S9 E3: Zanardi's 1999 F1 nightmare
Bring Back V10s - Classic F1 stories
The Race Media Ltd
4.9 • 764 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2024
⏱️ 70 minutes
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Summary
Alex Zanardi returned to F1 in 1999 with Williams as red-hot property after a sensational stint racing in America, but things went badly wrong, leading the team to cut ties with him after just one dismal season.
Ex-Williams insider Jim Wright joins Glenn Freeman and self-confessed Zanardi superfan Matt Beer to look back on what went wrong that season, and assess if there was anything Williams or Zanardi could have done differently to enjoy more success together.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic. |
| 0:11.0 | Alex Dernardi became the hottest of hot properties during a spellbinding three years spent |
| 0:16.0 | racing in America, so when Williams signed him for 1999, the hope was that the team had caught lightning in a bottle. |
| 0:23.0 | Unfortunately, there wasn't even a spark when Zanardi touched back down in F1, and after one dismal |
| 0:28.2 | point this season, his three-year contract was torn up. So why didn't the trick that Williams |
| 0:33.4 | pulled so successfully with other IndyCar champions, Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya, work with Zanardi. To help me, Glenn Freeman, get to the bottom of that. We have self-confessed Zanardi superfan, Matt Beir, and former Williams insider Jim Wright, who was one of Frank Williams' closest allies for many years and was directly involved in the signing of Zanadi. |
| 0:55.8 | So Jim, we'll come to you first. |
| 1:01.0 | Thanks so much for joining us to give a perspective from inside the team about what went wrong for Alex. |
| 1:01.8 | We'll start with the same question we always ask at the beginning of each episode, which is |
| 1:06.4 | when you think back to the Zanardi Williams experiment of 1999. What's the first thing that comes to |
| 1:12.7 | mind? Yeah, Glenn, Matt, thank you. Great to be able to contribute to this discussion. |
| 1:20.4 | I think the first word that comes to mind is disappointment, because we had such high hopes for |
| 1:27.1 | Alex joining Williams. And we'd had a, you know, |
| 1:31.7 | vision to get Alex on board. We signed him on a reasonably long-term contract and it just didn't |
| 1:37.1 | work. So disappointment would be the word that springs to mind. And Matt, you'll probably be saying |
| 1:42.5 | something similar. I know this isn't easy for you, |
| 1:44.4 | given your admiration for Zanadi, but what is your main takeaway? For me, this is like a memory of |
| 1:50.5 | loss of innocence and naivity as a sports fan that I don't think I've ever got back again. |
| 1:55.9 | When I was a teenager, Zanadi was my absolute sporting hero. And across this season, I wouldn't say I lost faith |
| 2:02.1 | in Sanadi, but I just kind of learnt a bit about how not every situation works out regardless of |
| 2:08.7 | talent and therefore it's best not to pin all your colours to one mast so overwhelmingly. |
| 2:14.0 | Yeah, that's fair. Now, we're here some memories from our audience next. Thanks to everyone who replied to at BBV10s on X, which I'm now calling it. |
... |
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