Alex Zanardi Age, Death, Wife, Children, Family, Biography » StarsUnfolded

Some Lesser Known Facts About Alex Zanardi

• Alex Zanardi was a native of Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

• It was at the age of three years when Zanardi, together with his family, shifted to the suburb of Castel Maggiore.

• His sister Cristina was also potential as a swimmer before she was killed in a road accident in 1979, when she was 15.

• As a child already, Zanardi was getting used to kart racing as early as he was 13 years old.

• His father purchased him a go-kart just prior to his 14th birthday, and Zanardi later reported it was by far the best day of his life.

• He made his first kart with dustbin wheels and pipes used by his father as a plumber.

• In the coming few years he had won three go-kart titles in Italy and the European championship.

• He took the top five rounds of the CIK-FIA European Championship in the top class in 1987.

• In 1988, he joined the Italian Formula Three championship. It was in his stint in Formula Three series that he met Daniela Manni who is the manager of Erre 3 racing team. In 1996 the two married each other.

• In 1991, Zanardi made his debut in the International Formula 3000 with Il Barone Rampante, a newcomer team in the series.

• He won his first F3000 race and went on to win two more races, and finished second in the championship to Christian Fittipaldi.

• Zanardi with strong F3000 season attracted the attention of Formula One.

• Through joining Jordan, he ended having become an unwilling party in a court case between Jordan boss Eddie Jordan and Flavio Briatore of Benetton as Briatore attempted to transfer Michael Schumacher out of Jordan to Benetton.

• In the later days of the 1991 season, Eddie Jordan contracted Zanardi in at Jordan in place of Roberto Moreno in the final three races of the season.

• He drove as a guest in 1992 in the car of Minardi instead of the injured Christian Fittipaldi, and made two non-qualifications and a retirement.

• He had tested with Benetton during the off-season, but signed with Lotus to race in 1993.

• In 1993 at Lotus, Zanardi matched the performance of his teammate Johnny Herbert and helped in the design and the active suspension system of the team.

• The only Formula One point he received was in the Brazilian Grand Prix of the same year. A mature motorist hit his bicycle, and rolled over his left foot, fracturing several bones.

• Zanardi did race in Germany with the injury but he lost control of the bike and failed to finish.

• His part in the season was cut short because he got a concussion in a practice crash during the Belgian Grand Prix. Zanardi.

• Lotus endured its last season in the Formula One racing and Zanardi did not manage to contribute even one point or better than position 13.

• Now that Lotus was no longer in Formula One, Zanardi began to race sports cars.

• His debut was at an event at Imola in the Porsche Supercup. Zanardi made a trip to the United States in 1995, to race in the CART series.

• He had hoped that his Formula One experience would easily lure the interest of the team but had no takers.

• He was offered a test drive at Homestead with Chip Ganassi Racing by Reynard Commercial Director Rick Gorne and on 23 October 1995, Zanardi signed a contract.

• The race engineer of the team Mo Nunn had advised Chip Ganassi not to sign him on because Italy drivers made too many errors.

• Zanardi was awarded Rookie of the Month.

• He made an overtake on race-leader Bryan Herta at the Corkscrew corner, going through the dirt in order to accomplish that overtake.

• That pass, which became popular with fans as just The Pass, received extensive publicity and was not allowed in subsequent years.

• Zanardi, in 1997, won five out of seventeen races in the CART series, including three consecutive wins, and the Drivers’ Championship.

• During the same season, he also coined the habit of spinning his car in tight circles after wins, which left circular tracks of doughnut-like tyres on the track.

• This practice won him the title of the Donut King (and gained widespread popularity as a post-victory celebration across America).

• He was even more dominant in his Ganassi Reynard-Honda in the season of 1998.

• He competed in nineteen races of which he won seventeen and stood on the podium fifteen times in these nineteen races.

• Throughout his CART career, Zanardi had 15 wins, 10 poles and 28 podiums.

• He became so famous in the United States that he even appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and had his picture printed on his boxes of cornflakes.

• In 1999, Honda also paid tribute to his successive two consecutive CART championship wins by launching the Alex Zanardi Edition Acura NSX into the United States market.

• The car also had a revised suspension, fixed roof, lightweight BBS wheels, lightweight rear spoiler, manual steering and a lighter battery which made it 67.5 kg lighter than the standard version.

• Just 51 of these were completed, all painted in a new Formula Red colour to match the car he drove in Chip Ganassi Racing.

• On the evening of 1 May 2026, Alex Zanardi passed away at his home in Padua. He was 59.

• The following day, his death was announced by his family. In a statement, the family said, “Alex died peacefully, surrounded by the love of people closest to him.”

• No cause of death was mentioned. He was buried on 5 May 2026 in the Basilica of Santa Giustina in Prato della Valle, Padua.