Over a yr after being critically injured in a paracycling crash, 55-year-old racing driver and Paralympian Alex Zanardi has left the hospital to proceed his restoration course of at dwelling in his native Italy.

The information was first reported by Motorsport on Monday, and confirmed by Zanardi’s spouse Daniella in an announcement revealed by BMW on Tuesday.

She mentioned her husband was capable of go away hospital a couple of weeks in the past and is continuous with completely different train packages as a part of his restoration course of, and that he has already regained some energy in his arms, however famous that it is too early to inform what trajectory his restoration will take.

“You continue to cannot predict how his restoration will additional develop,” she mentioned. “It’s nonetheless a protracted and difficult approach that Alex tackles with a variety of preventing spirit.”

Zanardi raced in System One, in addition to CART, the place he grew to become a two-time champion. His legs had been amputated after a 2001 crash at Germany’s Lausitzring. He later returned to automotive racing and have become a aggressive handbike racer, profitable a number of medals within the 2012 and 2016 Summer time Paralympic Video games.

Zanardi can be a model ambassador for BMW, racing with the producer in Germany’s DTM touring automotive sequence and in sports activities automobiles. Extra lately, he drove an M8 GTE within the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona alongside Jesse Krohn, John Edwards, and Chaz Mostert. Hampered by mechanical points, the quartet completed twenty fourth general and ninth at school.