Video: Alessandro Zanardi

"Alex Zanardi has escaped with his life from the crash at the Lausitzring, but he will never race again," wrote Spiegel Online on 16th September 2001, joining reporters around the world in declaring the Italian's career to be over. This was one day after his horrific crash in the CART series, in which he lost both his legs. "Well, those people just didn't know me back then," says Zanardi, smiling as he steadily screws together his handbike, on which he is about to take to the Lausitzring.