Zanardi: 'I want to mix with those guys again'

Alex Zanardi is confident that he will be successful on his return to CART. "My situation is very particular," said Zanardi. "I'm at a point of my career where I don't feel I've given what I could. I think I can still drive very fast and I can still achieve great satisfaction for my team, for myself and for our sponsors.

"Having said that, right now I couldn't find motivation just from a good salary. I couldn't find it from the ego of seeing my name in a big column in a very important magazine. I mean, those things are nice, those things are obviously important, but are not everything.

"One day you wake up and you say, 'I want to do something that makes me feel alive, that proves to me that again, you know, I can do it. I want to mix myself up with those guys again.'"

The double champion, who signed for Mo Nunn Racing this week left the series after winning in1998 to join the Williams F1 team for what turned out to be a major disappointment for all concerned. He and the team parted company after one year of a three year contract with Williams.

But now the Italian is itching to race again. "I miss the feeling that you get when you go around the corner. I know the oval in Rio is not going to be part of our calendar, unfortunately, but the sensation when you're coming out of a corner like Turn 1 in Rio, go through third, fourth, fifth, sixth gear, feel the power of the engine, the lateral forces pushing you towards the wall, but you're fighting the car to keep it on the road, it's fantastic.

"It's certainly the main reason why I decided to drive again. It's also challenging the fact that although Morris (Nunn) is not a teenager, certainly his team is a very young team, a very hungry team, a team that wants to succeed. I think we've got everything with the Reynard chassis and especially with the Honda engine. We got everything it takes to try to do well this coming year."

To read the full Mo Nunn Racing press conference transcript, with Nunn, Zanardi and Tony Kanaan, click HERE.