Gianclaudio “Clay” Regazzoni, one of the iconic figures of Ferrari formula one history, was killed yesterday in a car crash in Italy at the age of 67. The five-times grand prix winner, who twice triumphed at Monza driving for the Italian team, was reported to have collided head on with a truck on a main road near Parma while driving a Chrysler Voyager.

Last night Niki Lauda, his team-mate at Ferrari from 1974 to 1976, paid tribute to a man who he described as “equalled only by James Hunt” in his ability to combine professionalism behind the wheel with the extrovert, fun-loving image of the traditional racing driver. “Clay was the sort of guy you could never forget,” said Lauda. “He died as he lived, simply taking life as it came. He was a great blend of the professional and the playboy. He enjoyed life and was never negative.

“Even after the accident when he crashed his Ensign in the US grand prix at Long Beach in 1980, a crash which left him paralysed from the waist down, he made the best out of his circumstances and was soon driving again in cars adapted with hand controls. When I joined Ferrari in ‘74 he was the star and I was the young kid, but I learned a great deal from him.” Regazzoni also won the hearts of British fans when he scored the Williams formula one team’s maiden victory in the 1979 British grand prix at Silverstone, the last such success of the Swiss driver’s career.

A rough, tough and uncompromising competitor from the Swiss canton of Ticino, Regazzoni was always something of a maverick. In the late 1960s when the crusade for car and circuit safety was gaining momentum, Regazzoni was interested only in racing - and racing hard.

At that time controversy was snapping at his heels for much of the time. In 1968 he was implicated in the fatal accident involving the Englishman Chris Lambert’s Brabham after a collision with Regazzoni’s Tecno in the Dutch round of the European formula two championship at Zandvoort. Regazzoni was subsequently exonerated.

In 1970 he returned to Zandvoort for his formula one debut at the wheel of a Ferrari, taking fourth place in a race marred by the death of the British driver Piers Courage, then two months later scored a superb victory in the Italian grand prix after the world champion elect Jochen Rindt was killed in practice.

He remained at Ferrari until the end of 1972, then moved to the British BRM squad for a season before returning to Ferrari for another three-year stint. In 1977 he drove for Ensign, in 1978 for Shadow and then celebrated his 40th birthday with Williams before returning to Ensign where he ended his career the following year.

Guardian