A LIFELONG motorsport fan, who painted the winners of all 19 races in this year’s Formula 1 season, got to show his work to the experts behind the Mercedes team triumph.

Tim Skett, who is already well known for his pictures of top ranking powerboat racers in action, created 20 artworks as part of a personal project.

“I’ve been passionate about cars and I’ve been drawing them since I was a kid,” he explained.

After Lewis Hamilton won the championship and his team won 16 of 19 races, Tim approached the Mercedes AMG Petronas HQ in Brackley, Northants and asked if they would like to see the paintings.

As a result, superfans and staff were given a private exhibition in the Silver Arrows lounge earlier this month. Even team boss Toto Wolff dropped in and gave the thumbs up.

Tim, from Goatacre, near Lyneham, was thrilled with the opportunity, especially the chance to chat to the technicians who took a close interest in the detail of the artworks. ”It was quite a critical audience,” he said.

Tim, 58, has followed the sport since he was a tot when he would watch it on TV with his older brother.

It was still his passion when he studied at Swindon College. “I was always getting ticked off for drawing cars," he said.

When he had to choose a project he picked champion driver Jackie Stewart as his subject.

A career in advertising followed and he found himself working on small projects with firms like Castrol and Ferarri

But changes in the industry made him think again. “Five or six years ago I decided to go back to what I loved, painting and drawing, which was a huge risk.”

He was struggling to think of what he wanted to do when he did a picture for a friend who was a triple powerboat champion.

But as more international powerboat racers saw his work he began to get commissions and very soon established himself.

His first love however, was always Formula 1 and it was a painting he did of legend Sir Stirling Moss racing modern day champion Lewis Hamilton that brought him to the attention of the motor sport world.

As the 2015 season approached he decided to take almost a year out and concentrate on a personal project with the idea of “capturing a period of time in motor sport.”

It was a major commitment, but luckily his wife Jo backed him. “She has been very good to put up with me using some of our money to do this project,” he said, explaining that while he was working on the project, commissioned work took a back seat.

The end result was 19 canvasses of race winners and one of the constructors’ champion. When put together they create a huge 4-metre wide artwork.

“It was a challenge for me to follow a season and paint a picture within two weeks, or sometimes one week,” he said.

“When I started the project it wasn’t really about Mercedes.”

But then Mercedes won 16 out of 19 races and Hamilton took the title.

Tim’s next project is another big series of paintings but this time it is a private commission for a classic car collector.