Juan Manuel
Fangio

Juan Manuel Fangio was born on 24 June 1911 in Balcarce, Argentina, and worked in a garage as a teenager. He began racing in Argentina in 1936 and won the Turismo Carretera championship in a Chevrolet in 1940 and 1941. In 1940 he also won the Gran Premio del Norte, a road race of almost 10,000 kilometres from Buenos Aires over the Andes to Lima and back.

In the first Formula One World Championship in 1950 he drove for Alfa Romeo, won in Monaco, Belgium and France, and finished second in the standings. In 1951 he won in Switzerland, France and Spain and secured his first title in the final race. In 1952 he had no championship starts: Alfa Romeo had withdrawn, and a serious crash in a non-championship race at Monza ended his year.

In 1953 he finished runner-up for Maserati and won at Monza. In 1954 he won for Maserati first, switched to Mercedes during the season and became champion for the second time; a third title followed with Mercedes in 1955. With Ferrari he took his fourth title in 1956. In the final race, the Italian Grand Prix, he took over Peter Collins's car and the two shared the points. In 1957 he won a fifth title with Maserati. At the German Grand Prix he won after a botched pit stop had left him about 50 seconds behind, and it was his last victory.

Fangio retired after the 1958 French Grand Prix. He made 51 starts, with 24 wins, 35 podiums and 29 pole positions, and his five titles stood as a record until Michael Schumacher surpassed them in 2003. In sports cars he won the 1953 Carrera Panamericana and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1956 and 1957. The Fangio museum opened in Balcarce in 1986, and he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990. He died in Buenos Aires on 17 July 1995.

Source: Wikipedia, “Juan Manuel Fangio”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.