Tuesday morning, the speculation became reality.

Alex Zanardi, who recently won his second straight CART Indy car championship, confirmed that next year he will return to the Formula One series with the Frank Williams team.

A native of Bologna, Italy, who had reached the Formula One level only to be left unemployed when the Lotus team went out of business, Zanardi joined the CART series with Target-Chip Ganassi Racing in 1996.

In the past three seasons, he has won 14 of 48 races -- a series' record winning percentage of 29.2 -- and two championships. His bravura driving style, engaging personality, celebratory tire-smoking "donuts" and obvious enjoyment of what he does have made him a favorite with fans and the media, and Ganassi said he is "the new benchmark" in CART.

Zanardi said he will remain with the Ganassi team for the final three races this season, which ends with the Marlboro 500 at California Speedway on Nov. 1, then "enter into a new challenge."

Ganassi said, with several qualified drivers available, he does not feel a sense of urgency to fill the opening.

Zanardi, 31, said he has signed a three-year contract with Williams, whose team has struggled after winning the 1997 championship with driver Jacques Villeneuve. Zanardi will replace Villeneuve, another former CART champion who next year will move to the British American Racing team, and will have as his teammate Ralf Schumacher, 23, the younger brother of two-time world champion Michael Schumacher.

Financial terms of the contract have not been disclosed, and Zanardi said the difference between his salary with Williams and what he was being offered to stay with Ganassi wasn't a major factor in his decision.

"I would have never made the decision just for money," he said.

"It's difficult to just point in one particular direction. I certainly had a great time with a great team, and I had great results, and maybe it's what drives us all in life. You achieve something and then you want something more; you're never happy enough. I guess that is part of a racing driver's life. If you don't have desire to go even further and you get happy with what you have, you're not prepared to stay the same competitor, you're simply not prepared to drive any more, and so you better give up."

Zanardi also has talked frequently of the hardships imposed on him and his family by racing primarily in the United States while living in Italy and how of one day he hoped to continue his career in Europe. Undoubtedly, those feelings have been magnified by the birth Sept. 7 of his and wife Daniela's first child, Nicolo.

One thing Zanardi insists he does not have, however, is a "desire for revenge" or a sense of unfinished business in Formula One, where he was winless in 25 races for three teams from 1991 to '94. Instead, he says, he sees joining Williams (he'll have his first test with them next week in Barcelona, Spain) "as a great opportunity that I'm going to try to use the best way I can."

After, that is, three more races for Ganassi.

"This team has given me the opportunity to win," Zanardi said, "and there's no reason why I can't win the final three races."

Published 9/23/1998