Patronise F1

If there is one word that has been more completely ruined than any other by our somewhat lazy approach to modern language, setting aside for the moment the internet slang definitions for 'epic' and Patronise F1's own chronic inability to differentiate between 'it's' and 'its', then it may well be 'awesome'. Awesome, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, should be used to describe something that is "extremely impressive or daunting", or even simpler something that can be said to be "inspiring awe".

So while the scale of the known universe, the complexity of evolution or the fact that Marc Gene still has a racing career are truly awesome events to contemplate, the news that McDonalds are making a new type of burger, or that somesuch footballer has scored a goal is not really 'awesome' at all. Exciting perhaps, or impressive, but not really awesome.

But if there is some sort of new unofficial 'awesomeness' scale, with galactic formation at the high end of the ranking and the McRib somewhere near the bottom, then pretty near to the top probably sits a man who seems determined to redefine the word not in line with the current slack definition being perpetuated by burger lovers or football fans, but simply with a photograph of himself. Alex Zanardi, in summary, truly is awesome.

The Italian's latest feat came this week in the New York Marathon, with Zanardi winning the hand bicycle class of the race in a time of one hour, 13 minutes and 58 seconds. The win was the latest marathon triumph in his post-racing career, after wins in Venice in 2009 and Rome in 2010. And it merely represents the latest stage of a career that appeared to have been ended in the most brutal fashion which plain and simply inspires some serious awe.

For F1 fans, Zanardi's career is not even worth talking about, a measly single point racked up over five sporadic seasons in the sport is pretty much as ineffective as careers in the sport go. But his early stint in the sport, from 1991 to 1994, was simply the odd run of races in some ineffectual machinery, while his sole full year with Williams in 1999 saw him struggle to come to terms with the change in handing associated with F1's new breed of narrow, grooved tyre-shod racer. While his true potential as an F1 driver will never be established, a final score of Ralf Schumacher 35 - 0 Alex Zanardi was not entirely fair.

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of the wider motorsport sphere, though, will know that where Zanardi failed in F1, he succeeded in America, winning fifteen Champ Car races across three seasons before his ill-advised move to Williams. His finest moment, in his rookie year in the category, was an overtaking move so breathtaking that even now it is simply referred to as The Pass. No other explanation is necessary.

Then there was 2001, a trying return to the Champ Car series in an underfunded team without the means to compete with the big guns of the series that culminated in the horrifying crash he suffered at the Lausitzring. After losing his legs - and very nearly his life - in such a way, Zanardi could have been forgiven for turning his back on pursuing any sort of career. Especially one still so keenly tied to the concept of speed.

But since recovering from the accident, and getting used to life on prosthetic limbs, Zanardi never appeared to consider anything other than continuing on in the pursuit of speed. He won races in the World Touring Car Championship at the wheel of a specially modified BMW, overcoming a difficult start and suggestions that his return was little other than a publicity stunt to become genuinely competitive. "My opponents would initially stay away from my front and rear bumper, they were reluctant to bump into me," he told the Observer newspaper in 2007 about life in the crash-n-bash world of touring cars, "Then I started winning..."

And that touring car stint was far from the limit of his post-crash motorsport endeavours. In 2006, he got back behind the wheel of a Formula One car when BMW Sauber gave him the chance to test out a modified version of their 2006 machine at the Valencia circuit. His time, some 13 seconds off the lap record, was not especially fast, but after just 15 laps of experience in an alien motoring environment, it was also plenty respectable.

And there have been few more emotional moments in motorsport than Zanardi's return to a Champ Car in 2003, when he was offered the chance to drive a modified vehicle on the track that nearly cost him his life, to complete the final 13 laps of the race. Predictably, even that parade run was approached with maximum commitment, and he eventually set an unofficial fastest lap time that would have been good enough for fifth on the grid at the race weekend.

Now, since retiring from motorsport at the end of 2009, has turned his focus to a different sort of racing. Zanardi has now been racing handbikes since 2007, and has hinted at a bid to qualify for the 2012 Paralympics in London. And what seemed like a slightly optimistic ambition seems to be moving nearer to reality. His win in the New York event was by far the biggest win of his career to date, and seems to suggest that his efforts to achieve that qualification remain on track.

But whether he does manage to qualify or not, that really isn't the point. Instead, the point simply is that he is even attempting to in the first place. Literally everything that Zanardi has managed since his crash simply adds credence to any move to redefine 'awesome' in his favour. Here is a man that got dealt one of the worst deals possible, even in a sporting format as dangerous as motorsport - and oval racing at that - and barely paused for breath.

He has never looked like dwelling on his misfortune, of allowing himself to be consumed by regret or a sense of loss. Instead, he seems to have an almost monomaniacal desire to set himself new challenges, and then somehow achieve them. As inspirational a story, and a person, as can be found anywhere in history.

So yes, Alex Zanardi. He truly is the definition of awesome.

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