Clay Regazzoni
Clay Regazzoni was one of the most popular drivers of the 1970s, a fierce, fan-favourite racer for Ferrari. A career-ending crash in 1980 left him paralysed from the waist down, but rather than stepping away from motorsport, he spent the following decades competing in specially adapted hand-control cars.
Clay Regazzoni raced for Ferrari through much of the early-to-mid 1970s, becoming one of the team's most popular drivers thanks to an aggressive, fearless style that made him a particular favourite with the passionate tifosi at Monza. He later moved between several teams before finding a late-career highlight at Williams.
In 1979, Regazzoni gave Williams its first-ever Formula 1 victory at the United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach — a result that mattered as much for the team's future as for his own career, arriving just before Williams became a championship-winning force. It would prove to be his last Grand Prix win.
In 1980, a brake failure caused a severe crash that left Regazzoni paralysed from the waist down, ending his Formula 1 career. He refused to let it end his competitive driving altogether, spending the following decades racing in specially hand-adapted cars in rallying and endurance events, including the Paris-Dakar Rally, until his death in a road accident in 2006.
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A brake failure during the 1980 United States Grand Prix West left Regazzoni paralysed from the waist down. Rather than retiring from competitive driving altogether, he went on to compete for years afterward in rallying and endurance events using cars adapted with hand controls, including entries at the Paris-Dakar Rally.
Driving for Williams, Regazzoni took his fifth and final Formula 1 win at Long Beach in 1979, giving Williams its first-ever Grand Prix victory as a constructor, a significant milestone for a team that would go on to become one of the sport's most successful.
Regazzoni played an important role in bringing Niki Lauda to Ferrari and the pair became close friends and teammates in the early-to-mid 1970s, racing together at a team where Regazzoni was already an established, popular figure before Lauda's own championship years.
Regazzoni's reputation was built on fearless, wheel-to-wheel racing rather than calculated point-scoring, making him an enormous crowd favourite at Ferrari even in seasons where his results didn't match the drama of his driving — a style fans at Monza in particular adored him for.
Regazzoni died in 2006 in a road traffic accident on a motorway near Parma, Italy, while driving one of his hand-adapted cars — a loss that was felt deeply across the motorsport community he had remained an active, visible part of for over four decades.