Donington Festival Remembers Senna

Ask any F1 enthusiast to name Ayrton Senna’s greatest achievements and the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donington Park is sure to feature. In an underpowered McLaren MP4/8-Cosworth, he surged from 5th to 1st on the opening lap of the wet race and after no less than five pit stops in the changeable conditions scored one of his most memorable victories. Consider too that Senna’s first time behind the wheel of an F1 car was also at Donington—in Keke Rosberg’s Williams FW08-Cosworth in 1983—and it’s not surprising that Senna declared Donington Park his best British circuit.

These memories were relived 20 years later at the Donington Historic Festival, May 3-5, as organized by Historic Promotions Limited and the Historic Sports Car Club. A number of cars from Senna’s career were on display, supporting an 18-race program featuring a wide range of categories from the 1920s through the 1980s. It’s 80 years since the opening of the original Donington Park facility where the Auto Union and Mercedes “Silver Arrows” did battle in the 1937 and ’38 Donington Grands Prix. Current circuit owner Kevin Wheatcroft demonstrated his faithful replica of the Mercedes W125 from that era. Among the race entries at the Festival was the actual Alfa Romeo Tipo B driven to victory here in the 1935 GP event by Richard Shuttleworth, which is now raced by Tony Smith.