It must have taken a lot of guts for McLaren to christen its new top-tier Ultimate Series model after Ayrton Senna back in 2017, particularly when the car’s extreme form-follows-function design is hardly what you’d describe as beautiful. Of course, the Woking-based manufacturer equipped the supremely talented Brazilian with the Marlboro-liveried Formula 1 cars with which he clinched all three of his titles in 1988, ’90 and ’91 and will thus be forever intrinsically linked with his illustrious name. And as the blisteringly quick hypercar is as focused on a track as Ayrton was going ‘out-of-body’ around Monte-Carlo, it must have seemed like a fitting way of honouring Senna and perpetuating his memory. Well, that or it was an especially bold ‘hit-and-hope’ marketing ploy. Now the hype surrounding the hypercar has subsided, we ponder whether it’s worthy of the hallowed name. 

Alex Easthope
Deputy Editor