Ensign Racing

Did You Know?

• Clay Regazzoni was paralyzed after a brake failure caused a crash at Long Beach in 1980.
• Jim Crawford won the British F1 Championship in an AMCO Ensign in 1982.

Formula One

Ensign entered Formula One with backing from pay driver Rikky von Opel, who had driven for the team in Formula Three in 1972 and won the Lombard North Central British Formula Three Championship that year. Based on that success, von Opel commissioned a Formula One chassis. Their first season was not successful; von Opel finished only two races, and the team's best result was 13th at the 1973 British Grand Prix. The partnership continued into the following season, but von Opel left after the first race, having been offered a works Brabham drive. He was replaced by Vern Schuppan, whose only finish was 15th at the Belgian Grand Prix, and later by Mike Wilds, who qualified only in America and finished the race after a pit stop for fuel but was not classified, nine laps behind.

For 1975 Ensign was sponsored by HB Bewaking, a Dutch company, leading them to sign Dutch drivers Roelof Wunderink and Gijs van Lennep. Wunderink qualified for three races and finished one; van Lennep qualified for all his races and took sixth place in Germany, securing the first points for Ensign in Formula One. Chris Amon also raced for the team in Austria and Italy, finishing 12th both times. In 1976 Amon stayed with Ensign, achieving great qualifying results: third in Sweden and sixth in Britain, but only took points in Spain with a fifth-place finish. Patrick Nève replaced Amon in France, and Hans Binder replaced Amon in Austria; Jacky Ickx raced the rest of the season for Ensign.

In 1977 Clay Regazzoni scored five points for Ensign, with best finishes of fifth in Italy and America. In 1978 the team entered cars for Danny Ongais and Lamberto Leoni; Ongais left after two races and Leoni after four. Jacky Ickx contested the next four races, and Derek Daly raced the rest of the season, scoring a point in Canada. Also in 1978, Nelson Piquet made his Formula One debut at the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring driving an Ensign. In 1979 Daly stayed with Ensign but left after the Monaco Grand Prix and was replaced by Patrick Gaillard, who qualified at only two out of five races. Marc Surer replaced Gaillard for the final three races of the season.