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Touch The Sky with Alex Zanardi Should Be Your Inspirational Film of the Day

BMW is currently working on a new film called Adrenalin. It focuses on the brand’s motorsport history and will be launched in November this year. Apart from talking about the legendary cars that won races for the blue and white roundel brand they are also looking into the human side of things: the drivers.
Alessandro Zanardi 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from Vimeo
The Germans had plenty of brilliant people behind the wheel of their cars, no matter in what field they raced. Nelson Piquet, Roberto Ravaglia and the Muller brothers are only a few of those that claimed the checkered flag on more than one occasion.

One of them, though, has a really special story, one of a survivor and an optimist that did only what he liked his entire life, no matter what it threw at him. We’re talking about the walking legend, Alessandro Zanardi, BMW’s Brand Ambassador and driver in the Blancpain Series.

His story is so inspiring that a part of the movie will be dedicated to him alone. ‘Touch the sky’ is a short extracted from the full feature, in which Alex explains how his life changed after a crash on the Lausitzring in 2001 that claimed both his legs but not his life.

The recovery he made stunned a lot of people and even though most claimed that he will never race again, Alex proved them all wrong just two years later when he jumped back behind the wheel of a racing car, finishing the 13 laps he never had the chance to back in 2001.

From then on he started racing in various events with specially prepped cars, adapted to his needs. He also designed his own prosthetic legs, being unsatisfied with the ones that were available on the market beforehand.

His life was and is all about racing but since the unfortunate event, he took to all kinds of such events, even claiming the Olympic Gold in 2012 at the London Paralympics with his hand-bike designed by Italian racecar constructor Dallara.

There are so many amazing things he achieved over the years that it would take too much time and space to list them all. However, sit down with him and you’ll immediately notice that his life seems to have just begun.

In the video below, you’ll get to see a man that refused to bow down to the challenges of life, a man that knows what he wants, what he likes to do and how he wants to spend the rest of his life. In his own words: "Where would I be if my accident didn't happen? Who knows? I mean, I could be a guy, maybe with legs but not as happy as I am."

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