Alex Zanardi
My wife has always been positive. In the hospital my brother-in-law was trying to prepare her for the worst, but she said, 'Hold on, I don't want to hear that. He'll be all right. I'm going to ring BMW now and order a car with manual controls because the first thing he'll want to do when he leaves hospital is drive.' She knew her husband!Collection: Car
I believe the perfect life is the right combination between great things, great success and stupid mistakes or failures.Collection: Success
I will do something, time to time, with motor racing. But I'll never go back, I think, to drive full-time because I've lost that anger, that desire.Collection: Anger
The trust the BMW family puts in me means a lot to me.Collection: Family
Once you put everything in the right perspective, even bad times can be an opportunity to refresh your appetite, your desire.
The perfect life is the combination of great moments and bad ones, and under that point of view, my life is fantastic, because I've certainly hit more than one bump.
I feel very lucky, I feel my life is a never-ending privilege.
My never-say-never attitude has helped me a lot. That's why after a short period after the accident, I'm capable of doing almost everything on my own.
My heart stopped seven times and I had to be resuscitated seven times. It's incredible I'm still here so every day I feel happy to have a second chance but I'm sorry to say I didn't see any tunnel or any light at the end of it.
Proving to my friends, family, and the people that I love that they were wrong - that in spite of my age and my lack of experience, I could change sport and achieve something really special - gives me a lot of satisfaction.
As a race car driver, I don't think I will drive forever, because it is not so much a question of being competitive, but of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Daytona has some of the greatest fans in the world and many remember me from some of the things I've done in this wonderful country.
I am very proud to become a BMW Brand Ambassador. BMW is like a second family, and over the past years we not only enjoyed great times together at the track, but we have also become close friends.
I think you can learn from other people's mistakes and other people's strengths, and that is why I have always been watching, with particular attention, other drivers - and not only drivers at the top.
Never say never, always try to see if there is an opportunity to go around the problem if you can't go across it.
I bump into a lot of people that have similar problems that I have but less titles or magazines than I have, and they just challenge their adversity with the same tenacity, with the same enthusiasm, with the same will to succeed because life is one and you've got to take advantage.
For me just the fact to be alive is sufficient motivation to want to improve my life quality.
In para-cycling I am a veteran with Olympic medals now.
When I first climbed into a go-kart, aged 13, I thought to myself: 'This is what I want to do with my life, and I want to drive F1.'
I'm no different from other drivers - my talent is in my brain, not in my right foot.
I finally returned to Lausitzring in 2003. The idea was to drive the 13 laps that I had been unable to complete because of the crash. I drove out and it was as if I was in the car the day before the accident.
Today, I don't have any psychological scars, because I am a realist and an optimist. After all, I can't lose my legs twice.
I have always had a very smooth driving style. But when I started competing as a disabled driver, I had to take that even more to the extreme.
You have to accept the fact that as long as you are alive, you have something to lose. Living is dangerous.
I'm a wild horse, to say the least, and with age, I haven't calmed down completely.
It may look weird to an outsider to watch me jump out of the car basically walking on my arms. Of course, it's very easy for me.
After my crash I never doubted it would be hard but I would be lying to say this new life has been a surprise to me.
Having no legs doesn't mean you can't drive fast and I wasn't going to be happy scoring the odd point. I thought it was possible to win and went for it.
It's not much different to Formula One where they are improving the cars constantly. The difference is every hand biker needs a different bike depending on their residual ability.
My parents taught me that I could always improve on things.
When you find yourself in a certain situation you have to identify where you want to go and focus on what you can achieve on that given day.
Whether it is a small thing or big one, step-by-step you can make things happen.
At the time I was asked if I would ever step back in a race car, but what was very important for me was to go into the bathroom and pee on my own, but I could not do that. I had to be helped. That was my number one priority.
First time you step on these new legs, it's bloody hard. It's painful on your pelvic bones. But every day I get more of a feel for where my feet are.
It makes me feel great when I'm driving and talking to my wife, and I look in the mirror, and my son is sleeping in the back.
We all have expectations but sometimes the greatest thing is to be surprised with what happens and to find out that it is quite different from the way you imagined it.
I try to, pardon the expression, stay with my feet on the ground.
The accident for sure was one of the most important experiences of my life. During the course of my rehabilitation I had people who were exactly what I needed to be inspired.
I haven't done any of the things I have done to inspire others, but I am sure that if I am watching my story from the outside I would be joining the club saying, 'Wow, that guy really gets you going.'
I have a little bit of a big head.
You don't know how many times I fell just taking ridiculous small steps.
The question I asked when I woke up was not how am I going to live without legs - but how am I going to do all the things I want to do without legs? There was no doubt that I was going to do them, I was just curious to find out how - but I knew I was going to find a way.
If you train hard and work hard eventually you will gain results, and that is the real spirit of life.
Whenever I have a drive or have a dream, I try to achieve it with what I have.
You only recognize how good something is if you've been through the bad.
Losing my legs was one of the greatest opportunities of my life.
I feel gifted for having the opportunity to compete in Daytona.
When I arrived in Champ Cars, which at the time used to be called Indy Cars and then got renamed CART and then renamed Champ Cars, I was racing against Jimmy Vasser, my team-mate, but more than him, I was racing against Michael Andretti, Emerson Fittapaldi, Al Unser Jr. - guys that had big names.
Of course, when I can get an Indy Car or Champ Car race on television, I never miss the opportunity.
My accident was the result of incredible fate, with me spinning in a place I shouldn't have, with a car coming at a speed it shouldn't have, and hitting me with the sharpest and strongest thing that it has, which is the nose, in the most vulnerable part of the car, which is between the side part and the front wheel.