Kriti Mehrotra
As a Júlia Rezende and Vicente Amorim directorial biographical drama that revisits the life and career of legendary racing driver Ayrton Senna da Silva, Netflix’s ‘Senna’ is unlike any other. That’s because it underscores not just this proud Brazilian’s success in the circuits but also his personal experiences outside, along with how they shaped him into the icon he eventually became. It thus places a significant focus on his family, too, especially considering his father was the one who built his first car/kart, making us wonder if he indeed owned an auto parts factory.
Silva Auto Parts Was Essentially Ayrton Senna’s Second Home
Although born on March 21, 1960, in a Santana hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, Ayrton grew up in the neighborhood of Tremembé alongside his parents, elder sister, as well as younger brother. In other words, he was the middle child of Neyde Joanna Senna da Silva and Milton Guirado da Silva, who did their best to provide their children with all opportunities without spoiling them. That’s because while they were wealthy thanks to their family businesses, they knew the significance of compassion, hard work, and togetherness, which they instilled in their three kids too.
After all, Neyde (or Neide) is the granddaughter of Italian immigrants who came to Brazil with nothing yet still managed to evolve into entrepreneurs, and Milton was the son of a zealous Spanish woman. The couple had, thus, seen some struggle, only to end up being affluent business people — as the patriarch, he technically owned-operated it all while she took care of their household, yet it was their partnership as well as understanding that made them successful. Therefore, by the 1960s, the Senna da Silva family had farms with livestock, possessed significant land, ran a metallurgical firm, and had long established an auto parts factory near their home.
Unfortunately, we can not confirm the latter company’s name owing to a lack of public information regarding it, yet it was most likely Silva Auto Parts (Autopeças Silva) after Milton’s last name. It, hence, comes as no surprise that Ayrton’s first kart at the age of 4 was built by his father using a one-horsepower lawnmower engine, only for it to kickstart the young boy’s passion for racing. We should also mention this patriarch gave his grandson Bruno Senna his first kart, only for him to get his first lessons from his uncle before following in his footsteps to become a Formula 1 driver. Therefore, of course, the family’s auto parts enterprise was where all these racing enthusiasts likely spent most of their time.
Silva Auto Parts is Seemingly Still an Active Business
As per reports, Milton Silva wanted his first-born son Ayrton to take over the family businesses, but he eventually accepted that his passion lay in racing and continued running things mostly by himself. That’s because his daughter Viviane Senna Lalli had long pursued Psychology, only for his second-born son Leonardo Senna da Silva to potentially join him later on upon completing his studies. It’s also imperative to note that while Viviane’s son Bruno had given up racing following his uncle’s death in 1994 before ultimately enrolling in a management course to join the family business, he couldn’t suppress his passion either and did soon begin competing again.
Coming to Silva Auto Parts’ (Autopeças Silva’s) current standing, we believe this is still an operational as well as successful business located at 5669 Inajar de Souza Avenue in São Paulo, Brazil – SP 02882-160. While we can’t be 100% certain whether this is the same company that has been in the Senna family for over three generations, this is the only auto parts and supplies enterprise we found in the area near where they hail from.
Read More: Terry Fullerton: Where is Ayrton Senna’s Karting Teammate Now?
