Renzo
Zorzi

Renzo Zorzi was born on 12 December 1946 in Ziano di Fiemme in Trentino. He worked as an engineer for Pirelli and began racing in 1972, driving a Tecno in Italian Formula Three. In 1975 he won the Formula Three support race at the Monaco Grand Prix after Conny Andersson, who had taken the chequered flag first, was given a time penalty for a jump start. Zorzi is the only driver from Trentino to have competed in Formula One.

He made his debut at the 1975 Italian Grand Prix for Frank Williams Racing Cars and finished 14th. In 1976 he drove for Wolf-Williams in the season opener in Brazil and finished ninth. In 1977 he returned to Formula One with Shadow as team-mate to Tom Pryce. In Brazil he finished sixth and scored his only championship point, which left him 19th in the drivers' standings at the end of the year. At the next race in South Africa, Zorzi's car had stopped off the track with a fuel leak when Pryce was killed in an accident involving a marshal, who also lost his life. Zorzi retired in both Long Beach and Spain, and in Monaco he was replaced by Riccardo Patrese. In total he started seven Grands Prix.

Afterwards he raced sports cars now and then, mostly in Italy. In 1979 he won the 1000 km of Monza with Marco Capoferri in a Lola T286, and in 1985 he finished sixth there in a Porsche 956. In 1980 he made a one-off appearance in the Aurora AFX Formula One series at Monza. He later returned to Pirelli, running a driving school for the company at Binetto. Zorzi died on 15 May 2015.

Source: Wikipedia, “Renzo Zorzi”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.