The people Family, team-mates, team bosses

When Pedro Paulo Diniz was six months old, his father and his uncle won the Mil Milhas at Interlagos in a car of Piero Gancia’s Jolly-Gancia team; São Paulo tells the race. A quarter of a century later Piero’s son Carlo would steer Abílio’s son into Formula One.

Abílio Diniz, his father

Abílio dos Santos Diniz made his father’s business, Pão de Açúcar, into one of the biggest retailers in Brazil, lost control of it to Casino in 2013, and became a leading shareholder of Carrefour and of BRF. He raced as well, and won again at Interlagos in 1971, in the 12 Horas, before the business claimed him. In December 1989, when Pedro was 19, he was kidnapped and held for six days.

In his son’s racing he was the man who put him on a track to keep him off the roads, and who opposed his move to England. He opened doors to sponsors, though officially the family’s supermarket group did not sponsor Pedro, and when his son’s sponsorship was in doubt in March 1996 he dealt with it himself at Interlagos, the first time he had done so; Ligier tells that day. In November 2000 Alain Prost named him as a partner when the family took its stake in Prost Grand Prix.

Looking back in 2012, Pedro said of him: “He was very strict, but I’m very grateful, because he taught us some really good values.” São Paulo tells that childhood. Abílio died in São Paulo on 18 February 2024, aged 87. His words about the farm close this page.

His mother, brother and sisters

His mother, Maria Auriluce Falleiros, known as Auri, was Abílio’s first wife, and Pedro was the youngest of their four children. Ana Maria, the eldest, studied business at the Fundação Getúlio Vargas, reported for Exame, and joined Pão de Açúcar in 1991 as its communications adviser; she became its marketing director and a vice-president, and negotiated the Casino deal beside her father. João Paulo, born in 1963, was a Pão de Açúcar executive and board member with interests in restaurants and hotels, and a triathlete; in 2003 the brothers were among the partners in an inn, the Pousada Maravilha, on the island of Fernando de Noronha. He died of a heart attack at Paraty on 31 July 2022, aged 58. Adriana, the third child, keeps out of public life. Abílio’s second marriage, in 2004, to the economist Geyze Marchesi, gave Pedro two half-siblings.

His grandfather and his uncle

Valentim dos Santos Diniz (1913–2008), who came to Brazil from Portugal at 16, opened the cake shop from which Pão de Açúcar grew. His son Alcides, Pedro’s uncle, shared both of Abílio’s long-distance wins, the Mil Milhas of 1970 and the 12 Horas of 1971.

Rubens Barrichello

Born in São Paulo on 23 May 1972, Barrichello raced in the same championships as Diniz from 1989 to 1991, the last year as his team-mate at West Surrey Racing, the year Barrichello became British Formula 3 champion. By 1995 he was in Formula One with Jordan, and on the day of Diniz’s first Grand Prix he vouched for him in Folha de S.Paulo:

Pedro sempre foi rápido e corajoso em manobras e ultrapassagens … Com o devido apoio e patrocínio, deve se tornar grande

Pedro has always been quick and brave in manoeuvres and overtaking. … With the right support and sponsorship, he should become big.

He could not resist a tease, either: “He doesn’t tell anyone, but he’s always coming to my garage to ask me things.”

Dick Bennetts, Jordi Gené and Warren Hughes

Dick Bennetts’s West Surrey Racing ran Diniz in 1991, with Barrichello and Jordi Gené in its other cars, and at Edenbridge Racing in 1992 his team-mate was Warren Hughes. The junior formulae tells those seasons, and the season-by-season results give his record in them.

Carlo Gancia, manager

Carlo Vallarino Gancia was born at Canelli, near Asti, the eldest of the fifth generation of the Gancia wine family, and grew up in Brazil, the son of Piero Gancia, who founded the Jolly-Gancia team and helped to found the Brazilian motor-sport authority. He became Pedro’s manager in the 1990s, placed him with Guido Forti’s team in Formula 3000, bought into it, and in 1995, as the team entered Formula One, was co-owner and commercial director of Forti. When Diniz left for Ligier in January 1996 much of the sponsorship went with him, and Gancia sold out that summer, when the Shannon group arrived. On the day of Diniz’s first Grand Prix he spoke of his driver as manager and part-owner at once:

Pedro só precisa ter confiança em si, amadurecer, crescer … Mas ele é rapidíssimo.

Pedro just needs to have confidence in himself, to mature, to grow. … But he’s very, very fast.

René Arnoux, coach

The Frenchman René Arnoux, a seven-times Grand Prix winner and the European Formula 2 champion of 1977, coached Diniz through his Formula 3000 and Formula One years, and was Forti’s consultant and driver coach in 1995. In 2006 he remembered him warmly:

Pedro was a pleasure to work with and hopefully he learnt a lot from me!

Guido Forti and Paolo Guerci

Guido Forti, born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Alessandria, on 10 July 1940, founded Forti Corse in the late 1970s and had long wanted to reach Formula One; Diniz’s backing took him there in 1995. After Diniz left, the team struggled, and a dispute with the Shannon group over its ownership in 1996 led to its collapse. The strain of those years, OldRacingCars.com wrote, took its toll on his health; he died in Alessandria on 11 January 2013, aged 72. His first partner, Paolo Guerci, sold his shares to Gancia but stayed on as an engineer, and was the team’s race engineer in 1995.

Olivier Beretta and Hideki Noda

Olivier Beretta, in 1993, and Hideki Noda, in 1994, were his team-mates at Forti in Formula 3000; the junior formulae tells how he measured up to them.

Roberto Moreno

Born in Rio de Janeiro on 11 February 1959, Moreno had been 2nd for Benetton in Japan in 1990, and had been out of Formula One since 1992. Forti took him on for 1995 beside Diniz, to teach the driver and the team; Forti tells their season together.

Reginaldo Leme

TV Globo’s Formula One commentator said in March 1995 that Diniz, whatever his results, impressed by his aggression and a good pair of hands, and added: “But the important thing is that Pedro got there.”

Parmalat and Calisto Tanzi

Parmalat had sponsored the Brabham team in its championship years, 1981 and 1983. In 1995 it became the title sponsor of Forti, reportedly with about a fifth of the US$17 million budget, and then went with Diniz: to Ligier in 1996; to Arrows, which it had also backed since March 1996, in 1997 and 1998, where it was reported to add US$3 million to be linked with Damon Hill; and to Sauber in 1999, where its name went on the rear wing. Like several of his backers, it sold through the family’s supermarkets.

Its founder, Calisto Tanzi, started the business in the 1960s, owned the Parma football club, and presided over the company’s collapse in 2003, Italy’s biggest financial scandal, for which he was convicted. He died on 1 January 2022, aged 83. No record has been found of his speaking about Diniz.

Gianni Grisendi and José Carlos Brunoro

In Brazil the relationship ran through Gianni Grisendi, the head of Parmalat there, who sat down with Abílio at Interlagos in March 1996, and José Carlos Brunoro, who afterwards spoke for Parmalat and as Pedro’s representative: “Parmalat wants its name well represented. Nothing changes in the guarantee of a competitive car.” Brunoro is reported to have managed Diniz’s Formula One career.

Tom Walkinshaw

Born in Scotland on 14 August 1946, Walkinshaw founded TWR, whose Jaguars won Le Mans in 1988 and 1990, and joined Benetton in 1991. In late 1995 Ligier was run by Walkinshaw, Briatore or both; Walkinshaw at first denied talking to Diniz, then signed him for 1996, for about US$10 million by grandprix.com’s account. In March 1996 he bought Arrows and took Parmalat with him, and in October he signed Diniz again, for 1997 beside Damon Hill, in a deal reported to be worth up to US$13 million to the team. He announced it with a forecast which, like the rest of his praise, survives only on Diniz’s own website:

I feel sure that the resumption of his relationship with TWR … will continue to see him putting in increasingly competitive performances.

A year later, at Jerez, he marked Diniz’s 50th Grand Prix with a party and a new contract. When Diniz left for Sauber at the end of 1998, Walkinshaw claimed an option on him and went to law; Arrows lost before the Contract Recognition Board in 1999 and in the English courts in 2001 and 2002, as the Arrows chapter tells. Walkinshaw died on 12 December 2010, aged 64.

Flavio Briatore

Born at Verzuolo on 12 April 1950, Briatore was the Benetton team boss. When Walkinshaw left for Arrows in March 1996 he held shares in Ligier and was negotiating its sale; at Interlagos that month he would not comment on the change of ownership, and he told Diniz, by the driver’s account, that he would bring in people from Benetton.

Olivier Panis

Born at Oullins, near Lyon, on 2 September 1966, Panis was Diniz’s team-mate at Ligier. In December 1995 grandprix.com had reported that Walkinshaw and Elf were not convinced of him as a lead driver; on 19 May 1996 he won at Monaco. Both stayed at Ligier to the end of the season, through the upheaval of March, and Panis scored 13 points to Diniz’s 2 over the 1996 season. A year later, at the Nürburgring, Diniz held his old team-mate off for 5th place.

Damon Hill

Born in London on 17 September 1960, Hill signed for Arrows in September 1996, and Diniz joined him there in October, days before Hill became world champion, so that Diniz began 1997 beside the reigning champion. At Magny-Cours, at Spa and at Suzuka Diniz out-qualified him. He started 8th at Spa, the best grid position of his career, and finished ahead of Hill, and at the Nürburgring he was 5th with Hill behind. Hill scored 7 points to Diniz’s 2 over the 1997 season, and nearly won in Hungary.

Mika Salo

Born in Helsinki on 30 November 1966, Salo replaced Hill at Arrows. In 1998 they finished level on 3 points; at Monaco both Arrows scored, Salo 4th and Diniz 6th. Salo was his team-mate again at Sauber in 2000, the only man to fill the role twice, and in August that year he signed for Toyota’s new Formula One project.

Steve Clark and John Barnard

Steve Clark engineered Diniz’s car at Arrows in 1997 before leaving for Ganassi’s CART team, and was his race engineer again at Sauber in 1999. John Barnard designed the 1998 Arrows A19; Diniz said in October 1997 that he was especially excited at the prospect of working with him.

Peter Sauber

Born in Zurich on 13 October 1943, Peter Sauber founded the team at Hinwil, took Le Mans and sportscar titles with Sauber-Mercedes in 1989–90, and entered Formula One in 1993. He signed Diniz in October 1998 to partner Jean Alesi:

We will give Pedro the opportunity to prove his potential as a driver alongside Jean Alesi.

A year later he kept him for 2000; what had persuaded him, he said, was a consistently good season, Diniz’s help in developing the car and his teamwork. In 2000 Folha reported that Sauber would hardly keep him for a third year, and in November he said he wanted a young Finn, Kimi Räikkönen, for 2001. That last season, the drivers’ cars were overseen by Willy Rampf, back at Sauber as chief race engineer.

Jean Alesi

Born at Montfavet, near Avignon, on 11 June 1964, Alesi was Diniz’s team-mate at Sauber in 1999, when the team said it would have no clear number one, and Diniz outscored him, 3 points to 2, over the 1999 season. In 2000, with Alesi at Prost, the two collided at Hockenheim; the Sauber chapter tells it. The next March, when the Diniz family held a stake in the team Alesi drove for, Alesi told Folha about São Paulo: “The city is very big. Pedro Paulo [Diniz, ex-driver] took me to a few places.” That year he scored all 4 of Prost’s points, and left for Jordan in August.

Alain Prost

Born on 24 February 1955, Prost won four world championships and in February 1997 bought Ligier, which became Prost Grand Prix. On 30 November 2000 he welcomed the Diniz family as significant shareholders:

The alliance of Prost Grand Prix with Pedro Diniz is excellent news for the team

Within a year the partnership had broken down over money and strategy. After the team’s collapse Prost blamed Pedro and Abílio in print; Pedro, 10 years later, called him a very difficult man who listened to no one. The shareholder tells the whole story.

Tatiane Floresti

An actress, she met Pedro through yoga classes; they married and had a son, born in 2006, and a daughter about two years later. Around 2009 they moved together to the family’s farm, and in 2014 she was the director of its school and research centre, the Instituto Toca. In 2018 Folha reported that they had divorced after about 10 years of marriage and shared the care of their children.

Ernst Götsch

A Swiss-born pioneer of syntropic farming, Götsch was working with the Fazenda da Toca by 2016; The farm tells that story.

His father, again

In November 2018 Abílio gave Folha his verdict on the farm:

Tenho muito orgulho do Pedro e do que se transformou a Fazenda da Toca, que está com nossa família desde 1970 e se tornou um modelo de sustentabilidade no Brasil e no mundo.

I am very proud of Pedro and of what the Fazenda da Toca has become; it has been in our family since 1970 and has become a model of sustainability in Brazil and around the world.