The Incredible Life Of Racing’s Alex Zanardi Comes To An End At 59

Alex Zanardi as a CART rookie on March 31, 1996 at the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia. (Photo by Darrell Ingham/Allsport/Getty Images) Getty Images Alex Zanardi, the ultimate tragedy to triumph hero, died on May 1 at 59 years of age. Zanardi’s family announced his death on Saturday, saying that he passed away on Friday night.

“Alex died peacefully, surrounded by the affection of those closest to him,” the family said in a statement without providing a cause of death. The driver from Italy was a racing star and two-time CART Champion in 1997 and 1998 with Chip Ganassi Racing before leaving for Formula One in 1998. He would later return to CART and lost both legs and nearly bled to death in a gruesome crash in a CART race in Germany on September 15, 2001.

CART’s lead Medical Official, Dr. Steve Olvey, applied heavy pressure with a tourniquet as Zanardi was in a race against time to a hospital in Berlin to keep Zanardi from bleeding out after losing three-quarters of his blood volume. Members of the CART Safety Team with Alex Zanardi after the devastating crash on September 15, 2001 at Lausitzring in Germany.

(Photo by: Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) Getty Images Zanardi’s life was saved, but his legs were lost in one of the most grisly crashes in history. But Zanardi had one of the most positive and upbeat personalities of any driver in racing. When his friend and former Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Jimmy Vasser visited Zanardi in the hospital, Zanardi smiled.