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Reginald Harold Haslam "Reg" Parnell (born 2 July 1911 in Derby, Derbyshire – died 7 January 1964 in Derby) was a Formula One driver. He raced for the Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari, BRM and Cooper in seven races, from 1950 to 1954. He entered with the Scuderia Ambrosiana, G.A. Vandervall and AHM Bryde team. He is most notable for finishing on the podium in the very first Grand Prix.

He also took on a role as team principal twice, for the Yeoman Credit Racing Team and for Reg Parnell Racing. As team principle, he did not achieve much success, with one pole position and a couple of second places.

He has a son, Tim Parnell, who also had a short career in Formula One. Tim did not have much success in F1, and joined his father at Reg Parnell Racing.

Reg died in 1964 of peritonitis after an appendix operation. Despite this, Reg Parnell Racing continued on until stopping in 1969.

Before Formula One World Championship[]

Parnell came from a family that ran a garage in Derby. In 1933 when nearby Donington Park held its first ever race Parnell was in the crowd and decided he would like to give it a try. He had started racing prior to the war in Bugatti's in 1935 and soon switched to driving an MG Magnette but was soon banned after an accident at Brooklands where he colided with Kay Petre's Austin causing her to barrell role and injuring herself badly.

After the war he drove an ERA and a Maserati and impressed Alfa Romeo.

Formula 1 Career[]

1950[]

Reg Parnell was given a factory Alfa Romeo as a guest driver at the first ever World Championship GP at Silverstone and he repaid the good faith that was shown on him by finishing a fine third after Juan Manuel Fangio retired.

Parnell would race again in 1950 for the Scuderia Ambrosiana team but his Maserati retired with engine trouble on lap 9.

Formula One Statistical Overview[]

F1 Career History[]

Note: Entries made solely in non-championship races are denoted in italics.

Year Entrant Constructor(s) WDC Pts WDC Pos. Report
1936 R. Parnell MG Non-European Championship
1937 R. Parnell MG Non-European Championship
1938 Stripped of racing licence
1939 R. Parnell BHW-Bugatti Non-European Championship
19401945: World War II
1946 Reg Parnell Racing
R. H. H. Parnell
Maserati
ERA
No Championship Report
1947 Reg Parnell Racing
R. H. H. Parnell
ERA
Maserati
No Championship Report
1948 Reg Parnell Racing
R. H. H. Parnell
Maserati
ERA
No Championship Report
Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati
1949 Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati No Championship Report
Reg Parnell Racing
R. H. H. Parnell
Maserati
1950 Alfa Romeo SpA Alfa Romeo 4 9th Report
Scuderia Ambrosiana Maserati
BRM BRM
1951 G.A. Vandervell Ferrari 5 10th Report
BRM Ltd. BRM
Reg Parnell Racing Maserati
1952 A. H. M. Bryde Cooper-Bristol 0 NC Report
Cooper Car Company Cooper-Bristol
Enrico Platé Maserati
BRM BRM
1953 BRM BRM Non-championship only
1954 Scuderia Ambrosiana Ferrari 0 NC Report
1955 Scuderia Ambrosiana Ferrari Non-championship only Report
Connaught Engineering Connaught-Alta
1956 RRC Walker Racing Team Connaught-Alta Non-championship only Report

Non-Racing Formula One Career[]

Year Role Employer
1959 Team Principal Reg Parnell Racing
1961 Team Principal Yeoman Credit Racing Team
1962 Team Principal Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing Team
1963 Team Principal Reg Parnell Racing
1964 Team Principal Reg Parnell Racing

Statistics[]

Entries 11
Starts 6
Pole positions 0
Front Row Starts 1
Victories 0
Podia 1
Fastest laps 0
Points 9
Laps raced 344
kms raced 1865.584
Races led 0
Laps led 0
kms lead 0.000


Non-Championship Wins[]

No. Race
1 1949 Richmond Grand Prix
2 1949 Goodwood Trophy
3 1950 Richmond Trophy
4 1950 Goodwood Trophy
5 1952 West Essex CC Race
6 1954 Levant Cup
7 1954 BARC Formula 1 Race
8 1954 Crystal Palace Trophy
9 1954 August Cup
10 1954 RedeX Trophy

Career Results[]

Complete Formula One Results
Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Pts Pos
1950 Flag of the United Kingdom Flag of Monaco 48-star U S flag Flag of Switzerland Flag of Belgium Flag of France Flag of Italy 4 9th
3rd DNA Ret DNA
1951 Flag of Switzerland 48-star U S flag Flag of Belgium Flag of France Flag of the United Kingdom Flag of Germany Flag of Italy Flag of Spain 1945 1977 5 10th
DNA 4th 5th DNS DNA
1952 Flag of Switzerland 48-star U S flag Flag of Belgium Flag of France Flag of the United Kingdom Flag of Germany Flag of the Netherlands Flag of Italy 0 NC
7th
1953: did not attend any races
1954 Flag of Argentina 48-star U S flag Flag of Belgium Flag of France Flag of the United Kingdom Flag of Germany Flag of Switzerland Flag of Italy Flag of Spain 1945 1977 0 NC
Ret
Key
Symbol Meaning Symbol Meaning
1st Winner Ret Retired
2nd Podium finish DSQ Disqualified
3rd DNQ Did not qualify
5th Points finish DNPQ Did not pre-qualify
14th Non-points finish TD Test driver
Italics Scored point(s) for Fastest Lap DNS Did not start
18th Classified finish (retired with >90% race distance) NC Non-classified finish (<90% race distance)
4thP Qualified for pole position [+] More Symbols

Notes[]

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