October 23, 1966
Alessandro Zanardi
(Alessandro Zanardi - photo taken by Morio)
Born in Bologna, Italy.
A 2-time CART FedEx Series Champion and former Formula One driver, more recently, he has attracted widespread praise for his return to competition in the aftermath of a crash in 2001 that resulted in the amputation of his legs. He returned to racing less than two years after the accident, competing in the FIA World Touring Car Championship for BMW Team Italy-Spain between 2003 and 2009.
Zanardi began racing karts at the age of 13. He built the kart from wheels used from a dustbin and pipes from his father's line of work. In 1988, he joined the Italian Formula 3 series with a fifth place as his highest finish. In 1989, Zanardi took two pole positions and three podiums despite suffering from his team switching to unleaded fuel which reduced the engine power in his car.
In 1991, he moved up to the Formula 3000 series with the Il Barone Rampante team, who were themselves newcomers to the series. Winning on his F3000 debut, he went on to score two more wins that season, en route to second in the championship. Zanardi had his first taste of Formula One at a test session at Paul Ricard where he drove a Footwork. By the end of that year, he had commenced his career in Formula One. Three starts for Jordan were his reward for a strong F3000 campaign.
For 1992 Zanardi had to be content with guest drives for Minardi, replacing the injured Christian Fittipaldi. In the off-season, he tested for Benetton, but contracted with Lotus for 1993.
In 1993, Zanardi compared reasonably to teammate Johnny Herbert and was important in fine-tuning the team's active suspension system, scoring his only F1 point at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Zanardi suffered an injury when an elderly motorist collided with his bicycle knocking him off and ran over Zanardi's left foot leaving several bones broken. Despite this, Zanardi raced in Germany but spun out. However, his season ended prematurely after he suffered a terrible crash during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix where he suffered a concussion.
Still injured, Zanardi missed the beginning of the 1994 season, but he returned in the Spanish Grand Prix, replacing Pedro Lamy, who had been hurt in a testing crash. However, that year's Lotus was highly unreliable, and Zanardi failed to score a single point or qualify higher than 13th. With Lotus Formula One having folded, Zanardi took time to race in Sports car racing. His first meeting was at a Porsche Supercup event at Imola. Zanardi later raced at a four-hour event at Donington Park where he and Alex Portman retired with eight minutes remaining despite leading by over a lap. The pair managed to finish 4th at a wet weather race at Silverstone.
During 1995, Zanardi went to the United States for a drive in the Champ Car series. He felt that finding a race seat would be easy with Formula One experience but no teams took any interest. However, Reynard Commercial Director Rick Gorne managed to secure Zanardi a test drive at Homestead with Chip Ganassi Racing. Zanardi officially signed a contract on 23 October 1995. The team's race engineer Mo Nunn advised Chip against signing him, as he believed Italian drivers were too prone to mistakes.
He rapidly became one of the series' most popular drivers. He took the pole for his second race, although his first win didn't come until mid-season. In total he won three races in his rookie season and five pole positions, finishing third in the championship behind team-mate Jimmy Vasser and Michael Andretti. He and Andretti were level on points but Andretti took second place by virtue of having five race wins to Zanardi's three. Zanardi was named Champ Racing "Rookie of the Year". He won the championship for Ganassi in both 1997 and 1998, bringing home twelve victories.
A win came at Laguna Seca for the final race of the 1996 season, where he conducted a highly risky overtaking move at the Corkscrew corner (known to many racing fans as "The Pass"; the maneuver was banned for future years), on race leader Bryan Herta, having fought his way through the field. After winning a race, Zanardi was fond of spinning his car around in tight circles, leaving circular donut-shaped patterns of tyre rubber on the track; this would eventually become a popular means of celebrating race wins all across America.
Zanardi's CART success caught the eye of Sir Frank Williams whom he made contact in 1997, to inform them he would be available for contract negotiations if needed. Williams visited Zanardi who signed a three-year contract in July 1998 which was publicly confirmed in September of that year. He began testing at the end of that year alongside test driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Zanardi also received offers from BAR and Honda.
In the 2000 season Zanardi was not signed for Formula One team, but was interested in a CART comeback. He tested for Mo Nunn in July at Sebring driving for 246 laps and opted to sign to the team for 2001, however he was not successful for the most part.
On September 15, 2001, in his most competitive race of the season, he suffered a violent accident on the Lausitzring in Germany. Zanardi started from the back of the grid and was gaining ground on his rivals. The crash occurred while Zanardi was leading the race in the closing laps. After a late pit stop, Zanardi was attempting to merge back onto the track when he accelerated abruptly and spun into the path of Patrick Carpentier. Carpentier was able to avoid him, but Alex Tagliani, who was just behind Carpentier at the time, could not and Zanardi's car was impacted from the side, behind the front wheel, severing the nose of the car. Zanardi lost both legs in the impact and nearly three-quarters of his blood volume, though rapid medical intervention saved his life. Further portions of his legs were amputated during three hours of surgery to clean and facilitate closing the wounds. This was the end of his open-wheel racing career.
Dissatisfied with the limitations of legs available commercially, Zanardi designed and built his own custom legs, to allow him to compare the weight and stiffness of various feet in order to find the ones most suitable for racing. In 2002, CART honoured Zanardi by giving him the privilege of waving the checkered flag in Toronto, Canada. In 2003, Zanardi was not only back behind the wheel, he was also racing again, with the aid of hand-operated brake and accelerator controls. He completed the final thirteen laps at the race track which had nearly killed him in 2001, and did so at highly competitive speeds approaching 310 km/h (193 mph). In fact, had he been qualifying for the race that weekend, he would have been fifth. It persuaded him that a race return was something to pursue.
Zanardi competed at Monza, Italy, in his first race since the accident in a touring car modified to allow the use of his prosthetic feet, finishing the race in seventh. In 2004, Zanardi returned to racing full-time, driving for Roberto Ravaglia's BMW Team Italy-Spain in the FIA European Touring Car Championship. The season did not see him score many points, but for 2005 matters were much improved, in a series which became the World Touring Car Championship by adding two non-European races. On 24 August 2005, Zanardi won his first world series race since his accident at Lausitzring. He had taken advantage of the championship's reverse grid system, in which by finishing the weekend's first race in 8th, a driver starts the second on pole. Still, Zanardi had held off attacks from several drivers, and celebrated his win with a series of trademark "donuts". He then finished the season strongly. He took further wins at Istanbul in 2006 and Brno in 2008 and 2009. At the end of the 2009 season he announced his retirement from the WTCC
Zanardi returned to a Formula One car in late November 2006 at a testing session for BMW Sauber in Valencia, Spain. The car had been specially adapted to have hand controls fitted on the steering wheel. After the drive Zanardi told the main problem he was having was using only his right hand to steer through corners, as his left operated the throttle. Zanardi was quoted as saying, "Of course, I know that I won't get a contract with the Formula One team, however having the chance to drive an F1 racer again is just incredible."
In 2007 he achieved 4th place in the New York City Marathon in the handcycle division, after only four weeks of training.
(Photo: maxzix74 via photopin cc)
He has since taken up handcycling in earnest, and competed at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships in 2009. He stated that he was targeting a place in the Italian team for the 2012 Summer Paralympics. In 2009 he won the Venice Marathon in the category for the disabled, riding his wheelchair in one hour, thirteen minutes, 56 seconds, and won the Rome City Marathon in 2010, in a time of one hour, fifteen minutes, 53 seconds. In 2011, at his fourth attempt, Zanardi won the New York City Marathon in his handcycling class.
On 5 September 2012, Zanardi won a gold medal in the men's road time trial H4 at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, finishing 27.14 seconds ahead of Nobert Mosandi.
(Photo: unpodimondo via photopin cc)
Two days later, he won the individual H4 road race, ahead of Ernst van Dyk (South Africa) and Wim Decleir (Belgium), and then a silver medal for Italy in the mixed team relay H1-4 on 8 September 2012. The bike used by Zanardi was constructed by Italian racecar constructor Dallara.
Before the games in London, he expressed interest in returning to auto racing for the 2013 Indianapolis 500, while this failed to pan out, at the event he was presented with his 1996 CART Laguna Seca-winning car by Target Chip Ganassi Racing.
In November 2012 Zanardi tested a BMW DTM touring car, completing 32 laps of the Nürburgring. He later admitted that the test had rekindled his interest in motor racing, and in January 2014 it was announced that he would return to motorsport in the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series season, racing a BMW Z4 GT3 for Ravaglia's ROAL Motorsport outfit.
(Photo: MJRoberts55 via photopin cc)
Blancpain GT Series - Roal MotorSport - Alex Zanardi.
In December 2012, Zanardi was named one of "The Men of the Year 2012" by Top Gear.
Zanardi completed the 2014 Ironman World Championship with a time of 9:47'14, ranking 272nd overall and 19th out of 247 in the 45–49 year category. He used a handbike for the cycling section and an Olympic wheelchair for the running section.
In September 2015 Zanardi announced that he would be taking part in the Berlin Marathon using a recumbent hand cycle.
At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro he won the gold medals in the H5 category road cycling men's time trial and mixed team relay, and also silver in the road race.
Zanardi has been married to Daniela since 1996, and they have a son, Niccolò. His sister Cristina was a promising swimmer until her death in an automobile collision in 1979. Zanardi is a longtime best friend of fellow driver Max Papis. He and Papis raced in Italy at numerous events such as carnivals and fairs. Zanardi is a devout Christian and sponsored Papis' sons, Marco and Matteo, as a godfather when they were baptized.
He has co-written two books based on his life, Alex Zanardi: My Story (2004) and Alex Zanardi: My Sweetest Victory (2004). Zanardi and his story have been featured on the HBO sports series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
The book Rapid Response: My Inside Story as a Motor Racing Life-Saver by Stephen Olvey. Foreword by Alex Zanardi and begins with a vivid description of Alex Zanardi’s crash in Germany in 2001, and from there the author reflects on his career with many tragic, funny, interesting stories. The book also provides an important history of the evolution of motorsport safety. Now available in paperback with an updated final chapter, this is the compelling story of the author’s life in motor racing, providing fascinating insight into crashes involving many famous racers and circuits.
Born in Bologna, Italy.
A 2-time CART FedEx Series Champion and former Formula One driver, more recently, he has attracted widespread praise for his return to competition in the aftermath of a crash in 2001 that resulted in the amputation of his legs. He returned to racing less than two years after the accident, competing in the FIA World Touring Car Championship for BMW Team Italy-Spain between 2003 and 2009.
Zanardi began racing karts at the age of 13. He built the kart from wheels used from a dustbin and pipes from his father's line of work. In 1988, he joined the Italian Formula 3 series with a fifth place as his highest finish. In 1989, Zanardi took two pole positions and three podiums despite suffering from his team switching to unleaded fuel which reduced the engine power in his car.
In 1991, he moved up to the Formula 3000 series with the Il Barone Rampante team, who were themselves newcomers to the series. Winning on his F3000 debut, he went on to score two more wins that season, en route to second in the championship. Zanardi had his first taste of Formula One at a test session at Paul Ricard where he drove a Footwork. By the end of that year, he had commenced his career in Formula One. Three starts for Jordan were his reward for a strong F3000 campaign.
For 1992 Zanardi had to be content with guest drives for Minardi, replacing the injured Christian Fittipaldi. In the off-season, he tested for Benetton, but contracted with Lotus for 1993.
In 1993, Zanardi compared reasonably to teammate Johnny Herbert and was important in fine-tuning the team's active suspension system, scoring his only F1 point at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Zanardi suffered an injury when an elderly motorist collided with his bicycle knocking him off and ran over Zanardi's left foot leaving several bones broken. Despite this, Zanardi raced in Germany but spun out. However, his season ended prematurely after he suffered a terrible crash during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix where he suffered a concussion.
Still injured, Zanardi missed the beginning of the 1994 season, but he returned in the Spanish Grand Prix, replacing Pedro Lamy, who had been hurt in a testing crash. However, that year's Lotus was highly unreliable, and Zanardi failed to score a single point or qualify higher than 13th. With Lotus Formula One having folded, Zanardi took time to race in Sports car racing. His first meeting was at a Porsche Supercup event at Imola. Zanardi later raced at a four-hour event at Donington Park where he and Alex Portman retired with eight minutes remaining despite leading by over a lap. The pair managed to finish 4th at a wet weather race at Silverstone.
During 1995, Zanardi went to the United States for a drive in the Champ Car series. He felt that finding a race seat would be easy with Formula One experience but no teams took any interest. However, Reynard Commercial Director Rick Gorne managed to secure Zanardi a test drive at Homestead with Chip Ganassi Racing. Zanardi officially signed a contract on 23 October 1995. The team's race engineer Mo Nunn advised Chip against signing him, as he believed Italian drivers were too prone to mistakes.
He rapidly became one of the series' most popular drivers. He took the pole for his second race, although his first win didn't come until mid-season. In total he won three races in his rookie season and five pole positions, finishing third in the championship behind team-mate Jimmy Vasser and Michael Andretti. He and Andretti were level on points but Andretti took second place by virtue of having five race wins to Zanardi's three. Zanardi was named Champ Racing "Rookie of the Year". He won the championship for Ganassi in both 1997 and 1998, bringing home twelve victories.
A win came at Laguna Seca for the final race of the 1996 season, where he conducted a highly risky overtaking move at the Corkscrew corner (known to many racing fans as "The Pass"; the maneuver was banned for future years), on race leader Bryan Herta, having fought his way through the field. After winning a race, Zanardi was fond of spinning his car around in tight circles, leaving circular donut-shaped patterns of tyre rubber on the track; this would eventually become a popular means of celebrating race wins all across America.
Zanardi's CART success caught the eye of Sir Frank Williams whom he made contact in 1997, to inform them he would be available for contract negotiations if needed. Williams visited Zanardi who signed a three-year contract in July 1998 which was publicly confirmed in September of that year. He began testing at the end of that year alongside test driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Zanardi also received offers from BAR and Honda.
In the 2000 season Zanardi was not signed for Formula One team, but was interested in a CART comeback. He tested for Mo Nunn in July at Sebring driving for 246 laps and opted to sign to the team for 2001, however he was not successful for the most part.
On September 15, 2001, in his most competitive race of the season, he suffered a violent accident on the Lausitzring in Germany. Zanardi started from the back of the grid and was gaining ground on his rivals. The crash occurred while Zanardi was leading the race in the closing laps. After a late pit stop, Zanardi was attempting to merge back onto the track when he accelerated abruptly and spun into the path of Patrick Carpentier. Carpentier was able to avoid him, but Alex Tagliani, who was just behind Carpentier at the time, could not and Zanardi's car was impacted from the side, behind the front wheel, severing the nose of the car. Zanardi lost both legs in the impact and nearly three-quarters of his blood volume, though rapid medical intervention saved his life. Further portions of his legs were amputated during three hours of surgery to clean and facilitate closing the wounds. This was the end of his open-wheel racing career.
Dissatisfied with the limitations of legs available commercially, Zanardi designed and built his own custom legs, to allow him to compare the weight and stiffness of various feet in order to find the ones most suitable for racing. In 2002, CART honoured Zanardi by giving him the privilege of waving the checkered flag in Toronto, Canada. In 2003, Zanardi was not only back behind the wheel, he was also racing again, with the aid of hand-operated brake and accelerator controls. He completed the final thirteen laps at the race track which had nearly killed him in 2001, and did so at highly competitive speeds approaching 310 km/h (193 mph). In fact, had he been qualifying for the race that weekend, he would have been fifth. It persuaded him that a race return was something to pursue.
Zanardi competed at Monza, Italy, in his first race since the accident in a touring car modified to allow the use of his prosthetic feet, finishing the race in seventh. In 2004, Zanardi returned to racing full-time, driving for Roberto Ravaglia's BMW Team Italy-Spain in the FIA European Touring Car Championship. The season did not see him score many points, but for 2005 matters were much improved, in a series which became the World Touring Car Championship by adding two non-European races. On 24 August 2005, Zanardi won his first world series race since his accident at Lausitzring. He had taken advantage of the championship's reverse grid system, in which by finishing the weekend's first race in 8th, a driver starts the second on pole. Still, Zanardi had held off attacks from several drivers, and celebrated his win with a series of trademark "donuts". He then finished the season strongly. He took further wins at Istanbul in 2006 and Brno in 2008 and 2009. At the end of the 2009 season he announced his retirement from the WTCC
Zanardi returned to a Formula One car in late November 2006 at a testing session for BMW Sauber in Valencia, Spain. The car had been specially adapted to have hand controls fitted on the steering wheel. After the drive Zanardi told the main problem he was having was using only his right hand to steer through corners, as his left operated the throttle. Zanardi was quoted as saying, "Of course, I know that I won't get a contract with the Formula One team, however having the chance to drive an F1 racer again is just incredible."
In 2007 he achieved 4th place in the New York City Marathon in the handcycle division, after only four weeks of training.
He has since taken up handcycling in earnest, and competed at the Para-Cycling Road World Championships in 2009. He stated that he was targeting a place in the Italian team for the 2012 Summer Paralympics. In 2009 he won the Venice Marathon in the category for the disabled, riding his wheelchair in one hour, thirteen minutes, 56 seconds, and won the Rome City Marathon in 2010, in a time of one hour, fifteen minutes, 53 seconds. In 2011, at his fourth attempt, Zanardi won the New York City Marathon in his handcycling class.
On 5 September 2012, Zanardi won a gold medal in the men's road time trial H4 at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, finishing 27.14 seconds ahead of Nobert Mosandi.
Two days later, he won the individual H4 road race, ahead of Ernst van Dyk (South Africa) and Wim Decleir (Belgium), and then a silver medal for Italy in the mixed team relay H1-4 on 8 September 2012. The bike used by Zanardi was constructed by Italian racecar constructor Dallara.
Before the games in London, he expressed interest in returning to auto racing for the 2013 Indianapolis 500, while this failed to pan out, at the event he was presented with his 1996 CART Laguna Seca-winning car by Target Chip Ganassi Racing.
In November 2012 Zanardi tested a BMW DTM touring car, completing 32 laps of the Nürburgring. He later admitted that the test had rekindled his interest in motor racing, and in January 2014 it was announced that he would return to motorsport in the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series season, racing a BMW Z4 GT3 for Ravaglia's ROAL Motorsport outfit.
(Photo: MJRoberts55 via photopin cc)
Blancpain GT Series - Roal MotorSport - Alex Zanardi.
In December 2012, Zanardi was named one of "The Men of the Year 2012" by Top Gear.
Zanardi completed the 2014 Ironman World Championship with a time of 9:47'14, ranking 272nd overall and 19th out of 247 in the 45–49 year category. He used a handbike for the cycling section and an Olympic wheelchair for the running section.
In September 2015 Zanardi announced that he would be taking part in the Berlin Marathon using a recumbent hand cycle.
At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro he won the gold medals in the H5 category road cycling men's time trial and mixed team relay, and also silver in the road race.
Zanardi has been married to Daniela since 1996, and they have a son, Niccolò. His sister Cristina was a promising swimmer until her death in an automobile collision in 1979. Zanardi is a longtime best friend of fellow driver Max Papis. He and Papis raced in Italy at numerous events such as carnivals and fairs. Zanardi is a devout Christian and sponsored Papis' sons, Marco and Matteo, as a godfather when they were baptized.
He has co-written two books based on his life, Alex Zanardi: My Story (2004) and Alex Zanardi: My Sweetest Victory (2004). Zanardi and his story have been featured on the HBO sports series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.
The book Rapid Response: My Inside Story as a Motor Racing Life-Saver by Stephen Olvey. Foreword by Alex Zanardi and begins with a vivid description of Alex Zanardi’s crash in Germany in 2001, and from there the author reflects on his career with many tragic, funny, interesting stories. The book also provides an important history of the evolution of motorsport safety. Now available in paperback with an updated final chapter, this is the compelling story of the author’s life in motor racing, providing fascinating insight into crashes involving many famous racers and circuits.
Alex Zanardi is an amazing person and a gifted racing driver, the fact that he survived is a testimonial to the quality of the medical team, that fact that he returned to driving testifies to the spirit of the man himself. BTW the book is excellent
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