Zanardi leaves hospital 18 months after handbike accident
IndyCar champion and Paralympic hero Alex Zanardi has finally left hospital 18 months on from the handbike accident that left him with serious head and facial injuries.


The 55-year-old Italian legend had been hospitalised after he collided with a truck during the Obiettivo Tricolore handbike relay event in June 2020, with his injuries requiring multiple operations and a prolonged rehabilitation programme.
In an interview with BMW, his wife Daniela provided the first update on her husband's condition since July, saying that Zanardi had left hospital "a few weeks ago" to continue his recovery at home.
“The recovery continues to be a long process," she said. "The rehabilitation programme led by doctors, physiotherapists, neuropsychologists and speech therapists has enabled steady progress.
"Of course, setbacks are there and can still occur. Sometimes you also have to make two steps back in order to make one step forward. But Alex proves again and again that he is a real fighter.
"An important step was that Alex was able to leave hospital a few weeks ago and is back at home with us now. We had to wait very long for this and are very happy that it was possible now, even if there are still temporary stays in special clinics planned for the future to carry out special rehabilitation measures on site.”
Zanardi has made "a lot of progress" in terms of his condition and in particular his arm strength, Daniela said, which has enabled him to spend most of his time in his wheelchair rather than in bed.
On her expectations for her husband's future recovery, she added: “You still can’t predict how his recovery will further develop. It is still a long and challenging way that Alex tackles with a lot of fighting spirit.
"It is a big help for him and us that we receive so much support on this way, not only from the doctors and therapists that intensively work with him. Our friends are always there for us. This includes the BMW Group family which we can always count on and that is firmly at our side also in this difficult time.
"We are very grateful to everyone for that and for so much more because these strong ties give us additional energy. This also goes for the continued sympathy we receive from racing drivers, fans and acquaintances from all over the world.
"We would like to express a big 'Grazie' to all who send their good thoughts and power to Alex."

Achieving peak engine performance with Liqui Moly
The far-reaching implications of the FIA's 'new world order'

Latest news
Tickford unveils first 2023 livery
Tickford Racing has unveiled its first livery ahead of the 2023 season with the covers coming off Brad Vaughan's Super2 entry.
“Proper send-off” for MacNeil after Rolex 24 win in GTD Pro
Jules Gounon says that winning at Daytona was an appropriate way for co-driver Cooper MacNeil to retire from racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
HPD boss "amazed" by GTP reliability in Rolex 24 at Daytona
The boss of Honda Performance Developments has expressed his amazement at the high levels of reliability demonstrated by the all-new GTP prototypes in last weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona.
How MSR took Acura to the first win of sportscar racing's new era
After much anticipation, the new dawn for sportscar racing got underway with a result that mirrored the pattern of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's previous DPi era. Here's how Acura once again took top honours in the Rolex 24 at Daytona with a 1-2 led by Meyer Shank Racing.
The plug in and play stand-ins who got their timing just right
Nyck de Vries’s Italian GP exploits weren’t the first post-eleventh-hour call-up in motorsport history, and won’t be the last either. Here are some offbeat tales from the past
Why romanticism isn't the key factor in Lola’s racing return
The iconic Lola name is being relaunched after it was taken over by new ownership. Part of that reboot is a planned return to racing, though the exact details of this are still to be finalised - though its new owner does have a desire to bring the brand back to the Le Mans 24 Hours. But romanticism doesn't appear to be the driving force behind this renewed project...
Rating the best drivers of the century so far
Autosport's Top 50 feature has been a staple of the magazine for the past two decades since its first appearance in 2002. Here are the drivers that have featured most prevalently during that time
The best motorsport moments of 2021
Motorsport produced one of its greatest years of all-time in 2021 despite a backdrop of ongoing COVID-19 challenges and an ever-changing racing landscape. Through the non-stop action Motorsport.com has collected the finest moments from the past 12 months to highlight the incredible drama and joy motorsport generates.
The racing comeback artists who resurrected long-dormant careers
Making it in motorsport can be tough, and sometimes drivers move elsewhere before their best chance arrives. Here are some of those who made it back
The one-time Schumacher rival rebooting his career Down Under
Joey Mawson made waves in the middle of the last decade, beating future Haas Formula 1 driver Mick Schumacher - among other highly-rated talents - to the 2016 German F4 title. A run in F1's feeder GP3 category only caused his career to stall, but now back in Australia Mawson's S5000 title success has set that to rights
Why Todt’s FIA successor could be cut from the same cloth
Jean Todt has signalled that he will not stand for re-election as FIA president. Mark Gallagher analyses the strong credentials of one potential successor…
The lesson football’s would-be wreckers could learn from racing
OPINION: The greed-driven push for a European Super League that threatened to tear football apart is collapsing at the seams. Motor racing's equivalent, the football-themed Superleague Formula series of 2008-11, was everything that the proposed ESL never could be.
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.