Tribute to the late Alex Zanardi – WRT BMW M4 with special livery

On 1 May this year, Alex Zanardi passed away at the age of 59. The Italian died following a long battle with serious injuries sustained in a handbike accident in 2020, when he collided with a lorry. His family announced that Zanardi passed away peacefully on Friday evening, surrounded by his loved ones and friends.

At this year’s FIA WEC season finale in Monza’s Royal Park, BMW and the Belgian WRT team will once again pay tribute to the motorsport legend, as the #32 M4 in the LMGT3 class – driven by Darren Leung, Sean Gelael and BMW works driver Augusto Farfus, will feature a special design in Zanardi’s memory.

The idea for the design came from Augusto Farfus, who was Zanardi’s team-mate in the WTCC and also competed alongside the Italian in a BMW M8 GTE at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019.

“Augusto came up with the idea when we heard we’d be racing at Monza to honour Alex,” Darren Leung told Sportscar365 “I admit I didn’t know all that much about his career, but after we had that conversation, I watched a few documentaries and got to know him a little better, from a journalistic perspective, so to speak. He was simply an incredibly inspiring person, an inspiring story. Clearly, he went through a defining moment in his life, and it never really seemed to faze him. That sort of resilience and determination is truly impressive and was very inspiring. It was a story that moved me deeply. When I spoke to people who knew Alex very well personally, that somehow rubbed off on all of them. It was a great pleasure for me to develop an idea for the livery.”

The Brazilian BMW veteran adds: “When the whole WEC story at Monza was still up in the air, I said to Darren: ‘If it works out, we’ll do a Zanardi car. That would be cool.’ And then it actually happened, so we went ahead and did it. Alex was unique in every respect – as a fighter, as an inspiration, as an athlete, as a driver and so on. I think he would have liked the chance to simply pay tribute to him here in Monza, and I’m sure he’d be very proud of what we’ve done.”