Renzo Zorzi

Renzo Zorzi (born 12th December, 1946 in Ziano di Fiemme, Trentino, died 15th May, 2015 in Magenta, Lombardy) was an Italian racing driver known for his appearances in Formula One.

Formula One

1976-: Various teams

Zorzi's 1976 season began at the Spanish Grand Prix driving for the beleaguered Dywa team, taking part in five races. He would fail to qualify for any races whilst driving for them.

Zorzi's only qualification of the year would be when he switched to the Wolf-Williams Racing squad at the French Grand Prix, where he would take a tenth place finish in the race.

He would also take part in the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix for the Japanese Maki team, but would again fail to pre-qualify.

Dywa re-signed Zorzi for the 1977 season, again taking part in a part-season. Despite the utterly dreadful machine that he'd be driving, a succession of (relatively) decent performances in pre-qualifying in the early season saw him gain a cult following in the paddock - with rumours beginning to swirl that he'd possibly gain a call-up to Scuderia Ferrari in the future after he was seen talking to Ferrari team principal Luca di Montezemelo at the Tuscan Grand Prix.