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. Zanardi finished two of them, both in 9th place. In 1992, 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.^[5] He later stated that in hindsight, he should have stayed on as the Benetton test driver as he would likely have been given a full-time drive for 1994 following Riccardo Patrese's retirement, where he would have been in a race-winning car alongside that year's world champion Michael Schumacher.^[7]

Zanardi driving for Lotus 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.^[5] Zanardi's season ended prematurely after he sustained a concussion as a result of a crash in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.^[6]

Still recovering, Zanardi missed the beginning of the 1994 season while he was working as a test driver for Lotus,^[8] 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.^[5]

With Lotus Formula One defunct, Zanardi practiced 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 rainy day race at Silverstone.^[5]

CART Championship series

Zanardi racing in Vancouver

During 1995, Zanardi went to the United States for a drive in the CART Series. He felt that finding a race seat would be easy with Formula One experience, but drew no interest from any team. However, Reynard Commercial Director Rick Gorne managed to secure Zanardi a test drive at Homestead with Chip Ganassi Racing. Zanardi 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.^[5]

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. Overall, he won three races in his rookie season and six pole positions, finishing third in the championship behind teammate Jimmy Vasser and Michael Andretti. He and Andretti were level on points but Andretti took second place by virtue of having five race wins compared to Zanardi's three.^[9] Zanardi was named Rookie of the Year.^[2]

A win came at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for the final race of the 1996 season, where he 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.^[10]

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. 1998 saw Zanardi 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.^[5]

After winning a race, Zanardi was fond of spinning his car around in tight circles, leaving circular doughnut-shaped patterns of tyre rubber on the track; this would eventually become a popular means of celebrating race wins all across America.^[5]

Return to Formula One

Zanardi driving for Williams at the 1999 Canadian Grand Prix

Zanardi's CART success caught the attention of Sir Frank Williams, with 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.^[11] He began testing at the end of that year alongside test driver Juan Pablo Montoya. Zanardi also received offers from BAR and Honda.^[12] In Australia, Zanardi was 9th 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 6th 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.^[5]

At Imola, his form improved with a start position of 10th. The race itself threw up a surprise for Zanardi. His car was suffering electronic issues and ran a steady 7th in the closing stages and ran over oil from Johnny Herbert's Stewart at the Villeneuve chicane and spun into the gravel. Zanardi out-qualified Schumacher at Monaco by over half a second. More drama occurred on race day as the seat in his Williams broke off during the early stages of the race but he managed to finish 8th and last of the runners. In Spain, despite setting the 5th-quickest lap in first free practice, a wrong set-up placed Zanardi 17th in qualifying. His car's gearbox seized after a pit stop. Similar problems occurred in Canada where Friday practice running was limited. Managing to out-qualify Schumacher, Zanardi's race was incident filled. Whilst running in 8th, he spun off into the gravel trap early on and dropped to last. Further time was lost when leaving the pit lane during a safety car period and receiving a stop-go penalty. A further excursion occurred when a maneuver on Luca Badoer's Minardi ended with Zanardi crashing out.^[5]

The wet qualifying for the French Grand Prix saw him qualify 15th after the Williams team misread conditions and aquaplaned during the race. At Silverstone, Zanardi qualified 13th and finished 11th. In Austria, he started 14th. In the first part of the race, Zanardi's radio communications failed and around lap 33, his team hung out pit boards, calling him in to pit, but a battle with Pedro Diniz distracted Zanardi, causing him to miss the board twice, and eventually ran out of fuel. Mechanical failures saw Zanardi with premature exits from the next two races before he finished eighth in Belgium.^[5]

Zanardi at a pre-Grand Prix test at Monza in 1999

In Monza, Zanardi qualified 4th ahead of teammate Ralf Schumacher. He overtook David Coulthard and Heinz-Harald Frentzen at the start. Frentzen took over 2nd from Zanardi at the Roggia chicane. On the third lap, the floor on the Williams became loose and he was forced to wave his rivals past, but managed to finish 7th. At the next round at the Nürburgring, Zanardi qualified in 18th, placing blame on traffic. He performed well at the start but had to take avoiding action when Alexander Wurz clipped Pedro Diniz. The incident left Zanardi in last position but he regained positions before his car succumbed to his engine stalling. The penultimate round in Malaysia had seen Zanardi start from 16th with a first-lap collision that damaged his front rim with a pit-stop preventing better progress. He later ran wide, which caused damage to the car radiators and prompted another pit-stop with Zanardi finishing 10th.^[5]

The final race of the season was in Japan, where he qualified 16th. In the race, Zanardi overtook many of his rivals, driving as high as 9th before his pit-lane limiter activated with the engine shutting off when he attempted to turn off the limiter on the first lap. At the end of the season, Zanardi and the Williams team decided to go their separate ways with an estimated cost of $4 million for the termination of Zanardi's contract.^[5]

CART return and Lausitzring crash

Zanardi at the 1998 CART grand prix in Laguna Seca

In the 2000 season Zanardi was not signed for a 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.^[5]

For most of the season, Zanardi had little success, with three top-ten finishes and a best result of fourth place in the 2001 Molson Indy Toronto. During the 2001 American Memorial at the EuroSpeedway Lausitz on 15 September 2001, Zanardi started from the back of the grid and was gaining the upper hand of the race. After a late pit stop, Zanardi on cold tires was attempting to merge back onto the track when he accelerated abruptly, lost control of his car, and spun onto the race track into the direct path of Patrick Carpentier. Carpentier was able to avoid him, but Alex Tagliani, who was just behind Carpentier at the time, was not, and Zanardi's car was blindsided from behind the front wheel, severing the nose of the car.^[13] 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.^[14][15]

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 67.5 kg (149 lb) lighter than the targa top version.^[32] 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 2000 onward, to reflect the colour of the car he drove for Chip Ganassi Racing.^[33]

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.^[52] 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 handbike 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.^[53] 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.^[54][55] In November 2020, Zanardi was transferred to a hospital in Padua, which was closer to his home to continue his recovery.^[56][57] 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.^[58] In January 2021, it was reported that Zanardi was able to speak again following a waking surgery.^[59][60] In December 2021, 18 months after the accident, he was able to return home, to continue his rehabilitation.^[61]

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)

Complete CART results

(key)

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – 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

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; results in italics indicate fastest lap)