"The thing is with inspiration, is that you never get any warning before it hits you…”
A career defining ten year commissioned project for McLaren, that I never even dreamt of let alone saw coming, it would have been unrealistic to target. McLarens eight world driver champions celebrating next to their cars on the iconic MTC Boulevard, with founder Bruce watching over them, like a proud father with his high achieving children…. is my concept. And I still struggle to compute the enormity of this today, seven years into the project. That something so permanent, that I have created for arguably the worlds greatest F1 museum, and revered by so many so close to the actual subjects of the sculpture, is ridiculous. McLaren’s Monuments is a project driven by celebration, history, remembrance, story telling, by fans and for fans. I worked for a year of my own volition to create Senna ‘Eau Rouge’, simply because Ayrton was the reason I first grew to love F1 back in the mid to late 80s, as a British teen I was inherently a fan of McLaren and of Senna. Eau Rouge was unveiled in early 2019, immediately went viral, and although McLaren were in the loop all through it’s creation, I never expected them to buy the sculpture to show alongside Ayrton’s car on their famous boulevard. It may as well be the artwork that I introduce myself by ‘Ahhhh that was you!?’ I hear almost weekly. A few months later, the indomitable Niki Lauda passed away, who besides his two world titles for Ferrari and later connection with Mercedes, was McLaren’s world drivers champion in 1984, and I was immediately called in to their Monaco motorhome to discuss creating a bronze statue for him also. That 10 minute meeting with Zak Brown escalated fast ‘Why don’t we do all the champions, and Bruce as well?’ Zak being one of the biggest fans of motorsport history I’ve ever met, we had most of the statue’s poses nailed down immediately too in that same 10 minutes. I distinctly remember Zak banging the table as he stood to leave ‘You can do this, right?” as I’m sat there shell shocked nodding yes, yet in reality having no place to be so sure. Yet here we are, 2/3rds of the way through the project, each and every sculpture created referencing raced assets from McLaren’s extensive archives, each one bringing new challenges to the fore, before they begin creating their own story that is out of my hands, after they’re installed at MTC Woking.
Niki Lauda
The indomitable Niki Lauda, unarguably one of the most revered characters of F1 history. Not just because of his fast and fluid driving style, life dedicated to motorsport and well-documented triumph against adversity – but because of who he was as a person. So, to be tasked with creating a life-size memorial of such an iconic character, was truly daunting, never mind receiving that phone call on the very day that his passing was announced.
Just two weeks later driving back from McLaren HQ with Niki's race suit and helmet in the footwell didn't ease this pressure... but provided the ultimate realism, DNA even, to this project. Celebrating Niki's 3rd world title, for McLaren, sealed at the final championship round in Estoril, beating Prost by just half a point. The pose is based on a fleeting three fingered salute as Prost ushered Niki onto the top step of the podium – a little artistic licence to swap his podium cap out with his ubiquitous Parmalat red cap, giving Niki his helmet to hold, that being a driver’s signature, and half a step forward for dynamic.
Unveiled at McLaren on the third anniversary of Niki's passing, May 2022.
Limited editions are available in bronze:
Life-size on approval
60% scale - 110cm 35kg
20% scale - 37cm 7kg
I've always thought in 3D, I guess my painting style is testament to that, but it's obvious to me far further back than that. My entire childhood spent playing (learning...) with Lego is where I attribute much of my foundation as an artist, and I still have a felt tip collage I won a prize for aged 5, which is multi layered. At school it was pottery and woodwork that I most revelled in, then at University studying aerospace engineering, again it was the practical side. And to be honest, right now, sculpture is where my mind spends most of its time. The challenges and the costs with sculpture are exponentially greater... but also the scope of possibilities and power of the result with a much greater physical presence, should I get it right. Everything I create sculpturally, I can see in my mind’s eye from the outset, I wait for that vivid 'Eureka moment' of realisation before embarking on anything, have to be totally clear what I'm working towards, then the 'only' challenge is to bring that vision to reality. Based on three-dimensional motion capture and using the rarest of assets for hyper realism and dynamic, and a new improved take on what is fundamentally a very traditional output – 3D capture and augmented-reality modelling translated into the age-old tradition of lost wax bronze casting. And where sculpture has led me to, in a relatively short space of time, is mind blowing. Creating sculpture just feels like a legacy that is so much more permanent than paint, created from near indestructible materials that will be around for much much longer than I will be, and celebrating subjects often so revered and indeed worshipped, often by those who are so close to them... is a difficult thing to get your head around, to be responsible for creating something of that magnitude. I may well have already created my most renowned work – indeed although I will never rest from furthering what I do, I think that's fairly likely actually. But then I never saw that career defining epiphany coming either, that led me to create Senna 'Eau Rouge'. Inadvertently at first, I appear to have carved my own niche and a renewed self-styled role to celebrate the history of F1, in life-size bronze. Each statue is around 12 months from concept to realisation, and is created in three limited edition scales: Life-size, 60% (F1 wind tunnel development scale) and 20%.