Senna's McLaren up for sale

The Grand Prix-winning Formula One car is expected to fetch NZ$8.4 million when it goes under the hammer at Bonhams Monaco this May, 25 years after Ayrton Senna drove it to victory.

Fans will remember '93 as Senna's last campaign with McLaren after a successful six-year partnership. 

The 1993 McLaren-Ford helped Senna beat Damon Hill in a Williams-Renault and Jean Alesi in a Ferrari, while Alain Prost, who would win that year's Drivers' championship, came fourth. "Ayrton Senna was the most charismatic Grand Prix car driver of the modern era," said Mark Osborne, head of motorsport at Bonhams. "And the MP4/8A was the car with which his team, McLaren, surpassed Ferrari as the most successful team in Formula 1 World Championship history." Senna died less than 12 months after his historic Monaco victory in the McLaren-Ford MP4/8A, when his Williams collided with a barrier during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. "Any car raced by the legendary Aryton Senna is of huge significance to the motoring world, but this is another matter entirely. It is not only a Grand Prix-winning car, it is the one in which he broke the record for number of wins at Monaco and the final car which he raced for McLaren before joining the Williams team," said Poppy McKenzie Smith, motoring press officer at Bonhams.