Home > Alex Zanardi

Zanardi began racing karts at any early age, as have many successful open-wheel drivers. In 1988, he joined the Italian Formula 3 series, becoming a championship contender by 1990. In 1991, he moved up to the Formula 3000 series with the Il Barone Rampante team, who were themselves newcomers to the series. Zanardi won the first race in which he competed, one of three victories that seasonIn an organized sport league, a season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session. For example, in Major League Baseball, one season last approximately from April to September. for him. He had good pace and understood his car's behavior very well, allowing him to provide valuable setup feedback to his engineers. Placing second in that yearA year is the time between two recurrences of an event related to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun. By extension, this can be applied to any planet: for example, "Martian year". Seasonal year A seasonal year is the time between successive recurrences's championship, he also made his Formula One debut that year with Jordan Grand PrixGiancarlo Fisichella driving for the Jordan Grand Prix team at Indianapolis in 2002 Jordan Grand Prix is a Formula One racing team that debuted in 1991. The team is named after Irish-born owner Edmund "Eddie" Jordan. Jordan had a brief stint as a race dri for the final two races of the season.

The charismatic Zanardi was out of a job for most of 19921992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday. Events January January The Internet Society is formed. January 1 Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Perez de Cuellar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General January 1 George H. Bush becomes the fi, however, spending time as a replacement driver at MinardiMinardi is a automobile racing team, founded in 1979 by Giancarlo Minardi. It has competed in the Formula One World Championship since 1985, though with little success. Despite this, it has a small but loyal following of fans. Since it started racing in F in his first full F1 season. He had no success at Minardi, mostly due to a slow car rather than anything else. In the off-season, he tested for the BenettonJohnny Herbert driving for Benetton in 1995 Benetton Formula Ltd. commonly referred to as just Benetton was a Formula One racing team that participated from 1986 to 2001. The team was owned by the Benetton family who ran a worldwide chain of clothing stor team, but contracted with Lotus for 1993. Zanardi was just as fast as his teammate ( Johnny Herbert) and was important in fine-tuning the team's active suspension system, scoring his first ever F1 point at the Brazilian Grand Prix. However, his season ended prematurely after he sufferred a terrible crash during practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Still injured, Zanardi missed the beginning of the 1994 season, but he returned in the Spanish Grand Prix, replacing the injured Pedro Lamy. However, his Lotus was highly unreliable, and Zanardi failed to score a single point. When Lotus' F1 effort collapsed at the end of the year, Zanardi spent a brief time in sportscars in 1995.

In 1996, Zanardi made the switch to Champcars (then called "CART"), earned a race seat at the Ganassi team, soon becoming one of the series' most popular drivers. He won three races in his rookie season, finishing second in the championship and being named named Champcar rookie of the year. He would win the championship for Ganassi racing in both 1997 and 1998, bringing home twelve victories. After winning a race, Zanardi was fond of spinning his car around in tight circles, leaving "donuts" of tire rubber on the track; this would eventually become a popular means of celebrating race wins all across America.

Zanardi's Champcar success caught the eye of Sir Frank Williams, who inked him to a three-year contract in 1999. In pre-season testing, he was fast; however, everything went downhill from there. Alex had no success in his F1 return, being consistently outpaced by teammate Ralf Schumacher. After failing to score a single championship point the entire season, Zanardi's contract was terminated after just one year; he was replaced by Briton Jenson Button.

Zanardi rejoined the Champcar series in 2001, driving for Mo Nunn's racing team, meeting with little success. Tragically, his open-wheel racing career ended at the Lausitzring EuroSpeedway near Brandenburg, Germany in September, when he was involved in a horrifying crash with Alex Tagliani; the near-fatal collision cost Zanardi both legs, amputated below the knee.

Always a fighter, Zanardi was fitted with two prosthetic limbs and began an ambitious rehabilitation program. In 2002, Champcars honored 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 "pedals". He completed the final thirteen laps at the race track which nearly killed him, and did so at highly competitive speeds approaching 145 MPH.

Zanardi raced again at Monza, Italy, in a sportscar modified to allow the use of his prosthetic feet, finishing the race quite impressively in seventh. In 2004, Zanardi returned to racing full-time, driving for BMW in the FIA European Touring Car Championship.

Zanardi has been married to wife Daniella (nee Manni) since 1996, and they have a son, Niccolo. He has co-written two books based on his courageous life, Alex Zanardi: My Story ( 2004) and Alex Zanardi: My Sweetest Victory ( 2004).