Zanardi begins new training regime.

Alex Zanardi never was a quitter and, following his horrific accident at the Lausitzring last year, the Italian is using those same powers of determination to improve his quality of life.

Having had to face up to life after both his legs were amputated in a German hospital last September, Zanardi has refused to bow to life as a recluse, bound to a wheelchair. The former F1 racer and double CART champion has new goals and, with the help of medical experts, has already set out on the long road to achieving them.

Speaking to Italian magazine Oggi, Zanardi has re-iterated his desire to take son Niccolo for walks, preferably being able to carry the boy high on his shoulders. Before that, however, he knows there is as much mental and physical fitness work to be done as ever there was for a season's racing.

Working with renowned Italian physiotherapist Paolo Panizzi, Zanardi has already started to get around with the help of prosthetic legs made from the sort of materials that he would have expected to find on his race car had been competing in 2002. Eventually, however, the carbon-fibre and titanium limbs will be replaced by electronically-aided ones, which should increase the Italian's mobility even further. Until then, however, Zanardi has to pursue a rigorous training schedule to improve his strength and stability.

"I am training for a new life," he told the magazine, "And I hope that, by training every day, I will soon be able to do things I find so difficult to do at the moment. In the morning, I do walking exercises, as I must re-learn how to walk, then, in the afternoon, I have therapy for the stumps, which can still cause problems.

"Therapy is education, and training doesn't scare me. It's like working out for a big race - only the prize is different."

Zanardi has been told that it could take as long as two years before he is fully 'mobile' again, but he refuses to be bowed by the prognosis. Having been told by others worse off than himself that he had inspired them, the Italian knows that his own goals are achievable.

"It is a hard battle, but I am determined not to give up," he insisted, "I hope to return to a normal life - and to walk with my son on my shoulders."