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INSIGHT: Zanardi's Rolex 24 preparations for 2019
Look at the steering wheel......
Thursday, 19 April 2018

George Tamayo / Images by BMW; Hawkins/LAT

Alex Zanardi has accomplished a lot in his remarkable life. From CART championships to Paralympic gold medals [[I]below] to New York City Marathons, life both before and after his accident at the Lausitzring in 2001 has been about competing, and winning. After a few years away from competitive motor racing, he's ready to get back behind the wheel for another big challenge: a tilt at the GTLM class in the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona driving a factory-backed BMW M8 GTE.
Final plans are still being made, including which team will run the program and who his co-drivers will be, but in the meantime, preparations go on as Zanardi confers with BMW Motorsport on adapting the car to simultaneously suit his needs as well as those of his co-drivers. Zanardi makes it clear that this isn't feel-good story fodder. He's doing this because his appetite for winning is insatiable.

This won't be Zanardi's first try at a 24-hour race. In 2015, driving a BMW Z4 entered by ROAL Motorsport, Zanardi co-drove with fellow BMW works drivers Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock to finish in 25th place overall out of 57 entries.

"After the 24-hour race at Spa in 2015, we all felt it was a kind of unfinished business because it was a great experience with a bittersweet ending," says Zanardi. "The car had a technical problem with only one hour to go.

"It was a decent surprise to do that well. We can't say it was a 'big surprise' because that would mean that there was no expectation of doing well, when in reality the expectation was there all along – but probably not to do that well. In the middle of the night we were in a position to win. The huge talent of Bruno Spengler and Timo Glock had a big role in allowing us to have that aim. Still, for me to have role in achieving that goal and turning out competitive lap times was a big surprise to the people [at BMW] in Munich.

"So they were all very, very excited," Zanardi continues. "And after a few days we spoke about trying to do this again, but in a better way. In 2016 there was the Olympics, and Jens Marquardt asked me if I wanted to [race] again, but I chose to focus on the Olympics. But right after the games, I got the chance, with only two weeks preparation, to drive in the final of the Italian GT Championship at Mugello, and everything went so well that I won! The following day Jens was so happy and he called me and said, 'Hey Alex, we have to organize something,' so we talked about it and it was announced – much to my surprise because it wasn't yet official in my mind – at the year-end BMW Motorsport party in December of 2017."

When discussing the plans, Zanardi says that other races including Le Mans were considered. But from boyhood, when he first fell in love with motorsport, one name was etched in his mind: Daytona. He last drove there on the oval as part of the 1997 International Race of Champions (IROC).
"Le Mans is a great event, but Daytona takes place in a country that changed my life and happens in front of fans who are going to remember what I've done here," he says.

Currently, Zanardi has been spending time behind the wheel of a BMW M6 GT3 trying to optimize the system he will use to drive the M8 GTE in Daytona while incorporating the lessons learned from his Spa 24 Hour experience. Chief among those is figuring out a way for Zanardi to drive without the use of his prosthetic legs, which he says isn't a problem for a sprint race, but they are an impediment in endurance racing. BMW Motorsport has developed a steering wheel and braking system that Zanardi has already tested extensively, having completed approximately 450 miles, including a triple-stint, on a recent test day.
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This is continued at Post #11