A true champion

Zanardi: Well-liked throughout motor racing

Alex Zanardi's motor racing career ended on Saturday in a horrific accident that has cost him both his legs.

It is a final tragedy for a man who, for three years in the late 1990s, dominated his competition.

Before his career slowed with a return to Formula One with Williams in 1999, the Italian had assured himself of a place among the all-time greats of the US-based Cart series.

Zanardi's aggressive driving style and spectacular overtaking moves made him a star of the Champ Car series and won him two titles with Chip Ganassi's Target team.

Zanardi talking tactics with his mechanic

In 1997 Zanardi became only the second man, after Jacques Villeneuve, to take the Cart championship the season after being named rookie of the year.

A record five victories, including an incredible win from 22nd place in Cleveland, secured a first title, and Zanardi was even stronger the following season.

Records continued to tumble in 1998 as the Target driver took seven races, 15 podium finishes and became only the third driver to win back-to-back championships.

It was a dramatic turnaround in Zanardi's career.

He had left F1 quietly in 1994 after a few years with unfancied teams, and was scratching around Europe for drives in sportscar races before he was given a test by Ganassi at the end of 1995.

Zanardi's form on the track in the next three years made a call from Europe inevitable, but a move to the Williams team was ill-starred from the outset.

The Italian certainly deserved a second chance after spending over a decade paying his dues on his way up through the ranks.

Zanardi spent seven years in karting, three in Formula Three, and one in Formula 3000 before reaching the highest level for the first time in 1991.

Zanardi in action before his crash

He raced briefly for Jordan at the end of that season, and then impressed as a test driver with Benetton in 1992, when he also made three starts for Minardi after race driver Christian Fittipaldi was injured.

In 1993 Zanardi joined the struggling Lotus team, where he captured his first championship points with sixth place in Brazil.

But a serious accident at the Belgian Grand Prix kept Zanardi out of action for some time. He rejoined the team in 1994, but Lotus folded at the end of the year.

His return to F1 in 1999 seemed to give him the chance to prove what many had always felt was a special talent.

Williams were attracted by the aggressive style that had won Zanardi his titles in America.

But for some reason Zanardi struggled to adapt to the technical changes that had happened in F1 in the intervening years and had a disappointing season.

Williams technical director Patrick Head admitted Zanardi had been unfortunate with poor reliability.

"We have let Alex down more often than he has let us down," Head said midway through the 1999 season.

But the team were also disappointed with his performances and the two parties split at the end of that year, the first of a three-year contract.

Pressure to retire

Zanardi spent a year off in 2000 enjoying time with his wife Daniela and new son Niccolo, who was born in 1999.

There was pressure on him to retire, having made millions once he resurrected his career.

But the lure of racing was too strong, and he could not resist the attempt to re-establish himself with the team run by Mo Nunn, who had been his race engineer at Ganassi.

For some reason, though, Zanardi could not recapture the form that had seen him dominate the Cart series, and he had struggled for most of this season at the back of the grid.

Electrifying performances

The spark that had made him such a fearsome competitor seemed to be gone - even though, through a terrible irony, he was leading the race in Germany when he had his accident.

There was speculation that he would find himself without a drive at the end of the year

For all those who had seen his electrifying performances with Ganassi, that was sad in itself.

But all of motor racing will be touched by the terrible injuries suffered by a charming man and talented driver who is well-liked throughout the sport.