Rafael Varela paints cover for Tazio 10 at Rétromobile

It was quite the spectacle. Over the course of four days, you could see our artist Rafael Varela at work on the cover of Tazio 10. Photographer Bernard Asset was kind enough to document it for us.

The cat is out of the bag. The feature story in Tazio 10 puts the spotlight on Ayrton Senna, in the thirtieth year since the Brazilian’s fatal crash in Imola, during the San Marino Grand Prix. We asked Rafael to create a vision for the cover and for the back cover.

The result is this magnificent homage. On the cover, you see Senna in Monaco in the McLaren MP4/4, setting what many see as the best qualifying lap ever. Senna lapped the Monaco street circuit in 1988 1.427 seconds quicker than Alain Prost, in a similar car. Gerhard Berger, in third, was a full 2.687 seconds behind.

Piercing eyes

For the back cover, Rafael created a charcoal-based portrait of Senna, with the characteristic piercing eyes. The colours of Senna’s helmet link both images. You can expect Tazio 10 to come out around March 15^th. This is a copy you will want to keep forever, just for the cover alone.

2 x 2 metres

The creation of the cover was our little stunt at Rétromobile. Starting on the opening day, Rafael went from a blank canvas to what you see before you in just four days. An unexpected trip to a paint store in Paris was necessary to source the correct orange for the McLaren MP4/4. A small dot of that orange reappears in Senna’s pupil, a tiny detail.

Finished on two 2 metres by 2 metres canvasses, the Senna ‘double cover’ makes a lasting impression. We will show the work on a couple of displays over this year, so you can admire it for yourself.

We could not be any prouder that we can work with the Michelangelo of automotive art; Rafael Varela.