![](\"https:\/\/www.grandprix.com\/display\/photo?photo_caption=Alex+Zanardi%2C+Spanish+GP+1991&photo_copyright=%C2%A9+The+Cahier+Archive&photo_url=https%3A%2F%2Fphotos.grandprix.com%2Fjpeg%2Fphc%2FZanardi-1991-Spain-01-PHC-lg.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAlex Zanardi, Spanish GP 1991
\u00a9 The Cahier Archive<\/p>\n
It is with deep sorrow that the family announces the passing of Alessandro Zanardi, which occurred suddenly on the evening of yesterday, May 1, a statement read.<\/p>\n
Alex passed away peacefully, surrounded by the love of his family.<\/p>\n
Zanardi’s life was defined by extraordinary resilience.<\/p>\n
After racing in Formula 1 in the early 1990s, he became a star in US open-wheel racing before briefly returning to F1 with Williams. A horrific CART crash in 2001 led to the amputation of both his legs.<\/p>\n
He later reinvented himself as a Paralympic champion in handcycling, winning multiple gold medals – before suffering severe head and facial injuries in another accident in 2020.<\/p>\n
Former teammate Mika Salo reacted with shock to the news of his death.<\/p>\n
Oh my God, he told Iltalehti.<\/p>\n
The guy had to go through a pretty tough life.<\/p>\n
First the amputation accident, and then hit by a truck.<\/p>\n
He was successful in everything he did, but success was always followed by terrible misfortune.<\/p>\n
Tributes poured in from the Formula 1 paddock in Miami, where teams including Williams and Haas ran stickers in his honour and a minute’s silence was observed before the sprint race.<\/p>\n
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: In motorsport, we talk a lot about courage. Every now and then, you meet someone who truly embodies what that means.<\/p>\n
Alex Zanardi was that person.<\/p>\n
Fellow Italian Giancarlo Fisichella described him as a unique figure in the sport.<\/p>\n
There are so many adjectives to describe a man like him: extraordinary, exceptional, incredible. But he was simply unique. I’ll say it truly – I’ve never seen anyone like him, he told La Repubblica.<\/p>\n
He taught us with his behaviour that we should never get down. He never got discouraged.<\/p>\n
He’s an example. He should be for everyone. A man who never lost his way. He knew how to start over, reinvent himself.<\/p>\n
He did everything with courage and determination.<\/p>\n
Italian media echoed that sentiment, with La Gazzetta dello Sport writing that Zanardi was the racing driver and Paralympian who taught Italy never to give up.<\/p>\n
Zanardi is survived by his wife and son, who said further details about his funeral will be announced in due course.<\/p>\n
(GMM)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MAY 3, 2026 Alex Zanardi has died at the age of 60, his family confirmed – having passed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[2226,3769,3798,3825,3812,3756,3757,3806,3846,1205,3833,3778,3782,49,48,581,95,3788,3820,3811,578,3753,3818,3763,3018,930,3754,576,580,577,3781,3790,3808,3758,3759,3751,3822,3801,3774,3823,3840,3827,3847,3800,3844,3750,3752,3772,2454,3789,3775,3765,3784,3768,3814,3780,3761,3794,3850,3803,3792,932,3795,3777,3843,3845,3824,3773,590,3760,3834,3837,3810,3836,3797,2338,3842,2475,3815,3785,3019,3764,3802,3786,3805,3828,582,3755,1882,3829,3771,3793,3807,3783,3841,3799,3014,3762,3796,3766,3779,3835,3838,3849,3839,82,3831,3832,3816,3776,3830,926,3787,3848,3819,3826,3809,3767,3770,3791,1196,3817,3813,3821,3804],"class_list":["post-645168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-adrian-sutil","tag-albers","tag-alesi","tag-ammermuller","tag-autoracing","tag-autos","tag-badoer","tag-bahrain","tag-barcelona","tag-benetton","tag-bruno-senna","tag-button","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cars","tag-china","tag-david-coulthard","tag-davidson","tag-doornbos","tag-f1","tag-f1-racing","tag-fauzy","tag-felipe-massa","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-ferrari","tag-fia","tag-formula-1","tag-formula-one","tag-formula1","tag-giancarlo-fisichella","tag-gilles-villeneuve","tag-glock","tag-grand-prix","tag-grandprix","tag-grandprix-com","tag-hakkinen","tag-hamilton","tag-heikki-kovalainen","tag-hill","tag-hockenheim","tag-honda","tag-hungary","tag-ide","tag-indianapolis","tag-inside-f1","tag-insidef1-com","tag-jaime-alguesuari","tag-japan","tag-jaques-villeneuve","tag-jarno-trulli","tag-jenson-button","tag-juan-pablo-montoya","tag-kamui-kobayashi","tag-karthikeyan","tag-karun-chandhok","tag-kimi-raikkonen","tag-klien","tag-korea","tag-kovalainen","tag-kubica","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-liuzzi","tag-lucas-di-grassi","tag-magny-cours","tag-malaysia","tag-mansell","tag-mark-webber","tag-mclaren","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-minardi","tag-monaco","tag-montagny","tag-monte-carlo","tag-monteiro","tag-montreal","tag-monza","tag-motorsport","tag-nakajima","tag-nick-heidfeld","tag-nico-hulkenberg","tag-nico-rosberg","tag-paffett","tag-pedro-de-la-rosa","tag-piquet","tag-prost","tag-racing","tag-racingcars","tag-red-bull","tag-renault","tag-robert-kubica","tag-rosberg","tag-rossiter","tag-rubens-barrichello","tag-san-marino","tag-sato","tag-sauber","tag-schumacher","tag-scott-speed","tag-sebastian-vettel","tag-sebastien-buemi","tag-senna","tag-silverstone","tag-singapore","tag-spa","tag-sports","tag-spyker","tag-super-aguri","tag-sutil","tag-timo-glock","tag-toro-rosso","tag-toyota","tag-trulli","tag-turkey","tag-valles","tag-verstappen","tag-vettel","tag-vitaly-petrov","tag-vitantonio-liuzzi","tag-webber","tag-williams","tag-winkelhock","tag-wurz","tag-yamamoto","tag-zonta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}