Bruno was only 18 months old when his uncle triumphed at Estoril, a victory that always remained special throughout his career.

“He’d always been someone who puts so much pressure on himself to deliver and I think this moment allowed him to get into his own groove and then achieve everything he achieved afterwards,” he said.

“When I was three or four years old I remember watching his races but by then he was with McLaren. I didn’t watch many of these Lotus races live, I watched them on replays but always the family was rooting for him back home.

“He was my hero and I was driving go-karts when I was five years old, so obviously I was trying to follow in his footsteps from a very early age.”

Bruno was always fascinated to hear his uncle speak about Prost and his other rivals.

“In Portuguese you have so many specific expressions that don’t mean anything in other languages, but he had so much respect for Alain, even at the height of their rivalry.

“It was a lot of fun talking to him about some races where something went wrong or something went right, he understood the challenge he had from his opponents and the whole racing career built him to what he was.”

So how did it feel for him to step behind the wheel of the Lotus 97T at Goodwood, apart from the difficulty of fitting into the driver’s seat?

“I think the moment you kind of feel emotional about it is when you do the in-lap and you’re just cruising around, cooling the car.

“Then you can sort of interact with the crowd a little bit and see what their faces are expressing. It means so much to the people…. a lot of them never even saw this car on the race track and having this opportunity really is a special thing.

He added: “We’re so happy the classic Team Lotus keep this car in such great shape, but the human element here is as important as the machine.”