Zanardi Gone From Williams
Following months of speculation that seemed to start almost as soon as he arrived, Alex Zanardi and WilliamsF1 have parted company. A brief statement from the Williams team announced the news, thanked Alex for his efforts and wished him well in the future. This news came as no surprise to anyone as Williams have been openly looking at potential replacements for some time.
Great things had been expected of Zanardi who had just won his second consecutive CART drivers championship prior to returning to F1 and joining Williams in 1999 but he never seemed to get comfortable in the new breed of F1 car. Not only was the handling of the car nothing like an Indy car it was also very different from what he had been used to in his previous stint in F1 with Lotus in the early 90’s.
It is possible that Zanardi might have fared better — and lasted longer — in a more "driver friendly" team as did Heinz-Harald Frentzen who left Williams to join Jordan the year before, but it is also true that his teammate Ralf Schumacher, with whom Zanardi was constantly compared, scored 35 championship points including several podium finishes in identical equipment last year while Zanardi failed to score even one.
There is no news yet on what Zanardi plans to do in the future but he should be able to take his time making his decision as Williams allegedly paid him in the region of $6 million to buy him out of the second year of his contract.
Posted: Thursday, January 20th, 2000
