Renzo Zorzi was born on December 12, 1946 in the Trentino
province in Italy near the Austrian border. Zorzi worked for Pirelli early in
his career as an engineer and started racing in the year 1972 in Formula 3
driving for the Scuderia Mirabella Tecno team. Zorzi continued racing in
Formula 3 over the next few years without any real strong results. For 1975,
Zorzi helped develop a Lancia engine for Formula 3 competition and used this
engine to win the Formula 3 event at Monaco. Zorzi beat notable drivers such as
Ingo Hoffman, Rupert Keegan, and Danny Sullivan on the day. This was an
important race at the time and the Frank Williams took note of the result.
Zorzi rented a car to drive for Frank Williams Racing Cars
at the Italian Grand Prix of 1975 to make his debut for is home race. He
qualified 22nd for his debut race and was able to climb up to a finishing
position of 14th though he was the last classified car and was six laps down
from the winner. Zorzi once again drove for Williams in the season opening 1976
Brazilian Grand Prix and had much better results this time. He only qualified
in 17th position be he was able to improve on that and finish in 9th in the
race. Zorzi's did not have enough money to secure a drive with Williams for the
rest of the year so he once again returned to Formula 3 for the rest of the
season driving for the Modus team.
For the 1977 season, Zorzi received backing from Italian
financier Francesco Ambrosio, and was able to sign with the Shadow Formula 1
team. Zorzi's season did not start off strongly as he qualified last for the
Argentine Grand Prix and then retired on the second lap with gearbox problems.
Things got better at the next race the Brazilian Grand Prix though. He only
managed to qualify in 18th, but due to high attrition only seven cars finished
the race and Zorzi was able to finish in 6th place to pick up what would be his
only career Formula 1 point.
At the next race the South African Grand Prix Zorzi
qualified in 20th position and then in the race he was indirectly involved in a
tragic accident. On lap 22 of the race Zorzi retired due to an engine failure. Two
marshals from the race ran to his car to try to put out the fire. As the
marshals were running across the track Zorzi's team mate Tom Pryce drove
through and did not have enough time to react. Pryce drove into one of the
marshals which killed both him and the marshal instantly.
Zorzi continued to race for Shadow at the following US Grand
Prix West in which he qualified in 20th position but once again retired from
the race early with gearbox problems. Zorzi had one more race with the Shadow
team at the following Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama. He qualified 24th for this
race and retired early due to an engine failure. Following this race the Shadow
team let Zorzi go and replaced him with another Italian driver Riccardo
Patrese. Zorzi never managed to drive in another Formula 1 race in his career.
Zorzi continued to race over the next few years spending
some time racing sports cars and competed in a race of the British Formula 1
series. After retiring from racing Zorzi went to spend some time as a test
driver for Pirelli and he now runs a Pirelli driving school in southern Italy.
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