Clay Lawrence

Regazzoni first started competing in car races in 1963. His first outings were in his own Austin-Healey Sprite. In 1965, Regazzoni entered the European Formula Three championship with a Brabham. Improving form during 1966, driving a De Tomaso, brought him to the attention of Tecno. Tecno offered Regazzoni the use of one of their F3 chassis for 1967. Regazzoni continued to drive in Formula Three events during 1968 and survived a major accident exiting the chicane during the Monaco Grand Prix Formula 3 support race. In Formula Two, Regazzoni found an ideal partner in Tecno. Regazzoni was implicated in the death of Chris Lambert at the 1968 Formula Two Dutch Grand Prix, though he was fully exonerated at the subsequent inquest. Regazzoni remained with Tecno throughout his three years in Formula Two, and in 1970, they took the European Formula Two Championship together. He also participated in sports car racing, including the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans where he and Arturo Merzario raced a Ferrari 512S. For the following two years, Regazzoni was a permanent fixture in Ferrari's sports car racing squad. With the new 312B-based 312P cars, Regazzoni regularly ran at or near the front of the field. Regularly partnered with Jacky Ickx, the pairing took second place in the BOAC 1000 km at Brands Hatch in 1971, and won the first heat during the Imola 500 km. Regazzoni also won the Kyalami 9 Hours race, this time in partnership with Brian Redman. Further successes followed in 1972, with second places at the 1000 km Buenos Aires, partnered again by Redman, and the prestigious Spa 1000 km race. The high point of the season came when the Regazzoni/Ickx partnership won the Monza 1000 km race. With his departure from Ferrari in 1973, Regazzoni's sports car results dried up. His uncompetitive Alfa Romeo 33 TT was thoroughly outclassed by the Ferrari and Matra opposition. At the end of 1973 Ferrari withdrew from sports car racing, and Regazzoni's move to rejoin the Ferrari Formula One team in 1974 effectively ended his sports car career.

During the early races of the 1970 Formula One season, Regazzoni took his place at Ferrari at the Dutch Grand Prix, finishing fourth. Four podium finishes followed for Regazzoni during the final six rounds of the 1970 season, including a win at Monza, Ferrari's home race. A first pole position, at the final round in Mexico, capped a hugely successful first season in the top formula. Regazzoni finished third in the Drivers' Championship with 33 points. Following the death of Ignazio Giunti at a sports car event during the winter of 1971, Ferrari opted for Ickx and Regazzoni for the 1971 Formula One season. Prior to the start of the European legs of the Formula One World Championship, Regazzoni won the prestigious Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, beating Jackie Stewart into second place. Regazzoni only managed three podium finishes during the season, as well as a pole position at the British Grand Prix. The Swiss finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship that year. Further disappointment for Regazzoni followed in 1972, with only a single podium finish, in Germany. Regazzoni again finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship. Regazzoni opted to leave Ferrari in 1973, in favour of Marlboro-sponsored BRM for what was reported as "an astronomical fee". Here he joined young driver Niki Lauda, and the two became firm friends. After a huge crash during the South African Grand Prix, he was pulled from the blazing wreckage by Mike Hailwood. It proved to be an unsuccessful year for Regazzoni, despite a pole position in the 1973 Argentine Grand Prix season opener. He was reported to have become disillusioned with "uncompetitive machinery" as he scored just two points during the entire season. Ferrari had a big personnel shake-up at the start of 1974, after Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was hired to run the Italian team. Both Regazzoni and, on Regazzoni's recommendation, Lauda were picked up by Ferrari. Regazzoni was soon back on the podium. Seven podium finishes, including a win in Germany, his first since his debut season win at Monza four years earlier, as well as a pole position at Nivelles, allowed Regazzoni to outscore the up-and-coming Lauda. Entering the last race of the season, in the USA Regazzoni was well in contention for the title, and only needed to finish ahead of rival, Emerson Fittipaldi, to take the crown. Regazzoni suffered handling problems during the race due to a defective shock absorber and could finish only 11th after two pit stops. He finished second in the Drivers' Championship, his career-best, just three points behind Fittipaldi. Ferrari retained Lauda and Regazzoni's services for 1975 and the pair took six victories between them: five for Lauda, and one for Regazzoni at the 1975 Italian Grand Prix. Regazzoni also won his home Grand Prix, the non-championship Swiss Grand Prix, the only Swiss driver to have done so. Ferrari secured the Constructors' Championship, and Lauda won the first of his three World titles. Regazzoni finished fifth in the Drivers' Championship with 25 points. 1976 would prove to be the start of Regazzoni's downward slide in Formula One. Despite a promising start of the season, with a dominating win from pole position at the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix, and a further three podium finishes, Ferrari entered a period of internal turmoil following Lauda's accident at the Nürburgring. Following Lauda's loss of the Drivers' Championship at the very last race of the season in Japan, Ferrari elected to replace the Swiss with Carlos Reutemann despite Lauda's protest. When he left Ferrari, Regazzoni was the longest serving Ferrari driver with 73 races with the team. Following his release from Ferrari, Regazzoni opted for a move to the Ensign team. His season with Ensign, despite managing a points finish on his debut in Argentina, was not successful. Regazzoni finished in the points only a further two times, and ended the season with a total of five points. In May Regazzoni participated in the Indianapolis 500 driving a McLaren-Offenhauser for Theodore Racing. He crashed heavily in practice but managed to qualify. He finished in 30th place after a fuel cell gave out during his first pit stop. Regazzoni moved to Shadow in 1978, as a replacement for Alan Jones who had left to join Williams. Only two points scoring finishes followed for Regazzoni and he finished the season 16th in the Drivers' Championship. Frank Williams gave Regazzoni his final drive in a competitive car alongside Alan Jones. The Williams FW07 proved to be very competitive, especially in the final part of the season. The first win was for Regazzoni, at Silverstone, the first of over 100 victories for the Williams Grand Prix team. However, despite his achievement, once again he was replaced by Carlos Reutemann at the end of the season. Lacking an offer for a competitive drive in 1980, Regazzoni re-joined Ensign. His season came to an abrupt end only four races into the year. He crashed during the 1980 United States Grand Prix West, held at Long Beach, when the brake pedal of his Ensign failed at the end of a long, high-speed straight travelling at approximately 280 km/h. The crash left Regazzoni paralyzed from the waist down, ending his competitive career.

After his accident, Regazzoni became known for his activities in helping disabled people get equal opportunities in life and society. Despite his disability, he was determined to live as full a life as possible. He won back his racing licence and became one of the first disabled drivers to participate in high-level motorsports. Although his injuries made a Formula One return impossible, he raced with some success in rally raids (e.g. the Dakar Rally) and sportscars (e.g. the 12 Hours of Sebring). His last competitive race was in 1990, although he was occasionally offered test drives in racing cars during the 1990s. In 1994, he returned to the Long Beach Grand Prix (at that point an IndyCar race) to compete as a Pro in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race. His post-Formula One career occasionally saw him as a commentator for Swiss and Italian television. Regazzoni died in a car accident in Italy on 15 December 2006. On 15 December 2006, Regazzoni was killed when the Chrysler Voyager he was driving hit the rear of a lorry on the Italian A1 motorway, near Parma. Crash investigators estimate that he was travelling at approximately 100 km/h at the time and, despite early speculation, an autopsy specifically excluded a heart attack from being responsible for Regazzoni's loss of control.

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.