Time can often soften our perspective, even in the brutally stark win-or-bust world of Formula 1. Take this car. Back at the end of 1992, few within McLaren would have looked on it with a great deal of affection – not least Ayrton Senna.
MP4/7 represented an alarming fall from grace. It represented failure. The team that had scooped six of the previous eight Formula 1 constructors’ crowns, the past four consecutively, was now firmly on the back foot as a rejuvenated Williams, powered by an increasingly potent Renault V10, soared into an unchartered, high-tech firmament. Nobody had a hope of living with Nigel Mansell and his Williams FW14B in 1992, not even the mighty Senna and his latest Dayglo-and-white missile from Woking.
