Alfredo Popesco: "While Mr. Milton was strict, Ayrton's mother, Mrs Neyde, was the ideal mother.”

Alfredo Popesco was Ayrton's close friend

Popesco taught Senna an invaluable lesson in how to negotiate from a position of weakness. It centred on water-skiing. "I had family in Santa Catarina [a State south of Sao Paulo]. I used to go there and learnt the art of water-skiing when I was 13. I didn't have a boat but some friends did and we used that. Then Ayrton got another motor cycle — it was a Suzuki, a 185cc — and he liked to ride around the district. He'd have a little fall here and another fall there and his father decided to sell it."

"I had an idea. Just tell your father it's fine to sell the motor cycle, that's OK, dad, you can sell it but I want a boat, a good boat. His father Mr. MIlton could give him that because they were rich and they lived near a lake. You're going to lose the motor cycle anyway. I told him, so be intelligent, use it to get a boat!”

“Mr. Milton was very strict”

“Mr. Milton was very strict. He liked punctuality and he didn't like people doing wrong things. Mr Milton used to argue with Ayrton because he arrived late at night and he did wrong things with his friends — not wrong things, teenager things. Mr Milton, didn't like that. While Mr. Milton was strict, Ayrton's mother, Mrs Neyde, was the ideal mother.”

"His father bought the boat.

Ayrton Senna with his parents

SOURCE

HILTON, Christopher. Ayrton Senna As time goes by. 1º Edition. Sparkford: Haynes Publishing, 1999.