Alessandro Zanardi has died. The Italian racer, 59, whose competitiveness in everything he did could never be questioned, succumbed 1 May to the injuries he’s suffered over the years. In both this driving and paracycling endeavors, Zanardi was always looking for that extra inch. Relentlessly he probed for the opening, that last millimeter that would move him forward to victory.
Zanardi’s biggest successes in car racing came with Chip Ganassi Racing in CART competition, a team he joined in 1996 over the objections of the man who would become his crew chief and, later, car owner,
Morris Nunn. Nunn believed Italian drivers were too reckless and couldn’t conserve their emotions. Alex Zanardi proved him right in many ways, but Zanardi was a winner. Even with his emotions visible, he could find that opening and take that win.
The most striking victory in Zanardi’s CART years came at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in central California; this was his first year with Chip Ganassi Racing. It was the final race of the 1996 season and Zanardi wanted the checkered flag. On the last lap of the season, he passed Bryan Herta in the track’s notorious Corkscrew turns – in the dirt – to take the win, deny Herta and share the glory with his teammate Jimmy Vasser, who earned the champion’s title that day as Zanardi snatched the controversial victory, his third in a successful Rookie of the Year campaign.
The Pass became legendary and was immediately outlawed. That didn’t matter because it became a leit motif for Alex Zanardi. It showed his passion and will, two parts of Zanardi that were with him until he passed. Zanardi’s date of death is one he will share with another Formula One driver whose passion for the sport defined him. Ayrton Senna died while racing in F1 at Imola, Italy on 1 May 1994.
Zanardi earned a pair of CART championship titles after his rookie season, in both 1997 and 1998. There were donuts to enjoy, press conferences that were so interesting and filled with fun that writers who never showed up for post-race pressers were always around when Zanardi won another race as he swept to 15 victories over three seasons before returning to Formula One with Winfield Williams.
Zanardi’s original crew chief at Chip Ganassi Racing, Morris Nunn started his own team in 2001 with Zanardi and Tony Kanaan. The Brazilian’s results were far better than his mentor, and the lack of wins dwelled with the Italian. And likely were part of the cause of his first life-changing accident.
The accident at EuroSpeedway Lausitzring, Germany, on 15 September 2001, that cost Zanardi his legs – he exited quickly from the pits and vaulted up the oval track, coming in contact with Alex Tagliani – was devastating to the driver in his second CART/Champ Car run. Without the care from CART’s medical team that saved his life, Zanardi would never have been able to complete those 13 final laps he missed two years later, with a hand-controlled Champ Car or become the Olympian he was in paracycling, using hand controls as he did racing cars.
The moment the news of his passing rang out, the tributes began, starting with Ganassi’s team, which noted on Instagram that Zanardi was a “Champion. Fighter. Friend. Alex Zanardi was relentless in pursuit, fearless in spirit and unmatched in heart. His legacy reached far beyond the track as an inspiration to many. To us, he was family. Rest in peace, Alex.” With IMSA racing at Laguna Seca the weekend of Zanardi’s death, Jimmy Vasser, on-site to support his Vasser Sullivan GTD PRO Lexus team said, “Yesterday I went to the Corkscrew after hearing I lost one of my dearest friends in life. The flood of emotions and memories I encountered there will be with me forever. Godspeed Dear Alex.”
During his pair of tenures in CART and Champ Car, Zanardi’s exploits became traditions. When he won a race, he’d celebrate by performing “donuts” in a turn on a track; the team’s public relations expert would tender baked donuts to the media in celebration. Less than a year after losing his legs in Germany, Zanardi climbed to the starter’s stand at Toronto to begin the 2002 race there; Zanardi became an ambassador for German auto manufacturer BMW and drove for the brand in both World Touring Car and IMSA competition, successfully competing at the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona, finishing ninth in the GTLM class.
Once he realized he could perform well in hand-cycling on an international basis, that was the next goal: to earn prizes in another kind of competition. In the Paraolympics, Alex Zanardi was, once again a star. He was a fierce competitor pettier in hand-cycling and he became a six-time paralympic medalist.
That brought Zanardi his second, major accident. In June of 2020, he as competing in a road race for paralympic athletes in Italy, Zanaardi was descending a downhill when he lost control of the bicycle. Zanardi veered into an oncoming truck, suffering severe facial and cranial trauma that saw him airlifted to a viable hospital in vegetative state. Transferred in November to Padua, closer to the Bologna home he shared with Daniela and Nico, his wife and son, Zanardi began to show improvement and was able to speak again in January of 2021. He had been completing further rehabilitation at his home.
No doubt, Alex Zanardi gave all he had to rehab but it wasn’t enough and now he is gone. As former driver and INDYCAR officiate Max Papis, who had been Zanardi’s friend since Papis was 14 reminded, as he haltingly praised the godfather of his children, “Alex was my hero and the inspiration for many. [He was] an example of tenacity and will on the side of GOD. ALEX, you will be in our Hearts and Memories forever.”
Barry Wanser, the race strategist for [now] four-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou, who drives with Chip Ganassi Racing recalled, “Alex was more than a champion – he was a force of spirit that changed everyone around him. As a teammate, he brought intensity, humor, and a kind of quiet strength that made you want to be better, not just on the track but as a person. I will never forget the impact he had on me as the first open wheel driver I worked with when I started with the team in 1997. RIP”
While Zanardi only had two short stints with a variety of mid-pack teams in Formula One, he made a tremendous impact in that community as well. F1’s 1996 champion, Damon Hill knew Zanardi well. “He had far too much bad luck in his life, I feel, for someone who was so passionate and indomitable. He showed what he was made of when he came back after losing his legs, competing in the Paralympics and all the other competitions he did. As an individual, he was extraordinary. He seemed like he had that classic Italian enthusiasm for everything he did, which was impressive.”
AMG-Mercedes’ chief Toto Wolff had great admiration for the Italian: “In motor racing, we talk a lot about courage. Every now and then you meet someone who truly defines what that means. Alex Zanardi was that person… I admired Alex’s skills behind the wheel… what he achieved after his accident was even more inspiring, though. He showed that even when life challenges you, it does not have to define you. That adversity can be overcome with humility, humor and optimism. His example will continue to inspire and act as reminder of what true courage really looks like.”
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