On February 11th, the Japanese celebrate National Foundation Day, a holiday in honor of the foundation of one of the countries most admired by Ayrton. The three-time F1 champion worked alongside Honda’s mechanics and engineers for years, and together they made history in motor sports.
In 1994, 52 Japanese people came to Brazil in order to present Brazilians and the Ayrton Senna Institute with the Laureatta, a sculpture in steel in which all the 41 victories achieved by Ayrton Senna in F1 are depicted. There are only two of them in the world – one in Brazil and one in Japan, representing the bond between both countries, besides the admiration and warmth the Japanese felt towards the driver.
The Laureatta was made by Kiyofume Kikutake, and in its base there’s an inscription that reads: “Faster than time, more real than a dream”. And there’s an interesting fact about the steel cone: it houses a piece of paper, listing the names of the 1,500 people who paid for the sculpture.
