Pedro Paolo Diniz

Name: Pedro Paolo Diniz

Nationality: Brazil

Date of birth: May 22, 1970 - Sao Paulo, Brazil

When he first graduated to F1 in 1995, with the emergent Forti Corse team, Pedro Diniz became a figure of fun for many journalists. One in particular dismissed him as nothing more than a playboy who was out of his depth, a rich kid whose daddy had used the wealth of his supermarket chain to buy him a big new toy.

Of dashing Latin appearance, Diniz looked more like a male model as he made his way through the South American SudAm F3 series to the 1991 British F3 Championship, where the family wealth purchased him a seat with the West Surrey Racing team that had catapulted Ayrton Senna towards F1. Initially he struggled, but in 1992 he proved quicker with Edenbridge Racing and felt ready to graduate to F3000 with Forti Corse for 1993. Once again he was in the deep end and in danger of drowning, but he battled on in 1994, ignoring his critics and a dearth of results.

When Guido Forti aspired to emulate his old rival Eddie Jordan and to break into F1, Papa Diniz stepped in with some money, and a strong of networked sponsorships from companies anxious to place their products in his supermarkets. All season Diniz struggled again, though tellingly he was often faster than experienced teammate Roberto Moreno.

For 1996 he moved to Ligier, where he made worldwide headlines as his car caught fire during the Argentine GP. That prompted The Sun's famous banner: Diniz in the oven. His best results were sixth places in Spain and Italy, and for 1997 he was lured away by former Ligier boss Tom Walkinshaw, who had now taken over Arrows. Partnering Damon Hill, Diniz looked much more convincing as, at times, he outperformed the World Champion. But with only fifth place to Diniz's credit (in Luxembourg), critics began to wonder how committed Hill really was.

In 1999 Diniz again stacked up well against an acknowledged quick teammate, this time the Finn Mika Salo, scoring fifth place in Belgium and sixth at Monaco before quitting to join Sauber for 1999. Against Jean Alesi, he again looked good at times, but had more accidents than any other driver. Not all were of his own making, but his barrel-roll at the start of the GP of Europe at the Nurburgring again made him front-page news for the wrong reasons.

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