Zanardi to race in BMW at FIA ETCC Final Round

BMW
Corporate Communications

14 October 2003



ALESSANDRO ZANARDI READY FOR RACING COMEBACK IN MONZA

FIA EUROPEAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

18/19 OCTOBER 2003



Munich/Moza. When Alessandro Zanardi makes his first competitive outing in a
racing car for over two years at Monza this weekend it will be at the wheel
of a
BMW 320i ETCC. This one-off appearance in the final round of the 2003 FIA
European Touring Car Championship is a dream come true for the Italian
driver
and has been made possible thanks to Ravaglia Motorsport, who run the BMW
Team Italy-Spain entries in the series.

The car has been specially modified for him, but surprisingly few changes
have had
to be made to accommodate the Monaco based driver who lost both of his legs
while taking part in the German 500, a round of the American CART series, at
the
Lausitz EuroSpeedway on 15 September, 2001.

The idea for the modifications came when Zanardi took his road-going BMW
540i
to the team, who are based in Padova not far from Bologna where he was born,
for
them to modify it for him. The suggestion of them doing the same for a
racing car
started as a joke. However Ravaglia engineer, Roberto Trevisan, who worked
with
Zanardi in Formula 3000, suggested they could do the modifications to a 320i
built
for the 2001 season that was used for winter testing. Fantasy became realty.

The team tried many different systems but claim in the end the simple ones
were
the best. The throttle has been moved to the steering wheel and Zanardi will
use
his left hand to operate it, while he uses his right to operate the gear
lever.

For safety reasons it was obvious he must be able to brake quickly and it
soon
became obvious to the team he had enough force in his prosthesis to brake
normally. The main task then was to move the brake to where the throttle was
usually located, and also to put the seat in a position where Alex would be
able to
brake with the force of 85 kilos, which matches that of the other drivers.

The clutch system on the car is normally a quick shift, which is used by the
drivers
only for downshifting and not for upshifting. For Alex there is now a small
lever on
the gear lever and this he can use to adjust the clutch to the position he
needs.

Although these modifications have added extra weight to the car, both Alex
and the
team feel confident he can be as competitive as the championship's regular
drivers. This belief was born out when he drove the car in Monza on 25
September.

After this test Zanardi's comment was: "After my accident my biggest dream
was to
be able to carry my son, Niccolo, on my shoulders. I have done that thanks
to the
amazing medical team who looked after me. My next dream was to race a car
again and Ravaglia Motorsport has now made this dream come true. I never
thought that when I went to see them to discuss my road car it would end up
like
this."

Zanardi will be driving alongside BMW Team Italy-Spain regular drivers
Fabrizio
Giovanardi and Antonio Garcia. He will also be able to see first hand the
battle for
the championship. While BMW needs just two points to clinch the
Manufacturers'
title, it will be a very hard battle for the Drivers' Championship with BMW
Team
Deutschland's Jörg Müller and BMW Team Great Britain's Andy Priaulx still
well in
contention. Jörg goes into the final two races of the series in Monza tying
with
Gabriele Tarquini at the top of the table on 96 points, Andy is third with
89 and
Nicola Larini is fourth on 87. Unfortunately fifth placed Dirk Müller in the
second
BMW Team Deutschland car is now out of contention for the title.

The usual championship timetable will apply to the Monza weekend with the
two
races taking place on Sunday afternoon. The points system is
10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for
both races so it is obvious that there are still a lot of points to fight
for.