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peqsenna.gif (17096 bytes) Born on March 21st in 1960, on the north of Sao Paulo, Ayrton Senna followed his sister Viviane, being the first male child of Mrs.Neyde F.Senna and Mr.Milton da Silva, who looked at him with the tenderness and pride of pais babados..

Small and thin, "Beco", as he was called by his family, at 3 or 4 years old was embarassed and showed some troubles on coordenation. Nothing to worry too much, execept for the icecreams, because there was always one falling down.

1kart.gif (48989 bytes) The cars appeared at 4 years old. The first kart, built at his father's factory, had only one horse power and Ayrton still preferred his father's car, what costed him a big scare when he was caught by the police driving alone.

At school he was an average student, who already showed his inclination in composition exercises viewed by his teacher as fantasys, but revealing to Milton a big impulse for automobilism.

With the support of his father, he got into the life he wanted, showing to be a perfectionist, being admired by all he worked with. But familiar problems, alied to the lack of support by the brasilian press resulting on lack of patronages, end up desmotivating Ayrton, who returns to Brasil after a short stay in England, assuming a job on one of his father's company.

However, his nature ended up superimposing to the family's inicial opposition, who ended up by accepting his will. With the support of Maurício Sandro Sala, Ayrton returns, now left to himself, at least in theory, because Milton ended up asking Armando Botelho, his personal friend, help to Ayrton on what concerned questions beside racing.

This decision ends up breaking the Senna couple: " I think the lifestyle we have makes it difficult for someone to follow us and be with us all along. Specially for a woman. It's not impossible, but it's difficult ".

His racing career definitively starts here.

FFord.gif (26123 bytes) Now with the company of Mauricio Gugelmin, with whom he shared a house in Eaton, Norwich, England, Ayrton was adapting better to this life. He spoke, slept and ate races.

All his funny side was being revealed in here, portrayed by Mauricio by several episodes in which he showed to be pleasant as all the brasilians.

All this attitude he showed in his personal life was the total opposite to his way of running, intense and obsessed in service of his natural talent, in an assemblage which resulted on the constant collecting of records and victories on FF1600, where he competed, creating a large distance between him and the oponnents.

FF1600.gif (37872 bytes) 28.8 | 56
At this time the question was if the success would go up to his head. He recognizes: "I'ts something really difficult to preview how someone will act in a not yet experimented situation. But i think i have a strong formation, an education of a solid base in my personality for it to be changed.The reasons would have to be stronger than the education i got, and that's very difficult. " In spite of becoming more reserved, job demandings, this way of thinking showed to be correct and Ayrton, in this aspetc, didn't change. Some would say the opposite, influenciated by the apperances. Ayrton explains: " I had to choose between public relations and competition. And that was a consequence of going up and having success. I made an option, which seems to me like the right one - to concentrate more on my driver obligations, sometimes forgetting other aspects of relationship. At the end, i had to search for an harmony between this two sides of a driver. That's what many people comented and made them think i had changed. I changed as much as the world around me.

However, this obsession was limited to Europe, being Brasil the refuge of the driver, where he tried to calm down, being interested in water ski or even radioplanes. 28.8

Deeply integrated in Formula 1, it was in Detroit that he was revealed at the eyes of the brazilians and the whole world, in an unbeatable environment related by himself with bi emotion:

detroit.gif (47502 bytes) "I saw god, he guided me. I got signals which showed me His desires and His power. Above all, His power to control everything. Some people will never get the experience i got and won't believe me, but all i'm doing is telling the experience i lived, as a fact. I prayed, thanking God for getting me World Champion and, when concentrated on extreme i entered an 180 degree curve, i saw His image, big, huge, there, suspended, going up into the sky. It was a marvellous experience, this contact with God."

The hero was born. Even Alain Prost, his everytime opponent, recognized: " What impressed me the most in him was his ability to keep pressure all the time and to be fast in all conditions - rain, dry, fat or sinuos circuit, it doesn't matter, he always has a high degree of pawning. Our relationship has been better than i thought it could; a little tense at the beggining, but progressively getting better over the year, with one or two exceptions. "

The analises to the driver:

Gerhard Berger

- " If i was in danger of not qualifying, i would ask Senna to give me a vacuos pull. He is the only driver i know who helps us when you get near him on a fast lap. "

Steve Nichols

- " At the beggining, he was nervous and tense, as he was always looking behind his showlder, to see if someone would get him in the back. I had to tell him. Hey, we are all on the same boat, you know? Now he is the driver we all drum about - nice, honest, har-working, fun, very different from what the reporters think. "

Nelson Piquet

- " I gave the name Senna to my dog. I give him two kicks all day and i know he won't cry to the press. "

Alain Prost

- " Nobody understands why i have 105 points, Ayrton 90 and i'm not the World Champion. Nobody can understand that. Only me. The scoring system should be changed. "
- " I can't take that guy. It seems like he sleeps in the box. When i leave, he stays there, when i arrive in the morning he's already there. "

28.8
The animosity on the McLaren team was rising up, getting at the maximum on the Monaco Grand Prix, after various incidents between the two drivers, as a result of the rivalship on getting the victory, with the end of the relationship and, later, the abandon of the french from the team, where he was no longer one and lider because the level shown by Senna was passing him. All this process wan long and heavy, with many thoughts exchanged between the two and failed and less serious interventions from some dirigents. Confronted with all this, Ayrton looked for his girlfriend, at the time the famous Xuxa, and in silence, which seemed the best way to go through it.

With a solid career, on the track there was little annoying him, he was like a fish in the water. Out of them, he founded the Ayrton Senna Group, which managed and developed all the brasilian driver's businesses but also of other drivers and sportspeople.

The money was also a concern. He said it was not for the money itself, even because he already had enough, but because this was the way he found to have his merits recognized.

In 1994, Ayrton leaves McLaren, as a consequence of the lack of results.

homenagem.gif (44887 bytes) When Ayrton and Adriane, his girlfriend entered, they couldn't predict what was expecting them: an homage party to Ayrton for his 6 years at McLaren. These were emotional moments speccialy to Ayrton, Jo and Ron. All the discussions, the bitternesses, the separation, all that was forgotten. There were only good memories, shown in the painting Jo gave Ayrton with tears in his eyes. Two good friends were separating.

williams.gif (41372 bytes) But life had to go on and his change to Williams was a fact: " After six years at McLaren, it will take some time getting in this new team and feel safe and secure. I's like changing home, making new friends or knowing new neighbours. I have a lot to learn, which is being a big motivation. That was what i was lacking lately, but i found it again now. " 28.8 | 56

- "When i got into F1, at Toleman, i felt all the emotion that i would then take with me to Lotus. It was the same when i moved to McLaren. But, in the last two years, it was being tough to keep that motivation i found now. At the end, it all goes up to motivation. The experience gives us the base of knowledge, but it's the motivation that gets us more open, more consistent, less susceptible to mystakes. And there's still the challenge of racing on a passive car again, which is more difficult to get right. "

With some 20 million dollars a year, Ayrton could have many people's dream life, with a personal jact HS125 800, from British AeroSpace (" a work instrument which helps to make a driver's life longer, which helps avoid the stress of transports "), a Esquilo helicopter (" which i love to fly to see the nature closely "), a house at "Angra dos Reis" (" where i play in the water "), another at "Quinta do Lago", in Algarve (Portugal), a farm at Tatuí (" where i could make a kart track with 800 meters and where i have all i like to practice sport ") and an apartment in Monaco.

But he didn't forget his country's reality, giving, most times anonymously, large amounts of money to carity institutions. 28.8

At the beggining of the season, Ayrton Senna was considered an antecipated winner, the best driver in the best car, but the season wouldn't start the way he wanted, until that sad weekend at Imola.