Once you put everything in the right perspective, even bad times can be an opportunity to refresh your appetite, your desire.
Alex Zanardi
Whether it is a small thing or big one, step-by-step you can make things happen.
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 believe the perfect life is the right combination between great things, great success and stupid mistakes or failures.
The trust the BMW family puts in me means a lot to me.
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.
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.'
Never say never, always try to see if there is an opportunity to go around the problem if you can't go across it.
Your trip in this life is very provisional, but the best thing you can do in your life to live in the right way is to take every day as a great opportunity to do what you can and when you're as lucky as I have been in life in getting so much attention and exposure, you learn that you can move mountains with a very small effort.
As you approach the finish line, you go through a tunnel of people, all of them cheering and encouraging you. Then I heard the speaker say, 'Alessandro Zanardi, you are an Ironman!' It was something phenomenal, something amazing... I got very emotional at that point.
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.
Disabilities are a very relative condition, it is something that defines a situation, but if you can't jump over the problem then you can certainly go around it.
I got into hand-cycling to prove to myself that I could do it and get back into some form of competition, and now it's led to this. If someone had suggested a few years ago that I would be taking it to the Ironman, I would have asked them what they were smoking.
The first time the doctors put on my prosthetic legs they made me much taller than I'd ever been. I then remember the doctor saying 'we need to shorten this man' and we all were in hysterics.
I have a little bit of a big head.
You have to accept the fact that as long as you are alive, you have something to lose. Living is dangerous.
Losing my legs was one of the greatest opportunities of my life.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You don't know how many times I fell just taking ridiculous small steps.
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.
There are times I'm approaching turns with my right hand on the brake lever, I'm downshifting with my fingers, I'm controlling the throttle with my left hand and steering into the corner with only one hand on the wheel. I feel a bit like Jimi Hendrix: I play with both my hands.
The memories are vague of the accident. I remember coming out of the pitlane with cruise control, letting it go and then losing control of the car. I remember my hands frantically operating the steering wheel trying to recover control of the car, then this big, big noise and nothing more.
Formula One is not sport. Formula One is only intense competition between teams where the competition is really the research, the technology.
Everything you do tends to make you accomplish another step on the road to complete yourself.
I feel gifted for having the opportunity to compete in Daytona.
The first thought that will go through my mind in the morning when I open my eyes will be very much related to my current dreams, rather than to my past nightmares.
When I returned to the Touring Car championship, I got the team to create a special brake pedal that I could use with my prosthetic leg.
I'm no different from other drivers - my talent is in my brain, not in my right foot.
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.
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.
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.
I feel very lucky, I feel my life is a never-ending privilege.
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.
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.
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.
For me just the fact to be alive is sufficient motivation to want to improve my life quality.
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.
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.'
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.
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.
