end, 2 wins, Monaco and the US, and a total of 57 points for 3rd overall in the Championship.

From then on, the world most associates Ayrton Senna's career with the red and white Marlboro McLaren’s, and his championships in 1988 (8 victories) and the remarkable Prost-Senna rivalry, with the Frenchman winning in 1989 and then Ayrton’s second (6 wins and 500 laps led over his rival’s 128 laps) 1990 championship, and the third title (6 wins and 96 points) in 1991.

The image in our NFT marks a critical turning point in Ayrton Senna’s career- 1987 cemented his reputation as a superstar, and built the strong foundations of his massive future triumphs. From this time onwards, Senna was no longer just a serious contender – he knew what he would achieve, never doubted it – he was to become now not just a national hero in Brazil, but a true global star, whose name and legend will be revered for as long as people race automobiles.

Original image source copyright ©2022 The National Motor Museum Trust, Beaulieu, England