| BEFORE FORMULA ONE | ||
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1980-87
Consistent winner, took it to Schumacher |
Without a doubt, popular Italian Alessandro Zanardi is the driver with the highest profile of those we have featured so far, and are likely to feature in the future. Born on 23 October, 1966, in Castelmaggiore near Bologna, he only needed two points from his season with
Williams in 1999 to escape inclusion here, but, as we all know, he failed to score any.
The sad thing is that this guy was truly talented, and his results elsewhere consistently back that up. Racing karts from 1980 to 1984, in 1985 and 1986 he was Italian karting champion, and in 1987 he was European Southern Zone champion, but lost the European Championship final to Michael Schumacher.He was en route to kicking Schumi's back side in that race until being punted off in a kamikaze last lap effort by Massimiliano Orsini, whose father then ungraciously proceeded to run out onto the track and kick Zanardi in the back. |
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1988-90
Struggles in F3, but comes out on top at Le Mans |
1988 saw Zanardi jump straight into Italian F3, and it proved to be a tough initiation. Driving for Mario Coperchini's team in a Dallara, he came 14th in the series. A year later he improved to 7th, but would have been higher had it not been for a switch to unleaded petrol midyear which reduced power output from his Toyota engine.
But he came good in 1990, taking two wins before just losing the title to Roberto Colciago. That year he also won the FIA F3 European Cup at Le Mans, took pole at Monaco and came 7th at Macau. |
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1989-91
Stunning 2nd in F3000 in rookie year |
In 1989 Zanardi had already made his F3000 debut for Roberto Fameti's Automotor team, coming an inauspicious 16th at Dijon. But in 1991 he spent his first full season in that category with the new Il Barone Rampante team.
Though he took two wins at Vallelunga and Mugello, he suffered bad luck elsewhere, and eventually lost the championship by 5 points to Christian Fittipaldi. |
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| FORMULA ONE, part I | ||
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1991 Jordan Eddie Jordan acts quickly when Moreno deal sours |
However, before 1991 was out, Zanardi's talent had been noticed by one of the best talent scouts around, Eddie Jordan, and the Italian managed to beat Fittipaldi into F1. 1991 was of course
Jordan's sensational debut year in F1, when their 191 chassis caused such a stir. It was also Jordan who brought Michael Schumacher into F1 at Spa, only for Benetton to poach him immediately and give the hapless
Roberto Moreno in return.
Jordan really didn't have a clue what to do with Moreno, and the Brazilian understood that he didn't figure in the Irishman's plans. As a result, for the last three races of the 1991 season, Moreno was released and Zanardi was brought in as Andrea de Cesaris' team-mate. In those three events he proved to be something of a revelation himself. |
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1991-92
Makes waves in first F1 races, Benetton hires him |
Though he qualified only 20th in Spain, he brought the car home 9th, recording the 8th fastest race lap. He had a gearbox failure in Japan, but not before he had been 7th quickest in untimed practice and had run as high as 4th in the race. Then in the pouring Adelaide rain, he stayed on the track and was classified 9th, but more importantly had set the 5th fastest race lap.
This was more than enough to impress the big teams, and for 1992, even though he couldn't find a race seat, Zanardi got the job as Benetton test driver. He would be the unsung hero behind the B192 driven so effectively by Schumacher and Martin Brundle. But half way through the season, he did get a chance to race when Minardi asked him to replace Fittipaldi (ironically enough) who had been hurt in a practice accident in France. |
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1992 Minardi DNQs more indication of the car than the driver, moves to Lotus |
The Minardi with the Lamborghini engine was a difficult enough proposition for team-mate
Gianni Morbidelli as it was, and Zanardi had virtually no time to get used to the car. It was of little surprise, then, that he failed to qualify in Britain and Hungary, while he made it onto the grid at Hockenheim in 24th spot before succumbing to gearbox problems. This brief stint in no way did justice to his ability; his only bright spark in 1992 would be to win the GT2 class in a British Racing Production Series race at
Silverstone.
But 1993 looked much brighter. With Mika Hakkinen leaving Lotus to join McLaren having already done the bulk of the development work on the Lotus 107, Zanardi filled the spot for the 1993 season alongside Johnny Herbert. He could now look forward to some competitive running in midfield, challenging for the odd point. |
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1993 Lotus Clearly fast, but runs consistently midfield |
Yet at the start of the season he grabbed headlines for the wrong reasons. At Kyalami, where
Damon Hill was making his Williams debut, the Englishman spun at the first corner and had to fight his way back through the pack. Zanardi then proceeded to take an ill-fated lunge at the Williams, resulting in both cars finishing up in the sand-trap. He redeemed himself at Interlagos, though, where he brought the his Ford-powered 107B home in 6th to score a point (the only one of his career).
This was followed by two races in a row where Zanardi recorded the 4th-fastest race lap. For all this promise, though, the rest of his 1993 season would prove to be a disappointment. He was outpaced by Herbert and languished in midfield. Some finishes, including a 7th at Monaco, were followed by a series of mechanical failures, especially in the suspension area. |
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1993
Eau Rouge smash ends the year, replaced by Lamy |
His season was brought to a premature end, though, in a horrifying smash in practice at Spa. At Eau Rouge, his car plunged head-on into the armco at speed. Not that long ago he would never have survived such an impact, but he managed to escape with only concussion.
But his season was done, and he was replaced by Pedro Lamy. He ended the season in joint 20th place, and he said of his recovery: "in the four months of physical and mental recovery, I understood that a car needs to be respected." |
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1994 Lotus Races toward the back as Lotus goes down the gurgler |
Perhaps Zanardi would have been disappointed by the fact that Lamy was chosen to drive alongside Herbert in the Lotus/Mugen in 1994. But this was, of course, the year of disaster, when massive accidents befell
Alesi, Lehto,
Verstappen, Barrichello,
Ratzenberger,
Senna,
Wendlinger, and, eventually, Lamy in testing at Silverstone. The Portuguese driver's legs were smashed, and Zanardi was brought back into the team.
But as has been well documented, this was also the year of the sad story of Lotus' decline into oblivion as money ran short, and both chassis and engine failed to deliver. As a result, Zanardi turned out fairly unnoticeably, usually qualifying and racing towards the back. His best race of the year was his return in Spain, where he finished 9th. He would also suffer a few engine failures and get caught up in first lap incidents in Germany and Italy. |
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1994
Replaced by Adams - then becomes team leader! |
In fact, the financial situation was so dire that he was replaced by Philippe Adams in both Belgium and Portugal. Improvements at Monza (which saw Herbert qualify 4th) gave Zanardi a temporary boost, but it was false hope.
After Herbert left the team, the Italian assumed the role as team leader beside first Eric Bernard and then Mika Salo, but could do little to arrest the team's slide. The season ran out, the money ran out, and, without an F1 drive in 1995, it looked like Zanardi's F1 career had run out as well. |
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| BETWEEN FORMULA ONE | ||
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1995-96
New lease of life in the US follows stint in sports cars |
Sticking with the Lotus brand, though, the only thing left on Zanardi's plate was to drive a Lotus sports car in the BPR Global GT series, sharing it with Alex Portman. Results were few and far between, with only one 4th place being a highlight, before he got the break of his life when American racer-turned-owner Chip Ganassi offered him a top Indy car drive for 1996.
Without hesitation Zanardi headed to the USA, replacing Michael Andretti in the team, driving a Reynard/Honda alongside Jimmy Vasser. By the second race he had slapped the car on pole in Rio, but it took him a while to get up to speed in the races. Accidents and mechanical failures in the first half of the season didn't help. |
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1996-97
Dominant display as he becomes champion in just his 2nd year |
But it all clicked at Portland when he took pole and won. In the last 8 races, he would not qualify outside the front row, and was on the podium 6 times including 3 wins. At the final round at Laguna Seca, he made a breathtaking dive beneath Bryan Herta to take the win on the last lap. These results saw him 3rd in the title behind Vasser, and end up as rookie of the year. Automobile magazine in America even nominated him for 'man of the year'.
By his own admission, Zanardi had become "an idol to the Americans".Staying in the same team for 1997, he would end up scoring 195 points to become champion. In the process he took 4 poles and 5 wins. Only a mid-season slump prevented him from being even more dominant, but at one stage took 4 wins and a 2nd in a 5-race trot. |
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1997
Triumphant year, to which he adds a bit of character |
1997 was also the year when he became the 'donut king'. After victory at Long Beach, he proceeded to do doughnuts on the track, which would become his victory trademark. Furthermore, it was the year when he adopted the pineapple as his personal symbol, since, he claimed, it represented stubborn people, of which he was one. For all this, it was not surprising that he picked up the 'Colourful Character Award' at the California 500.
Throughout 1997 he also spiced up his life by doing some IROC races unsuccessfully, and at the end of the season actually rank Frank Williams to remind him he was around and available. But sticking to Indy in 1998, staying with Ganassi, he would have his best ever season, where his reputation for being a fantastic driver and racer was (temporarily) cemented. |
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1998
Record breaking year sees idol Alex blitz the US |
Let the statistics speak for themselves. In 19 races he only finished 4 outside the podium, despite not taking pole all season. His 7 wins included four in a row. He clinched the title in record time, and his eventual margin of 285 points to team-mate Vasser's 169 was a record in itself.
In 51 Indy car starts he had scored 28 podiums. It is something of an understatement, then, when he says that his time in America was "very, very constructive for [his] race driving career". |
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| FORMULA ONE, part II | ||
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1999 Williams It all starts to unravel |
With this impressive resume, Frank Williams was quick to snap him up for 1999 alongside Ralf Schumacher. Knowing that his Supertec engine was down on power and development compared to the Ferrari and Mercedes powerplants (up to 60 horsepower at some tracks), realistically Zanardi hoped for podiums. The Italian was signed for 3 years as unofficial team leader, and his return to F1 was much hyped.
Of course we know what happened next. Simply but mysteriously, Zanardi just never got to grips with his car, at one stage even trying prehistoric steel brakes, while Ralf in the other car wrestled his way to 11 points finishes and 35 points. Poor performances in the opening two races by Zanardi were not aberrations but signs of things to come. |
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1999
Not quite a blaze of glory |
A blow-by-blow account isn't necessary. Only once in the first 11 races did Zanardi qualify in the top ten, and only three times did he finish in these races, in 11th in San Marino and Britain, and 8th at Monaco. He spun off four times, and inexcusably ran out of fuel in Austria. He also had three differential failures. While Ralf wasn't much better in qualifying, it was their performances in the race that made all the difference.
Only by reverting to left-foot braking did Zanardi improve. He qualified and finished 8th in Belgium, before a fine effort in Italy saw him qualify 4th and finish 7th. He could have been higher (Ralf finished 2nd) had he not let a few drivers by whom he felt he had been holding up. But this hope was reduced to dust in the last three races, where he qualified lower than ever. He crashed at the Nurburgring, and at Suzuka he retired with electrical problems on the opening lap. |
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1999
Inexplicible loss in form - why? |
What went wrong? Well, nobody really knows, but there were several factors. Firstly, he had switched from grippy, muscly Indy cars to these new gripless, twitchy F1 cars. Secondly, the FW21 chassis really was not the best, and was particularly unstable under braking, the area in which Zanardi excelled so much in America. Thirdly, compared to Ralf, he had much more mechanical failures - by season's end it was 6 to 1.
Though Williams still had him under contract over the 1999/2000 off-season, by the fact he had no testing with the new BMW engine, it was clear that Zanardi was no longer wanted. And so it turned out to be; on the day of the launch of the FW22, 20 year old Jenson Button, with only 2 years of car racing experience behind him, was confirmed as his replacement. |
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| AFTER FORMULA ONE | ||
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2000
Racing future is uncertain |
Where to for Alessandro from here? His Formula One career has been buttoned up, frankly speaking, and a return to America would be risky. His reputation has been battered, and if he did return to Champ Cars, he would have to square up against his replacement in the Ganassi team.
This just happens to be Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, the man Williams swapped him with. The problem is that Montoya, in his rookie season, did as well if not better than Zanardi, and walked off with the title at his first go. |
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Personal
Pineapple man's career a Candle in the Wind |
On a personal note, Zanardi lives in Monte Carlo, and is 1.77 metres tall, weighing 70 kg. He is married to Daniela, Il Barone Rampante's team manager from 1991, and has a son, Niccolo. His hobbies include model aircraft, fishing, navigation and skiing, while his favourite music is rock, and his favourite singers Elton John and Dire Straits. He likes coffee and his mother's pasta. He himself owns a BMW M5, a Honda CRV and a Honda NSX.
He has his own web-site at www.alex-zanardi.com, where he talks about his professional career and his non-racing passions. He has a weird section on the sensations of being in and out of a racing car, and he has a diary from his disastrous 1999 as well as a fanclub. There are also many pictures on the site. |
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