Renzo Zorzi

The son of a miner, Renzo Zorzi was born in Ziano di Fiemme, a small town in the mountains in Northern Italy, on the 12th December 1946 and had seven starts in the Formula One World Championship with Williams and Shadow.

While working as a tyre tester for Pirelli, his racing began in Italian Formula 3 in 1972 and he continued in the series until 1975. Scuderia Mirabella were looking for a third driver for their F3 team to contest the Coppa Agip race in Monza and Renzo was recruited due to his extensive knowledge of the tyres. Racing their Tecno 69 he qualified twenty fifth but retired in his heat with high oil pressure and did not qualify for the final.

He then contested more races in F3 the following season and results included twelfth at Vallelunga in a Quasar, thirteenth with a Brabham BT38C at Casale, tenth at Misano in a Branca and then sixth in September at Varano in a Brabham BT35. He returned to Scuderia Mirabella in 1974, as team mate to Giorgio Francia, and campaigning their GRD 374 he took sixth and fifth in the first two rounds at Casale and Monza. However after qualifying second for the third round at Vallelunga the race was cancelled and after this there was an eighth place back at Casale and in one outing with a March 743 he finished fifth at Monaco. Back in the GRD for the following races he was thirteenth at Nurburgring, fifth at Casale and sixth at Monza and he finished tenth in the championship with 18 points. Alongside his F3 drives, he raced a GRD S73 in 1000km races at Monza and Imola, alongside Franco Pilone and Stefano Buonapace, retiring from both, then in October he was eighth in a de Tomaso Pantera at the Giro d’Italia with Gabriele Gottifredi.

In 1975 he helped in developing a Lancia F3 engine with Repetto Corse, which replaced the Ford engine in his GRD 374. He took his first podium with third at Varano then took a surprise victory in the prestigious Monaco F3 race. After winning his heat, he was placed second in qualifying but despite making a bad start it proved to be a chaotic race, with Larry Perkins hitting the barrier and leader Conny Andersson being penalised for a jumped start. Then, after Tony Brise and Alex Ribeiro collided, Renzo was leading the race and he kept Patrick Neve behind him to the chequered flag. His other F3 results included seventh at Vallelunga, sixth at Mugello and twenty third at Monza and he eventually finished ninth in the Championship while in European races he had two sixth places at the Nürburgring and Djurslandring in Denmark. Later in the year he arranged a drive with Frank Williams at the Italian Grand Prix, qualifying twenty second out of the twenty six starters. During the race he ran as high as twelfth until being hampered by a puncture and went on to finish fourteenth and the last of the runners.

There was a further F1 drive the following year with Frank Williams at Brazil, alongside Jackie Ickx. Walter Wolf had become the team’s majority shareholder and the Hesketh 308C was rebadged as a FW05, though Renzo raced an older FW04 and came home ninth of the fourteen remaining runners. However, after his sponsorship fell through he returned to F3 with the Modus team. In sports car events with Jolly Club he was eighth in a Lancia Stratos (and third in class) alongside Gianfranco Ricci at the 6 Hour Vallelunga though engine problems ended his drive in a Ford Escort alongside Martino Finotto and Umberto Grano at the 6 Hour Mugello. He and M.Finotto qualified nineteenth for the 4 Hour Monza race with a Lola T294 but did not start due to engine problems while he and Giorgio Schon were thirty seventh in the Targa Florio with an Osella PA4.

With support from Italian businessman Francesco Ambrosio, in 1977 he joined the Shadow team in F1 as team mate to Tom Pryce. Although he retired in Argentina after two laps due to gearbox failure he was sixth in his second race in Brazil, taking a World Championship point in only his fourth GP. He had a new DN8 in South Africa and the cars now featured a white livery, in deference to Renzo Zorzi’s sponsor AVS who had become a major sponsor of the team. Sadly, the race would be remembered for the tragic accident which claimed the life of a young marshal and Tom Pryce. On the twenty second lap Renzo’s engine died when a fuel pipe came adrift and as he pulled off the track the leaking petrol caught fire but he did not immediately get out as he could not disconnect the oxygen pipe from his helmet. As it appeared clear, two marshals ran across the track with fire extinguishers but several cars were momentarily out of sight in a dip in the track and bearing down on them. As they neared the scene Hans Stuck was able to react in time and avoided them but Tom Pryce was unsighted and had no chance to miss them. He struck the young marshal, Jansen van Vuuren, who was thrown into the air and died on impact, but the fire extinguisher he had been carrying smashed into Pryce’s head, before striking the Shadow’s roll hoop. The out of control Shadow continued at speed and left the track, scraping the metal barriers, and veering back onto the track it then hit Jacques Laffite’s Ligier. Both cars went into the barriers, but poor Tom Pryce was beyond help and Laffite was very lucky to escape with minor bruises. Shadow signed Alan Jones as Tom Pryce’s replacement and at the following races, Renzo qualified twentieth and retired with a gearbox failure in the US GP West, and in Spain he qualified twenty fourth and retired with an engine failure. This would be his last GP with the team as he was replaced at Monaco by Riccardo Patrese. Besides his F1 drives there were two outings in the year with a Chevron B36 with Giuseppe Piazzi and they were eighth at the 400km Vallelunga and fifth at the 250km Imola.

1978 and 1979 saw races in a Fiat X1/9 where in the first year he was tenth at the 6 Hour Misano, with G.Piazzi and Renato Benusiglio, though retired at the 6 Hour Vallelunga with G.Piazza and Giovanna i Alberti due to engine problems. However, a highlight came back at Monza where he and Marco Capoferri took victory in the 1000km race in a Lola T286-Cosworth. In the second year he, G.Piazzi and Stanislao Sterzel retired from the 1000km Nurburgring and 6 Hour Pergusa races plus the Giro d’Italia where he and G.Piazzi were joined by Galli.

There were outings in a variety of machines in 1980 and besides the X1/9 he raced a Porsche 935 and a Capoferri M1. He and G.Piazzi started the season at the 6 Hour Brands Hatch race though did not finish and the next race came at Sebring with Electrodyne’s Porsche 935 and he, Gianpiero Moretti and Giorgio Pianta were classified twenty seventh and ninth in class. He was back in G.Piazzi’s X1/9, racing solo, at the 6 Hour Mugello though did not finish due to an accident but though entered in the same event in a Porsche 935 with Schon and ‘Victor’, after qualifying seventeenth they did not start the race. Renzo’s Capoferri was entered for this Mugello race though the car did not arrive and the first outing in his M1 came at the 1000km Monza alongside Claudio Francisci but after qualifying on pole, and also claiming fastest lap, they retired due to overheating. There were two more events with the Capoferri but though he and Luigi Moreschi retired from the 6 Hour Vallelunga he took victory while racing the car solo at Enna Pegusa. There was a return to an F1 cockpit for the Monza round of the Aurora F1 Series with C.W.Clowes Racing’s Arrows A1 but after qualifying eighth he retired due to an accident.

His final sports car races all came at the 1000km Monza, starting in an Italsponsor Lola T286 in 1981 with Federico D’Amore though they did not finish while in 1984 he and G.Francia retired due to engine problems in John Fitzpatrick’s Porsche 956. His final drive came at 1985’s event, teamed with Oscar Larrauri and Massimo Sigala in Brun Motorsport’s Porsche 956. They qualified seventh and came home sixth but although the race was scheduled for 173 laps (1000 km) it was stopped after 138 laps after a tree fell and blocked the circuit.

After retiring from racing, he returned to work for Pirelli and ran a driving school for them at Binetto in southern Italy. In a sidenote to his racing, a strong friendship formed between him with Beppe Gabbiani and his father; Beppe’s father sponsored him and was the best man at Renzo’s wedding.

Renzo sadly passed away in hospital in Magenta, Lombardy, after a long illness on the 15th May 2015 and his funeral took place in his birthplace of Ziano.