Ferrari have seen some great drivers pass through its stable in Maranello, whether it was Michael Schumacher, Nigel Mansell or Juan Manuel Fangio.
One of the favourites of Piero Ferrari was Niki Lauda, who won over the Italian squad after he helped bring them back to winning ways in 1975 following 11 years of no success.
It was an important moment for Ferrari as F1 entered the technology revolution that featured wider cars, optimised engines, and increased reliance on downforce.
It had been a difficult period for Ferrari as they struggled to compete with the cars produced by the so-called ‘Garagistas’, including Lotus and Brabham.
Ferrari produced the 312B3-74 for the 1974 season and Lauda, who had made his F1 debut with March in 1971, had been paired with Clay Regazzoni.
Clay Regazzoni catches the eye of Ferrari
Regazzoni was a charismatic driver from Switzerland who got into Formula 1 via sports car racing. More importantly, he was fast and caught the eye of Ferrari.
During the 1970 season, they would only field one car for Jacky Ickx, but that would increase to two when the Italian team decided to try out younger drivers. Regazzoni took the spot at the Netherlands round where he finished fourth, going on to achieve the same feat at the British GP.
Regazzoni would finish on the podium four times for the final six rounds of the 1970 season, including a win at Monza. Despite this success, he would leave Ferrari at the end of the 1972 season following poor results, but in 1974 there was a shakeup of personnel at Ferrari and Luca di Montezemolo was brought in.
Di Montezemolo brought Regazzoni back to the Scuderia and, on the recommendation of the Swiss driver, the upcoming Lauda. Their partnership proved to be fruitful, but Regazzoni made it clear to Lauda that he needed to improve his driving early on.
Clay Regazzoni once told Niki Lauda that he would ‘never become great’
Regazzoni was already an established driver in F1 by the 1974 season having achieved a handful of podiums driving for both Ferrari and BRM.
After watching Lauda in Ferrari’s 1974 challenger, he made one observation: “If you drive as tensed up as you behave yourself towards women, you will never become great” (via Blick).
Regazzoni would take seven podium finishes, including a victory at the German GP, enabling him to outscore Lauda. He was in contention for the title as they entered the final round in the US, with him only needing to finish ahead of championship rival Emerson Fittipaldi.
After a mechanical issue forced him to finish in P11, he would be runner-up to Fittipaldi, who took his first title with McLaren having switched to the team from Lotus after a dispute with Colin Chapman.
A couple of seasons with Ferrari followed for Regazzoni, although it would yield varying success with Lauda winning the title in 1975. Regazzoni’s last competitive drive would be at Williams in 1979, where he won their first race at Silverstone and the last of his career.
In 1980, he was dropped in favour of Carlos Reutemann, and instead rejoined Ensign. He would last four races before a big crash at Long Beach after a brake failure led to him hitting Ricardo Zunino’s parked car at 170mph.
The crash left Regazzoni paralysed from the waist down, ending his competitive career. Despite attempts to revive his racing career, his last competitive races in motorsport were in 1994 before his death in 2006 after a road traffic collision.