Simon O’Rourke - Ayrton Senna Project

The story behind the Ayrton Senna project With it being the 25th anniversary this year of the untimely and tragic death of the inspiration that was, Ayrton, Simon decided he wanted to pay homage to a man that not only took the racing world by storm with his passion, determination and drive, but also the rest of the world, and none so much as his beloved home nation of Brazil where he won his 3rd and final world title in 1991. Ayrton was passionate about using his fame and monetary success to help the people of his home nation by donating to many charitable causes and particularly focussed on helping charities that helped children. After sourcing the right piece of Oak for the sculpture from a local farmer, Simon does copious amounts of research about Senna, finding what he felt were the right images that captured Ayrton’s enigmatic yet playful character. “I really wanted to capture his expression,” says Simon. He always looked so thoughtful, but with this little twinkle in his eye,