Clay Regazzoni: Ferrari's 1974 Title Runner-Up and the Driver Who Came Back From Paralysis

Clay Regazzoni, a Swiss driver and broadcaster, raced in Formula One between 1970 and 1980. He finished second in the 1974 Drivers' Championship with Ferrari and won five Grands Prix, one of them the first ever victory for Frank Williams's team. A 1980 crash at Long Beach left him paralysed from the waist down and ended his time in the top flight.

Who was Clay Regazzoni?

Gianclaudio Giuseppe Regazzoni was born on 5 September 1939 in Mendrisio, Switzerland, and was known as Clay. He was a hard-charging competitor whose reputation followed him from the junior formulae into Formula One. Ferrari and Williams were the two teams most closely linked with his career.

Regazzoni was also a broadcaster. After his accident he worked for Swiss and Italian television, and he wrote about his life and racing in two books.

A hard-charging Swiss driver who came within three points of the 1974 title, then rebuilt his life after a 1980 accident in Long Beach.

How did Regazzoni start racing?

Regazzoni first raced cars in 1963, aged 24, which was late for a future Grand Prix driver. Switzerland had banned motor racing after a 1955 accident at Le Mans, so many of his early outings took place across the border in Italy. He began in his own Austin-Healey Sprite, and took two podium finishes from his first three races.

In 1965 he took the wheel of a single-seater for the first time, entering the continental Formula Three series in a Brabham. He improved in 1966 with a De Tomaso, which caught the eye of the Italian constructor Tecno. Tecno gave him a Formula Three chassis for 1967 and then offered him a works Formula Two drive for the following year.

In 1968 he was lucky to survive a serious crash at Monaco, on the support bill for the Grand Prix. He lost control on the exit of the chicane and hit the barrier. The car passed under the rail, but he ducked low enough in the seat for the rail to pass above his head, missing it by a tiny margin.

What happened in the Chris Lambert case?

In Formula Two, Regazzoni found the ideal partner in Tecno, and his hard-charging style matched the team's ambitions. He quickly earned a reputation as a tough competitor.

At the 1968 Dutch Grand Prix for Formula Two, Regazzoni was implicated in the death of the young British driver Chris Lambert. Some observers claimed he had pushed Lambert's Brabham off the circuit during a lapping move, and Lambert crashed into a bridge. Regazzoni was fully exonerated at the inquest, but rumours persisted for years.

A private legal case brought by Lambert's father ran for five years before it was dropped. Though he spent most of 1969 on loan to the Ferrari Formula Two outfit, he stayed with Tecno across three seasons in the category. Tecno and he claimed the European Formula Two crown in 1970.

How did Regazzoni's sports car career go?

Alongside single-seaters, Regazzoni raced sports cars. In the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans he teamed with Arturo Merzario in a Ferrari 512S, but they dropped out after completing only 38 laps. That was his only Le Mans start, although he tested for the 1972 race.

For the next two years he was a permanent part of Ferrari's sports car squad. Partnered regularly with Jacky Ickx, he was runner-up at Brands Hatch in the 1971 BOAC 1000 km and took the opening heat at the Imola 500 km. He also won the Kyalami 9 Hours with Brian Redman that year.

In 1972 Regazzoni took second places at the 1000 km in Buenos Aires, with Redman again, and at the Spa 1000 km. The high point came when he and Ickx won the Monza 1000 km. When he left Ferrari in 1973, his sports car results dried up, and the Alfa Romeo 33 TT he drove was outclassed by Ferrari and Matra.

How did Regazzoni's first Ferrari years in Formula One go?

Regazzoni arrived in Formula One with Ferrari in 1970, when the team ran a second car for younger drivers. Ignazio Giunti finished fourth in Belgium, and Regazzoni took the second seat at the next round in the Netherlands, where he finished fourth. When Giunti finished 14th in France, three laps behind the winner, Jochen Rindt, Regazzoni was retained for the British Grand Prix.

He kept the race seat from there. Four podiums came in the last six rounds of 1970, one of them a Monza victory at Ferrari's home event. That Monza weekend was clouded by the loss of Rindt, the title leader, who died in qualifying. His first pole position came at the final round in Mexico, and he ended third in the standings on 33 points, 12 behind the posthumous champion.

Ferrari chose Ickx and Regazzoni for 1971 after Giunti died at a sports car event in the winter. Ahead of the European rounds he took the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, with Jackie Stewart runner-up. The Ferrari 312B and B2 were inferior to Stewart's Tyrrell, however, and Regazzoni finished seventh, 49 points behind the champion.

In 1972 he managed only a single podium, in Germany, but he scored two more points than the year before. He again finished seventh, this time 46 points behind the champion, Emerson Fittipaldi.

Why did Regazzoni leave Ferrari for BRM in 1973?

In 1973 Regazzoni moved to the Marlboro-sponsored BRM team, for what was reported as a sizeable fee. There he partnered the young Niki Lauda, and they grew close. The year began with a pole position at the Argentine Grand Prix season opener, but it soon turned sour.

At the South African Grand Prix he was involved in a huge crash, and he was pulled from the blazing wreck by Mike Hailwood. Hailwood was later awarded the George Medal for saving his life. Regazzoni scored just two points for the season, and he finished 17th in the championship, his worst points haul from a full Formula One season.

How close did Regazzoni come to the 1974 title?

Early in 1974 Ferrari reorganised under Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who took charge of the team. Regazzoni and Lauda were both signed, and on Regazzoni's recommendation Lauda was taken on too. Regazzoni was soon back on the podium, with seven podium finishes, a win in Germany and a pole at Nivelles.

He went into the final race, in the United States, in contention for the title, and he needed to finish ahead of Emerson Fittipaldi. A defective shock absorber caused handling problems during the race, and two pit stops later he could finish only 11th. He ended the year runner-up in the standings, three points adrift of Fittipaldi, the best finish of his career.

In 1975 the pair won six races for Ferrari: Lauda took five, and Regazzoni the Italian Grand Prix. On home soil he also took the non-championship Swiss race, the only Swiss driver to manage that. The team took the constructors' title, and Lauda claimed the first of his world crowns. Regazzoni placed fifth in the drivers' standings with 25 points.

What did Regazzoni's later Formula One seasons look like?

The 1976 season began well for Regazzoni, with a commanding win from pole at the first Long Beach Grand Prix and three more podiums. Ferrari then entered a period of turmoil after Lauda's accident at the Nurburgring. After Lauda lost the title in the final race in Japan, Ferrari replaced Regazzoni with Carlos Reutemann, despite Lauda's protests.

When he left Ferrari, Regazzoni was the team's longest-serving driver, with 73 races for the team. The mark lasted 12 years before Michele Alboreto passed it at the 1988 Hungarian round.

In 1977 he moved to the small Ensign team, turning down a Brabham drive that Bernie Ecclestone had offered, because he preferred to race with people he liked. He scored only five points for the year, and in May he drove a McLaren-Offenhauser for Theodore Racing at the Indianapolis 500. He crashed heavily in practice, qualified, and finished 30th after a fuel cell failed.

In 1978 he joined Shadow, replacing Alan Jones, who had moved to Williams. Only two further points-scoring finishes came, and he ended the season 16th, 60 points behind the champion, Mario Andretti.

In 1979 Frank Williams gave him a seat in a competitive car next to Alan Jones. The FW07 was very strong late in the year, and it won all but two of the last seven races. Regazzoni won at Silverstone, the first of more than 100 victories for the team. He celebrated on the podium with a drink sponsored by Saudi backers. Williams replaced him with Reutemann at the end of the year.

What happened at the 1980 Long Beach accident?

Without a competitive offer for 1980, Regazzoni rejoined Ensign, but his season ended only four races in. At Long Beach in 1980, his Ensign's brake pedal gave way at the end of a long straight at about 280 km/h. He hit a parked Brabham that had retired earlier, then bounced into the barrier.

He lost consciousness for about 10 minutes. The crash left him paralysed from the waist down, which ended his competitive career. He later sued the race organisers over safety procedures, but they showed that their procedures were adequate and won the case.

What did Regazzoni do after his accident?

After the accident Regazzoni became known for helping disabled people gain equal opportunities in life and in society. He got his racing licence back and was among the earliest disabled drivers in high-level motorsport. A Formula One comeback was ruled out, but he still raced with success in rally raids such as the Dakar Rally and in sports cars at the 12 Hours of Sebring.

His last competitive race came in 1990, and test drives were offered now and then through the 1990s. In 1994 he went back to Long Beach, then an IndyCar venue, and raced in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity event as a Pro. His achievements helped open the way for disabled people in motoring.

Regazzoni wrote an autobiography, E questione di cuore, meaning It's a Matter of Heart, and a second book about the Dakar Rally, E la corsa continua, appeared in 1988. Television work for Swiss and Italian broadcasters came later too. In the 2013 film Rush, which depicts the rivalry between Hunt and Lauda, he is portrayed by Pierfrancesco Favino.

How did Regazzoni die?

Regazzoni died on 15 December 2006, when his Chrysler Voyager struck the back of a lorry on Italy's A1 motorway, close to Parma. Investigators estimated his speed at about 100 km/h. Despite early speculation, an autopsy excluded a heart attack as the cause of his loss of control.

His funeral took place on 23 December 2006 in Lugano, and among those who attended were Niki Lauda and Jackie Stewart, along with other figures from the Formula One world.

How did Regazzoni's career look season by season?