1983 Ayrton Senna McLaren test steering wheel
1983 Ayrton Senna McLaren test steering wheel
1983 Ayrton Senna McLaren test steering wheel

1983 Ayrton Senna McLaren test steering wheel

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Here is exceptional. This steering wheel was used by Ayrton Senna during the McLaren MP4/1 C test sessions. This test was part of his first test in F1.

This steering comes with a McLaren official certificate.

The steering has been hand signed by Ayrton Senna but also Niki Lauda.

It is simply an exceptional piece.

Expensive...

A little bit of history:

After his successful test with Williams in July 1983, Ayrton received several offers. The Brazilian would get the chance to test for McLaren after his British Formula 3 season, which happened at the end of October of 1983. 

The McLaren test 

As part of the McLaren Young Drivers test Ayrton Senna, Martin Brundle and Stefan Bellof came to Silverstone. Today, McLaren also performs this test as as the winner of the McLaren Autosport Award will be offered a test in an older model Formula 1 car by the team from Woking.

Brundle and Senna were present because of their performance in the British Formula 3 Championship, while Stefan Bellof was seen by McLaren as the successor of John Watson. Watson would leave his career as a Grand Prix driver with McLaren at the end of 1983, as the Briton entered into negotiations with Brabham.

McLaren wanted to see how Bellof compared to the British Formula 3 drivers. After his first attempt in the McLaren MP4-1 Ford Cosworth, Senna was taken out of the car. According to the engineers, he was too fast. After returning to the track he drove the fastest lap of the day, 1:13.9.

Ayrton came back in the pits and complained about not feeling very comfortable in the cockpit. He thought he couldn't operate the accelerator as well as he wanted. Yet he felt good: "I felt quite comfortable with the car. The McLaren Ford is an easy to drive car. The speed at Silverstone is quite high, but I still have a good feeling about this car. The results were excellent, much better than I expected.

"I am now going to realize how you could win a Formula 1 race. In Formula 1 you are always dependent on the material you get, the driver can be a part of that. As long as you have a good car you can easily handle it. I am very satisfied with this test and it was really great to do."

In an interview, Ron Dennis explained the following: "So far everything is going well. Ayrton is constantly faster on these tyres than we have been in the past. I hope we can let him ride another session at the end of the day. Maybe it will be even better then. 


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