Motorsport Week takes a look back at the remarkable career of Alex Zanardi, a man who must surely be remembered as one of motor racing’s most inspirational and heroic figures.
I woke up on the morning of Friday May 1st last week to the news that Alex Zanardi had passed away, at the age of 59. And immediately, I was transported back to a warm, sunny weekend in September 2001.
I had turned nine years of age just two weeks before, and we were on our annual summer holiday across Europe, which, this time, included detouring to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. The sea of red across the grandstands weren’t quite as rambunctious as I anticipated, neither was the sound of the airhorns that rippled through the Italian forest.
Earlier that week, two passenger planes had ploughed into the World Trade Center in New York, plunging the world into a state of zombie-like numbness, mixed with blind panic. It led to the emotions throughout Monza being different from the ones that usually are conveyed through the ‘Temple of Speed’, and on the day of qualifying, the motorsport community, already showing its sorrow with America through rejigged liveries and tokens of sympathy one way or another, was rocked further.
Some 600-odd miles away at the Lausitzring in Germany, Alex Zanardi was racing in the American Memorial, Round 16 of the CART Championship for Mo Nunn Racing. In contention for victory, he exited the pit lane with 12 laps of the race remaining, but squirted the throttle a little too early on cold tyres, sending his car into a lazy sideways drift onto the racing line. It planted his car into the path of Alex Tagliani, who had no time to react, and careened into the front of Zanardi’s car, sideways on.
Time seemed to stop, as if a pause button had been pushed on the whole of the circuit, the only moving things in that moment were the infinite shards and shreds of carbon fibre that showered onto the asphalt like coloured rain. Some accidents look far worse than the actual outcome – a driver can walk away with little more than a knock, bump or scratch. Conversely, an innocuous-looking shunt can result in something serious. In this case, there was no doubt – this was a major, major accident.
Zanardi was airlifted to hospital, having lost 75 percent of his blood and, after surgery, both his legs. The prognosis was grim. Like Niki Lauda at the Nurburgring 25 years before, the Last Rites were administered along with all forms of medical care.
But, just like Lauda, Zanardi hauled himself out of the Reaper’s hefty stronghold, and managed to survive.
From recovery to reintroduction to racing
Two years later, in a specially-adapted car with hand-controlled throttle, and sheer brute force from his hip to work the brake pedal, Zanardi completed the remaining laps he did not finish that day at the very same circuit. It proved to be a precursor to Part 2 of an already-impressive career.
2003 already saw that road being mapped out, with Zanardi beginning a three-year stint in European Touring Cars, which yielded four victories. He also secured a brief but special return to another old stomping ground – Formula 1 – to try out a BMW Sauber, also adapted to his needs.
But his next big success came in another form of wheel-based racing – handcycling. Four weeks after beginning his training, Zanardi finished fourth in the 2007 New York Marathon in the handcycling category, winning it four years later, having taken victories in the Venice and Rome equivalents in between.
It led to his participation in the London Paralympic Games for Italy in 2012. He came away from the competition with three medals – one silver [in a relay] and two golds in two differing road races, both of which culminated, fittingly, at Brands Hatch. The legend has it that the racing anoraks who knew of Zanardi within the circuit that day, chose to cheer for him, rather than the British entrants.
Four years later, another gold and another silver were the reward for his continuing and relentless efforts. Two years later, he broke the handcycling record in Italy’s Ironman competition, breaking that record the next year.
A year later, Zanardi was involved in another accident whilst on his bike. Colliding with a lorry, he suffered a new set of horrific injuries, which ended his second career, and ultimately enforced a withdrawal from public life.
Despite earning a fresh generation of people who followed him through his handcycling exploits, Zanardi’s two – although somewhat conjoined – careers have one running theme: success.
Although never quite able to find himself in the right place at the right time in F1, there was no doubting his speed, skill and courage, as those who followed single-seater racing across the Atlantic can testify.
His first year in CART saw him place third in the Drivers’ standings, setting two precedents. Not only was he credited with being the first driver to perform celebratory ‘donuts’ after a race, a manoeuvre at the notorious Corkscrew corner on Bryan Herta on the final lap at Laguna Seca was what saw a ban on overtaking at the corner from then on.
A stint with Lotus made up part of his career, but with Chip Ganassi in IndyCar was where he would make his mark
Known as ‘The Pass’, Zanardi took a mere matter of months to etch himself into Indy racing folklore, and still transcends as one of his most celebrated involvements in racing.
A year later, he was champion, and repeated the feat the next season, before being lured away for another crack at F1, but in just three years, wrote himself into the history books and effortlessly entered the minds of every racing fan in America, who were easily charmed by this diminutive little Italian who never seemed to stop smiling.
In fact, that smile never deserted him, even after losing pretty much half his body. Neither did that intoxicating lust for victory and competition, nor the ability to come out on top.
Racing drivers are often idolised, often for the wrong reasons other than just skills. It might be for their looks; the brands they’re paid to show off, the controversy they court. Alex Zanardi was idolised not just for being fast, but for being the epitome of courage, adaptability, as well as an unfathomable will to carry on, despite a myriad of obstacles that circumstance placed in his way. For he managed to be one of life’s winners, despite losing so much.
May he continue to be idolised in that regard, and be the eternal inspiration to never give up that history will surely make him.
READ MORE – Daniel Ricciardo drops racing return bombshell: ‘Never say never’
Discussion about this post