It took nine months to acquire 125 hand-written tributes that were to be incorporated within 25 Ferrari-themed artworks – and the finished collection was displayed for the first time at the Royal Automobile Club, London, in February.

Ferrari in Art – The Sporting Legacy is a joint collaboration between artist Mark Dickens and photographer Keith Sutton, whose previous endeavour – World Champions in Art, a series of 32 paintings – was purchased in full by Sebastian Vettel.

“There’s nothing more prestigious than winning for Ferrari”

Among those who contributed were Nigel Mansell (“Driving for Ferrari was an honour and a privilege, with so many cherished memories. Ferrari is a family second to none”), Sir Jackie Stewart (“My best memory of driving a Ferrari was in the P4, when with Chris Amon we secured the world championship in 1967 – what a car”), Mario Andretti (“I don’t think there is anything more prestigious for a professional racing driver than to say you drove and won for Ferrari” and former Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn (“My first day at Ferrari made me realise the history is with the people, not the cars, not the buildings. During my time there we managed to harness the unbelievable passion –and the results came. That is the true legend of Ferrari!”)

Although the paintings – which take the form of mixed media, with layers of photographic transfers, paper, gold leaf, fabric, paint and handwritten texts set in resin – are to be sold as a complete collection (no buyer had been confirmed as Motor Sport closed for press), a limited-edition box set of signed prints will be available. One of these was presented to Stewart, who plans to auction it off during the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Money raised will be donated to his Race Against Dementia charity.