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That attitude has played out in remarkable ways.
“There’s no real difference, you know. Try to imagine a procedure, try to establish what are the priorities, try to organize them in a list with the most important ones are at the top,” he noted. “What is the first thing you have to focus on? Then you take just one step at a time and you use every single day to make a step. It could be a big one or a small one, it doesn’t really matter. It’s a step forward and sooner or later you will get there. And I think with this matter you can only just prepare yourself to the best for a sport even when you can turn something, which at the very beginning didn’t look that positive, into an opportunity.”
Results matter, Zanardi says.
“Look at me, look at all things I am doing these days because of my condition. What happened to me became an opportunity,” he said. “I just go around in my wheelchair in the paddock and people call me hero because I going around the paddock in a wheelchair with a racing suit on. That’s not to say when I start the engine, take off and I go out and go around the circuit and people go crazy simply because the expectation for a guy like me would be impossible to do such a thing, but it’s not. I’m not the only one proving this. I’m just a very exposed guy doing particular things like I do. That is the main difference, my exposure, the fact that what I do is noticed.”
Ganassi has perspective on Zanardi’s life.
“I don’t think anything surprises me with Alex anymore,” Ganassi said. “From his accomplishments in an Indy car with us, to the ranks of Formula One, and then on to gold medals, and now the Rolex 24. What can you say about him that hasn’t been said? He embodies everything good about the human spirit. I look forward to watching him compete later this month in Daytona. He’s a guy that everyone pulls for.”
Jimmy Vasser and Zanardi were teammates with Chip Ganassi Racing and have formed a special bond.
“We were pretty competitive against each other at the beginning. Obviously working together to grow Ganassi’s team,” Vasser said. “He’s a fierce competitor. While I was falling in love with him as a human being and friend, I was getting my ass kicked on the track.”
After Lausitzring, Zanardi was different and unchanged at the same time.
“He had plenty of character before the accident and I don’t think anyone was surprised on how he has handled it,” Vasser said. “I was there shortly after he woke up (in the hospital). I really thought I was going there to support him. I soon realized that he ended up being the one consoling me. You often wonder why things happen in the world. It was him and he showed everybody the right way to react. Anybody else wouldn’t have been able to handle that.”
Rahal is Zanardi’s new boss.
“He (Zanardi) has a great personality, a great joy of life and is a great race car driver. He’s one of those guys that have spirit that is so powerful that you would be hard pressed to know there was anybody racing at Daytona. It’s all about people’s interest in his story. Alex is just a super guy and like I said, a hell of a race car driver and an even better person.”
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