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Nationality ![]() |
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Formula One World Championship career | |
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Active years | 1950 – 1951, 1953 – 1958 |
Teams | Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Mercedes, Ferrari |
Races | 52 (51 starts) |
Championships | 5 (1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957) |
Wins | 24 |
Podium finishes | 35 |
Career points | 245 (277.64)[1] |
Pole positions | 29 |
Fastest laps | 23 |
First race | 1950 British Grand Prix |
First win | 1950 Monaco Grand Prix |
Last win | 1957 German Grand Prix |
Last race | 1958 French Grand Prix |
Juan Manuel Fangio (Balcarce, June 24, 1911 - Buenos Aires, July 17, 1995), nicknamed "El Chueco" ("knock-kneed") or "El Maestro" ("The Master"), was a race car driver from Argentina, who dominated the first decade of Formula One racing. He won five Formula One World Driver's Championships — a record which stood for 46 years — with four different teams (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati), a feat that has not been repeated since. Many still consider him to be the greatest driver of all time. [2]
He is the only Argentine driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, having won it four times in his career.
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Fangio was born on San Juan's day in 1911 in Balcarce, Argentina to Italian parents from the small central Italian village of Castiglione Messer Marino, near Chieti. He began his racing career in Argentina in 1934, driving a 1929 Ford Model A which he had rebuilt.[3] During his time racing in Argentina, he drove Chevrolet cars and was Argentine National Champion in 1940 and 1941.[3] He first came to Europe to race in 1949, funded by the Argentinian Automobile Club and the Argentinian government.[3]
Juan Manuel Fangio, unlike most later Formula One drivers, started his racing career at a mature age and was the oldest driver in many of his races. During his career, drivers raced almost without protective equipment. Fangio had no compunction about leaving a team, even after a successful year or even during a season, if he thought he would have a better chance with a better car. As was common at the time, several of his race results were shared with team-mates after he took over their cars during races when his own had technical problems. His rivals included Alberto Ascari, Giuseppe Farina and Stirling Moss.
Fangio's first entry into Formula One came in the 1948 French Grand Prix at Reims, where he started his Equipe Gordini Talbot from 11th on the grid but retired. He did not drive in F1 again until the following year at San Remo, but having upgraded to a Maserati 4CLT/48 sponsored by the Automobile Club of Argentina he dominated the event, winning both heats to take the aggregate win by almost a minute over Prince Bira. Fangio entered a further six F1 races in 1949, winning four of them against top-level opposition.
For the first Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1950 Fangio was taken on by the Alfa Romeo team alongside Farina and Luigi Fagioli. With competitive racing machinery following the Second World War still in short supply, the pre-war Alfettas proved dominant. Fangio won each of the three races he finished, but Farina's three wins and a fourth place allowed him to take the title. In 1950's non-championship races Fangio took a further four wins and two seconds from eight starts. Fangio won three more championship races for Alfa in 1951 at the in Swiss, French and Spanish Grands Prix, and with the improved Ferraris taking points off his team mates, Fangio took the title in the final race, six points ahead of Ascari.
With the 1952 World Championship being run to Formula Two specifications, Alfa Romeo were unable to use their supercharged Alfettas and withdrew. As a result the defending champion found himself without a car for the first race of the championship and remained absent from F1 until June, when he drove the British BRM V16 in non-championship F1 races at Albi and Dundrod. Fangio had agreed to drive for Maserati in a race at Monza the day after the Dundrod race, but having missed a connecting flight he decided to drive through the night from Paris, arriving half an hour before the start. Badly fatigued, Fangio started the race from the back of the grid but lost control on the second lap, crashed into a grass bank, and was thrown out of the car as it flipped end over end. He was taken to hospital with multiple injuries, the most serious a broken neck, and spent the rest of 1952 recovering in Argentina.
Back to full racing fitness, Fangio began 1953 by winning the Carrera Panamericana in a Lancia D24. Back in Europe he rejoined Maserati for the championship season, and against the dominant Ferraris led by Ascari he took a lucky win at Monza. Fangio qualified second with Bonetto seventh, and Fangio set fastest lap on his way to a 1.4-second victory over Nino Farina while Bonetto retired out of fuel. Along with that win, Fangio secured three second places to finish second in the Championship, and also came third first time out in the Targa Florio.
In 1954 Fangio raced for Maserati until Mercedes-Benz entered competition in mid-season. Winning eight out of twelve races (six out of eight in the championship) in that year, he continued to race with Mercedes—driving the W196 Monoposto—in 1955 in a team that included Stirling Moss. At the end of the second successful season (which was overshadowed by the 1955 Le Mans disaster in which more than 80 spectators were killed) Mercedes withdrew from racing.
In 1956 Fangio moved to Ferrari, replacing Ascari, who had been killed in an accident, to win his fourth title. Enzo Ferrari and Fangio did not have a very warm relationship, despite their shared success. Fangio took over his team-mates cars after his suffered mechanical problems in three races, the Argentine, Monaco and Italian Grands Prix. In each case the points were shared between the two drivers. At the season-ending Italian Grand Prix, Fangio's Ferrari team mate Peter Collins, who was in a position to win the World Championship with just 15 laps to go, handed over his car to Fangio. They shared the six points won for second place, giving Fangio the World title.
In 1957 Fangio returned to Maserati, who were still using the same iconic 250F which Fangio had driven at the start of 1954. Fangio started the season with a hat-trick of wins in Argentina, Monaco and France, before retiring with engine problems in Britain. At the next race, the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring circuit, Fangio needed to extend his lead by six points to claim the title with two races to spare. From pole position Fangio dropped to third behind the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins but managed to get past both by the end of the third lap. Fangio had started with half-full tanks since he expected that he would need new tyres half-way through the race. In the event Fangio pitted on lap 13 with a 30-second lead, but a disastrous stop left him back in third place and 50 seconds behind Collins and Hawthorn. Fangio came into his own, setting one fastest lap after another, culminating in a record-breaking time on lap 20 a full eleven seconds faster than the best the Ferraris could do. On the penultimate lap Fangio got back past both Collins and Hawthorn, and held on to take the win by just over three seconds. With Musso finishing down in fourth place, Fangio claimed his fifth title. This performance is often regarded as the greatest drive in Formula One history, but it was to be Fangio's last win.
After his series of back-to-back championships he retired in 1958, following the French Grand Prix. Such was the respect for Fangio, that during that final race, race leader Hawthorn had lapped Fangio and as Hawthorn was about to cross the line, he braked and allowed Fangio through so he could complete the 50-lap distance in his final race. He would cross the line over two minutes down on Hawthorn. He won 24 World Championship Grands Prix from 51 starts - a winning percentage of 47.06%, the best winning percentage in the sport's history.
During the rest of his life after retiring from racing Fangio sold Mercedes-Benz cars, often driving his former race cars in demonstration laps. Even before he joined the Mercedes Formula One team, in the early 1950s, Fangio had acquired the Argentinian Mercedes concession. He was appointed President of Mercedes-Benz Argentina in 1974, and its Honorary President for Life in 1987.
Cuban rebels kidnapped him on February 23, 1958, but he was later released, and remained a good friend of his captors afterwards.
In 1990, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Juan Manuel Fangio died in Buenos Aires in 1995, at the age of 84. He was buried in his home town of Balcarce in Argentina.
According to the official Formula One website, "Many consider him to be the greatest driver of all time."[4] Several highly successful later drivers, such as Jim Clark, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher, have been compared with Fangio. It is generally acknowledged that such comparisons are not realistic, as the qualities required for success, the levels of competition, and the rules have changed over time.
His record of five World Championship titles stood for 45 years until German driver Michael Schumacher took his sixth title in 2003. Schumacher said, "Fangio is on a level much higher than I see myself. What he did stands alone and what we have achieved is also unique. I have such respect for what he achieved. You can't take a personality like Fangio and compare him with what has happened today. There is not even the slightest comparison."[5][6]
In his home country, Argentina, Fangio is revered as one of the greatest sportsmen the nation has ever produced. Argentinians often referred to him as The Maestro,[7][8]
His nephew, Juan Manuel Fangio II, was also a successful racing driver.
Six statues of Fangio, sculpted by Catalan artist Joaquim Ros Sabaté, are erected around the world: at Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires; Monte Carlo, Monaco; Montmeló, Spain; Nürburgring, Germany; Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, Germany; and Monza, Italy.
As a homage to him, Argentina's former national oil and gas company, Repsol YPF, launched the "Fangio XXI" gas brand. In 2005, the Zonda 2005 C12 F was named after him due to the endorsement from Fangio for Pagani (a belated honoring, as the Zonda was originally intended to be named "Fangio F1," but was changed out of respect after his death). In 2007 Maserati created a special website to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his fifth and final world championship triumph.[9]
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | WDC | Pts.[1] |
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1950 | Alfa Romeo SpA | Alfa Romeo 158 | Alfa Romeo L8C | GBR Ret |
MON 1 |
500 | SUI Ret |
BEL 1 |
FRA 1 |
2nd | 27 | |||||
Alfa Romeo 158/159 | Alfa Romeo L8C | ITA Ret* |
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1951 | Alfa Romeo SpA | Alfa Romeo 159A | Alfa Romeo L8C | SUI 1 |
500 | FRA 1* |
1st | 31 (37) |
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Alfa Romeo 159B | Alfa Romeo L8C | BEL 9 |
GBR 2 |
GER 2 |
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Alfa Romeo 159M | Alfa Romeo L8C | ITA Ret |
ESP 1 |
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1953 | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati A6GCM | Maserati L6 | ARG Ret |
500 |
NED Ret |
BEL Ret |
FRA 2 |
GBR 2 |
GER 2 |
SUI 4 |
ITA 1 |
2nd | 28 (29.5) |
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1954 | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati 250F | Maserati L6 | ARG 1 |
500 | BEL 1 |
1st | 42 (57.14) |
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Daimler Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz W196 | Mercedes-Benz L8 | FRA 1† |
GBR 4† |
GER 1 |
SUI 1 |
ITA 1† |
ESP 3 |
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1955 | Daimler Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz W196 | Mercedes-Benz L8 | ARG 1 |
MON Ret |
500 | BEL 1 |
NED 1 |
GBR 2 |
ITA 1 |
1st | 40 (41) |
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1956 | Scuderia Ferrari | Lancia-Ferrari D50 | Ferrari V8 | ARG 1* |
MON 2* |
500 | BEL Ret |
FRA 4 |
GBR 1 |
GER 1 |
ITA 2* |
1st | 30 (33) |
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1957 | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati 250F | Maserati L6 | ARG 1 |
MON 1 |
500 | FRA 1 |
GBR Ret |
GER 1 |
PES 2 |
ITA 2 |
1st | 40 (46) |
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1958 | Scuderia Sud Americana | Maserati 250F | Maserati L6 | ARG 4 |
MON | NED | 500 | BEL |
14th | 7 | ||||||
Juan Manuel Fangio | Maserati 250F | Maserati L6 | FRA 4 |
GBR |
GER |
POR |
ITA |
MOR |
* Shared drive. † Car ran with streamlined, full-width bodywork.
Sporting positions | ||
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Preceded by Ángel Lo Valvo |
Turismo Carretera champion 1940-1941 |
Succeeded by Oscar Alfredo Gálvez |
Preceded by Giuseppe Farina |
Formula One World Champion 1951 |
Succeeded by Alberto Ascari |
Preceded by Alberto Ascari |
Formula One World Champion 1954-1955-1956-1957 |
Succeeded by Mike Hawthorn |
Records | ||
Preceded by None |
Youngest Race Leader, For at least one lap in Formula One 38 years, 323 days (1950 British Grand Prix) |
Succeeded by Johnnie Parsons 31 years, 330 days (1950 Indianapolis 500) |
Preceded by Giuseppe Farina 43 years, 195 days (1950 British GP) |
Youngest Grand Prix Pole Position Winner 38 years, 331 days (1950 Monaco Grand Prix) |
Succeeded by Walt Faulkner 30 years, 103 days (1950 Indianapolis 500) |
Preceded by Giuseppe Farina 43 years, 195 days (1950 British GP) |
Youngest Grand Prix Race Winner 38 years, 331 days (1950 Monaco Grand Prix) |
Succeeded by Johnnie Parsons 31 years, 330 days (1950 Indianapolis 500) |
Preceded by Giuseppe Farina 43 years, 195 days (1950 British GP) |
Youngest driver to set Fastest Lap in Formula One 38 years, 331 days (1950 Monaco Grand Prix) |
Succeeded by Johnnie Parsons 31 years, 330 days (1950 Indianapolis 500) |
Preceded by Giuseppe Farina 43 years, 308 days (1950 season) |
Youngest Formula One World Drivers' Champion 40 years, 126 days (1951 season) |
Succeeded by Alberto Ascari 34 years, 16 days (1952 season) |
Preceded by Giuseppe Farina 2 wins (1950) |
Most Grand Prix wins 6 wins, provisionally, 3rd at the 1950 French GP |
Succeeded by Alberto Ascari 13 wins, 7th at the 1952 Dutch GP |
Preceded by Alberto Ascari 13 wins (1950 - 1955) |
Most Grand Prix wins 24 wins, 14th at the 1955 Argentine GP |
Succeeded by Jim Clark 25 wins, 25th at the 1968 South African GP |
Preceded by None |
Most Grand Prix entries 52 entries, 51 starts (1950 - 1958) |
Succeeded by Jean Behra 53 entries (52 starts), 53rd at the 1959 German GP |
Awards and achievements | ||
Preceded by Inaugural award |
Olimpia de Oro 1954 |
Succeeded by Pascual Pérez |
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Persondata | |
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NAME | Fangio, Juan Manuel |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
SHORT DESCRIPTION | race car driver from Argentina, who dominated the first decade of Formula One racing |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 24, 1911 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Balcarce, Argentina |
DATE OF DEATH | July 17, 1995 |
PLACE OF DEATH | Buenos Aires, Argentina |