Alex Zanardi made his long awaited return to a Formula 1 cockpit over the weekend at Valencia, during the Formula BMW World Finals. A change in Zanardi’s schedule allowed the Italian to test drive the modified BMW-Sauber C24B earlier then planned. Zanardi tortured his wet weather tires during a three laps spin on Thursday…
Car modifications included using Jacques Villeneuve’s steering wheel and moving the brake pedal to the opposite side of the cockpit to enable better braking. Villeneuve preferred doing all his shifting with his right hand…
On Saturday, after the engine stalled during the first session, Zanardi completed 17 laps. Zanardi nearly matched current BMW-Sauber F1 test driver Sebastian Vettel’s times after shaving 8 seconds off his lap times, less then 1 second behind Vettel…
