Alessandro Zanardi
Or Alex, as he's commonly referred to in the States. Remember him?
He started off as a below-par F1 driver in the early 90's, for the then dying Lotus brand. After suffering a few pretty serious crashes, one of which broke his leg, he left F1 for the American Indycars series (or was it CART, I always get the two confused). Winning the championship twice, he triumphantly returned to F1 in 1999, signing a fat contract with the then not-so-dominant-anymore Williams team. Pairing up with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Alex failed to score a single point all season. He was obviously out of his depth.
So, back to the States it was. Alessandro picked up where he left off, scoring points and winning races. Until that fateful race at the Lausitzring in Germany, late 2001. If you can stomach it, the video can be viewed at the Tagesschau.de website.
The crash tore both of Alex' legs off. Doctors said he was within minutes of dying when he was brought in with severe blood loss. Alex did recover, though it was stated he would never race again.
How times can change - for the better!
Check out this story, on a Zanardi fan site.
Alex will race the entire 2004 season in the European Touring Cars championship, fielding a BMW 320i specially adapted for him.
He may not have been a good F1 driver, but he's earned my respect in other ways.
Good luck in 2004, Alex!
He started off as a below-par F1 driver in the early 90's, for the then dying Lotus brand. After suffering a few pretty serious crashes, one of which broke his leg, he left F1 for the American Indycars series (or was it CART, I always get the two confused). Winning the championship twice, he triumphantly returned to F1 in 1999, signing a fat contract with the then not-so-dominant-anymore Williams team. Pairing up with Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Alex failed to score a single point all season. He was obviously out of his depth.
So, back to the States it was. Alessandro picked up where he left off, scoring points and winning races. Until that fateful race at the Lausitzring in Germany, late 2001. If you can stomach it, the video can be viewed at the Tagesschau.de website.
The crash tore both of Alex' legs off. Doctors said he was within minutes of dying when he was brought in with severe blood loss. Alex did recover, though it was stated he would never race again.
How times can change - for the better!
Check out this story, on a Zanardi fan site.
Alex will race the entire 2004 season in the European Touring Cars championship, fielding a BMW 320i specially adapted for him.
He may not have been a good F1 driver, but he's earned my respect in other ways.
Good luck in 2004, Alex!