Spirit Unbreakable: Alex Zanardi
Alessandro Zanardi, better known as Alex Zanardi, is an Italian racing driver, born 23rd October 1966. He is a two-time CART champion, ex-F1 driver, sports car racer and Olympic gold medalist. His racing career isn't one of the most successful ones but he is one of the most inspirational racers out there today. He is also a double-amputee above the knee.
This is his story as I know it from various sources.
Alex began racing karts at the age of 13, building his kart from the wheels of a dustbin and pipes from his father's work. By 1988, he joined the Italian F3 series and in the following year, he took two pole positions and three podium finishes. In 1991, he partook in the Formula 3000 series, won his debut race and two others to finish second in the championship. This strong performance got him a seat in F1 with three starts for Jordan that same year. However, he remained a test and guest driver for a bunch of F1 teams over the 1992 season before getting contracted by Lotus in 1993. He had a series of incidents on and off track that left him out of competition and an underperforming car the following year did not help his career either.
In 1995, Zanardi went to the US for a drive in the CART series, a sort of IndyCar racing format and was signed by the end of that year despite some having reservations against 'accident-prone Italian racers'. In his rookie season of 1996, he finished third in the championship behind teammate Jimmy Vasser and Michael Andretti. Alex Zanardi won the championship for Ganassi in both 1997 and 1998 with twelve wins and he was one of the first drivers to popularize a race victory celebration by doing doughnuts on the track.
His CART success earned him interest from F1 teams and he returned to the sport in 1999 to race for Williams. Zanardi was still pretty good but a series of incidents and car problems over the course of the season saw him and the team go their separate ways at end of that year. The Italian eyed a comeback to CART racing and in 2001 he got his chance. But at the 2001 American Memorial at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Germany, he suffered a violent accident.
After a pit stop and on cold tyres, Zanardi was trying to rejoin the race but he spun and got his car into the path of oncoming racecars. Patrick Carpentier was able to avoid Alex but the Alex Tagliani who was just behind couldn't. He hit the car's front end from the side, tearing away the nose of the car along with the lower half of Zanardi's legs. Amputated on impact and having lost nearly three-quarters of his blood, Alex was rushed to a hospital in Berlin and the rapid medical intervention of Terry Trammell and Steve Olvey saved his life. After hours of surgery where more of his legs were amputated to clean and close the wounds, Alex Zanardi was out of danger but it marked the end for his career in open wheel racing.
A few missing limbs weren't going to keep Alex Zanardi from racing. In 2003, he returned to the track in a car modified with hand-operated brake and steering controls and ceremoniously drove the 13 laps he never got to finish at the Lausitzing when he crashed. In fact, if he were competing that weekend, his fastest lap was good enough to start 5th on the grid and that knowledge gave him the confidence that he still had it in him. To race.
His first race since the accident was in a modified touring car at Monza that year where he finished seventh and returned to racing full time in 2004 with Roberto Ravaglia's BMW team in the FIA Touring Car Championship. In 2005, he won his first series race with further wins at Istanbul in 2008 and Brno in 2009 before announcing his retirement from WTCC at the end of that season. Alex Zanardi is poised to return to car racing with BMW for the 2019 Daytona 24 Hours race and is currently testing a modified M4 DTM race car.
The Italian has also been racing elsewhere post his accident - handcycling. He competed at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships in 2009 and won the Venice Marathon that year in the category for the disabled. In 2010, he won the Rome City Marathon and in 2011 he won the New York City Marathon in his handcycling class, his fourth attempt at that one. He has even competed and completed a few Iron Man events since then.
On 5th September 2012, Zanardi won a gold medal in the men's road time trial H4 event at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. Two days after that he won the individual H4 road race and a silver medal in the mixed team relay H1-4 after that. Then at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, he won the gold medals in the H5 category road cycling men's time trial and mixed team relay and a silver in the road race. Those events happened on and around the 15-year anniversary of the accident that changed his life and it was an emotional moment for Alex Zanardi and for the people he inspires as seen in this clip below from a UK show called 'The Last Leg':
Alex Zanardi isn't unique in overcoming many of the obstacles that life has thrown his way, but his attitude in overcoming them is what makes him so inspiring to so many. In a response to Alex Brooker's tribute above, he was quoted saying "Inspiration doesn't come from people or things. It comes from the eyes that seek it".
In a quote from his interview post the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, he said: "Looking back, the accident became one of the greatest opportunities of my life". Another famous quote attributed to Alex Zanardi is: "You want to climb the mountain because it's there and you know you can do it."
If you look for some of his interview clips on YouTube, he maintains his sense of humour about his disability and comes across as a warm person grateful for all the good in his life and is driven by his passions.
To everyone who knows of him, he is a man of respectable grit and inspirational positivity. To me, he is one who represents the strength of an unbreakable spirit, regardless of what kind of body you have to work with. I hope I get to meet him someday and utter something intelligent, but till then I plan to follow his performance in the new BMW M4 DTM.
To Alex Zanardi - a hero.
This is his story as I know it from various sources.
Alex began racing karts at the age of 13, building his kart from the wheels of a dustbin and pipes from his father's work. By 1988, he joined the Italian F3 series and in the following year, he took two pole positions and three podium finishes. In 1991, he partook in the Formula 3000 series, won his debut race and two others to finish second in the championship. This strong performance got him a seat in F1 with three starts for Jordan that same year. However, he remained a test and guest driver for a bunch of F1 teams over the 1992 season before getting contracted by Lotus in 1993. He had a series of incidents on and off track that left him out of competition and an underperforming car the following year did not help his career either.
In 1995, Zanardi went to the US for a drive in the CART series, a sort of IndyCar racing format and was signed by the end of that year despite some having reservations against 'accident-prone Italian racers'. In his rookie season of 1996, he finished third in the championship behind teammate Jimmy Vasser and Michael Andretti. Alex Zanardi won the championship for Ganassi in both 1997 and 1998 with twelve wins and he was one of the first drivers to popularize a race victory celebration by doing doughnuts on the track.
His CART success earned him interest from F1 teams and he returned to the sport in 1999 to race for Williams. Zanardi was still pretty good but a series of incidents and car problems over the course of the season saw him and the team go their separate ways at end of that year. The Italian eyed a comeback to CART racing and in 2001 he got his chance. But at the 2001 American Memorial at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, Germany, he suffered a violent accident.
After a pit stop and on cold tyres, Zanardi was trying to rejoin the race but he spun and got his car into the path of oncoming racecars. Patrick Carpentier was able to avoid Alex but the Alex Tagliani who was just behind couldn't. He hit the car's front end from the side, tearing away the nose of the car along with the lower half of Zanardi's legs. Amputated on impact and having lost nearly three-quarters of his blood, Alex was rushed to a hospital in Berlin and the rapid medical intervention of Terry Trammell and Steve Olvey saved his life. After hours of surgery where more of his legs were amputated to clean and close the wounds, Alex Zanardi was out of danger but it marked the end for his career in open wheel racing.
A few missing limbs weren't going to keep Alex Zanardi from racing. In 2003, he returned to the track in a car modified with hand-operated brake and steering controls and ceremoniously drove the 13 laps he never got to finish at the Lausitzing when he crashed. In fact, if he were competing that weekend, his fastest lap was good enough to start 5th on the grid and that knowledge gave him the confidence that he still had it in him. To race.
His first race since the accident was in a modified touring car at Monza that year where he finished seventh and returned to racing full time in 2004 with Roberto Ravaglia's BMW team in the FIA Touring Car Championship. In 2005, he won his first series race with further wins at Istanbul in 2008 and Brno in 2009 before announcing his retirement from WTCC at the end of that season. Alex Zanardi is poised to return to car racing with BMW for the 2019 Daytona 24 Hours race and is currently testing a modified M4 DTM race car.
The Italian has also been racing elsewhere post his accident - handcycling. He competed at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships in 2009 and won the Venice Marathon that year in the category for the disabled. In 2010, he won the Rome City Marathon and in 2011 he won the New York City Marathon in his handcycling class, his fourth attempt at that one. He has even competed and completed a few Iron Man events since then.
On 5th September 2012, Zanardi won a gold medal in the men's road time trial H4 event at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London. Two days after that he won the individual H4 road race and a silver medal in the mixed team relay H1-4 after that. Then at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, he won the gold medals in the H5 category road cycling men's time trial and mixed team relay and a silver in the road race. Those events happened on and around the 15-year anniversary of the accident that changed his life and it was an emotional moment for Alex Zanardi and for the people he inspires as seen in this clip below from a UK show called 'The Last Leg':
In a quote from his interview post the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, he said: "Looking back, the accident became one of the greatest opportunities of my life". Another famous quote attributed to Alex Zanardi is: "You want to climb the mountain because it's there and you know you can do it."
If you look for some of his interview clips on YouTube, he maintains his sense of humour about his disability and comes across as a warm person grateful for all the good in his life and is driven by his passions.
To everyone who knows of him, he is a man of respectable grit and inspirational positivity. To me, he is one who represents the strength of an unbreakable spirit, regardless of what kind of body you have to work with. I hope I get to meet him someday and utter something intelligent, but till then I plan to follow his performance in the new BMW M4 DTM.
To Alex Zanardi - a hero.
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