Alex Zanardi

Alessandro Leone Zanardi was born on 23 October 1966 in Bologna, the capital and largest city of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. His father, Dino Zanardi, was a plumber, while his mother, Anna, was a shirtmaker. His family moved to the suburb of Castel Maggiore when he was three years old. His sister, Cristina, was a promising swimmer prior to her death in an automobile collision in 1979. Zanardi began kart racing when he was 13 years old. He built his first kart from the wheels of a dustbin and pipes from his father's work as a plumber. He dominated the top class of the CIK-FIA European Championship in 1987, with victories in all five rounds. In 1991, he advanced to International Formula 3000 with Il Barone Rampante, themselves newcomers to the series. He won his debut F3000 race, scoring two more wins that season and finishing second in the championship to Christian Fittipaldi. ==Motor racing==

Formula One (1991–1994) After testing for the Footwork team, Zanardi mounted a strong season in F3000. Eddie Jordan looked to replace Roberto Moreno for the remainder of the 1991 season, bringing in Zanardi for the last three races at Jordan. Zanardi finished two of them, both in 9th place. In , however, Zanardi had to be content with guest drives for Minardi, replacing the injured Christian Fittipaldi. In the off-season, he tested for Benetton, but he contracted with Lotus for 1993. at the 1994 British Grand Prix. Zanardi compared reasonably to teammate Johnny Herbert in 1993 and was important in fine-tuning the team's active suspension system, scoring his only F1 point at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He was injured when an elderly motorist collided with his bicycle, knocking him down and running over Zanardi's left foot. Despite several broken bones, Zanardi raced in Germany, but he spun out and did not finish. but he returned in the Spanish Grand Prix, replacing Pedro Lamy, who had been injured in a testing crash. However, Lotus struggled in its final season in F1 and Zanardi failed to score a single point or qualify higher than 13th. For the races in Belgium and Portugal, Zanardi was replaced by Belgian pay driver Philippe Adams. Zanardi was named Rookie of the Year. A win came at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the final race of the 1996 season, where Zanardi conducted a highly risky overtake 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. Zanardi improved his form in CART in 1997, winning five of seventeen races, including three in a row and four of the five rounds held in the mid to late portion of the season en route to winning the Drivers' Championship. In 1998, Zanardi was even more dominant in his Ganassi Reynard-Honda, winning 7 of 19 races with an incredible 15 podiums in those 19 races. He won four races in a row in June and July en route to his second consecutive CART title, the third in a row for Ganassi and Honda, and the fourth for Reynard. This would eventually become a popular means of celebrating race wins all across the USA. He began testing at the end of that year alongside test driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Zanardi also received offers from BAR and Honda. In Australia, Zanardi was ninth quickest in the first free practice session but had limited track time due to reliability issues and traffic in qualifying meant he could only start 15th. He showed promise in the warm-up with sixth, but the race saw him crash out on lap 21. Moving on to Brazil, Zanardi once again experienced limited time on the track, which was mainly due to engine issues. He started 16th and retired with a differential failure. Zanardi also incurred a $5,000 fine for speeding in the pit lane. Zanardi lost both legs (one at and one above the knee) 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. ==Post-amputation racing==

Zanardi was fitted with two prosthetic limbs and began rehabilitating. In 2003, Zanardi was ready to take to the track again, with the aid of hand-operated brake and accelerator controls. Before the 2003 German 500 began, Zanardi ceremonially drove the thirteen laps he never finished at the Lausitzring in 2001. His fastest lap time of 37.487 seconds would have qualified him fifth in the actual race. in 2008 Zanardi competed at Monza, Italy in a round of the 2003 European Touring Car Championship, 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. In 2005, the series became the World Touring Car Championship by adding two non-European races. On 24 August 2005, Zanardi won his first world series race, celebrating with a series of trademark "donuts". 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. He took the 2005 Italian Superturismo Championship as organised by the Automobile Club d'Italia with eight victories from twelve races in a Team BMW Italy-entered BMW 320si run by ROAL Motorsport. 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 said that the main problem he was having was using only his right hand to steer through corners, as his left operated the throttle. Zanardi said, "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 November 2012, Zanardi tested a BMW DTM touring car, completing 32 laps of the Nürburgring. He later said 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 team. In 2018, he made a one-off appearance in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters, driving a BMW M4 DTM in the Misano round of the series. After qualifying in last place for both races, he finished 12th out of 13 finishers in the first race before placing fifth in the second race in mixed weather: after the race he said that as radio communication between drivers and the pits is banned in the DTM except when cars are in the pit lane, when his team told him of his fifth-place finish he initially believed it was a joke at his expense. Zanardi returned to American motor racing by entering the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona that January. Using a similar set of controls as the BMW M4 that he used in the DTM series, the GTLM-specification BMW M8 GTE had a special steering wheel that allowed him to actuate the accelerator with his left hand and shift with his right hand. Brakes were applied with a large handle with by his right hand. The brake handle also had a downshift trigger on it so he can still "engine brake" like his teammates John Edwards, Jesse Krohn and Chaz Mostert. The team finished 32nd overall and ninth in the GTLM category. ==Handcycling and triathlon==

After the injuries sustained from his 2001 racing accident, Zanardi decided to return to sport, taking up handcycling. In 2007, he achieved 4th place in the New York City Marathon in the handcycle division, after only four weeks of training. He took 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 disabled people, riding his wheelchair in a time of 1:13:56, and won the Rome City Marathon in 2010, in a time of 1:15:53. 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 at Brands Hatch in Kent. 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. As a result, Zanardi was named one of "The Men of the Year 2012" by Top Gear. Zanardi was also voted the best male athlete of the 2012 Paralympics. Before the Games in London, Zanardi 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. s and 12 world championships in para-cycling. 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 handcycle for the cycling section and a racing 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. On 22 September 2018, competing in Ironman Italy Emilia-Romagna 2018 Cervia, Italy, Zanardi broke the Ironman world record in the handcycle (HC) division, with a time of 8:26:06. With that time, he also ranked fifth overall in the competition. He competed again in 2019 and improved his time 8:25:30, finishing 8th overall. 2020 cycling accident On 19 June 2020, Zanardi was involved in a serious accident while competing in the Obiettivo tricolore Italian national road race for paralympic athletes. The accident occurred on State Highway 146 between Pienza and San Quirico. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Zanardi was descending down a hill when he lost control of his handcycle and veered into an oncoming truck, leading to severe facial and cranial trauma. Emergency services attended the scene after other competitors helped to raise the alarm, and Zanardi was airlifted to the Santa Maria alle Scotte Hospital in Siena. He was treated in intensive care for serious head injuries. In September 2020, it was reported that Zanardi was showing signs of interaction but that his condition remained "serious", and that he had undergone several surgeries to reconstruct his face. In November 2020, Zanardi was transferred to a hospital in Padua, which was closer to his home to continue his recovery. In December 2020, it was reported that Zanardi regained his sight and hearing; he could also respond non-verbally to questions and shake hands on demand. In January 2021, it was reported that Zanardi was able to speak again following a waking surgery. In December 2021, 18 months after the accident, he was able to return home in order to continue his rehabilitation. In July 2022, Zanardi was hospitalised after a fire broke out at his home in Italy due to a defect in his home's solar panels which damaged medical equipment he used while recovering from the handcycling crash. He was released back to his home 76 days later in September. ==Personal life==

In 1996, Zanardi married Daniela Manni, with whom he had a son. Zanardi and his story have been featured on the HBO sports series Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Zanardi wrote the opening chapters for the books of Steve Olvey, the former CART medical director, including Rapid Response: My Inside Story as a Motor Racing Life Saver. He also started his own brand of go-karts in collaboration with CRG in 2004, which has won four CIK-FIA World Championships and three CIK-FIA European Championships, including Nyck de Vries's back-to-back KF1 World Championships in 2010 and 2011. Zanardi Edition NSX The Alex Zanardi Edition Acura NSX was introduced in 1999 for the U.S. market to commemorate Zanardi's two back-to-back CART championship wins for Honda in 1997 and 1998. The car features revised suspension, as well as a fixed roof, lightweight BBS wheels, single-pane rear glass, a lightweight rear spoiler, manual steering, and a lighter battery, making it lighter than the targa top version. Only 51 examples were ever built, and all were painted in the newly introduced New Formula Red Color Code: R-510 which subsequently replaced Formula Red Color Code: R-77 in all markets from the year 2000 onward, to reflect the colour of the car he drove for Chip Ganassi Racing. Death Zanardi died aged 59 at his home in Padua on 1 May 2026. In an obituary for Formula One, the British racing journalist David Tremayne (also a friend of Zanardi), described him as "a hero of the highest calibre". Andrew Benson of BBC Sport called him "a 21st century hero. A man who inspired millions through his unquenchable spirit in the face of unbelievable adversity. An icon of two different sports." The Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni called him "a great champion and an extraordinary man, capable of turning every trial of life into a lesson in courage, strength and dignity". Condolences were expressed by industry executives such as Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali, FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, Chip Ganassi Racing founder Chip Ganassi, Ferrari president John Elkann, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, Williams team principal James Vowles, and McLaren CEO Zak Brown, as well as several fellow Williams alumnus, including World Drivers' Champion Mario Andretti, World Drivers' Champion Damon Hill, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, and Carlos Sainz Jr. A moment of silence was observed at the , in the GT World Challenge Europe, and all Italian Serie A football fixtures that weekend. Mercedes, Ferrari, and Williams ran liveries with "Ciao, Alex" () emblems in Miami. Kimi Antonelli dedicated his pole position to Zanardi. == Awards and honours ==

• Autosport Gregor Grant Award: 1998, 2003 • Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year: 2005 • Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee: 2013 • Gazzetta Legend Award: 2015 • Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame inductee: 2022 Orders and special awards • • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic: 2014 • • Commander of the Order of Saint Agatha: 2019 • Italian National Olympic Committee • Golden Collar of Sports Merit: 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019 • Silver Medal of Athletic Valour: 1987, 1990 • Bronze Medal of Athletic Valour: 1985 ==Racing record==

Racing career summary † As Zanardi was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points. Complete International Formula 3000 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Complete Formula One results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Did not finish but was classified, as he completed more than 90% of the race distance. Complete CART results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Complete International Race of Champions results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; * indicates most laps led) Complete World Touring Car Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Complete Blancpain Sprint Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) † As Zanardi was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points. Complete WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) == Notes ==