Juan Manuel Fangio Juan Manuel Fangio (American Spanish: , ; 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995), nicknamed ''El Chueco'' ("the bowlegged" or "bandy legged one") or ''El Maestro'' ("The Master" or "The Teacher"), was an Argentine racing car driver. He dominated t ...

was an Argentinian racing driver who won five

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

world championships. He won 24 out of 52 races in his career and formerly held the record for the most Grand Prix victories for eleven years. He entered Formula One with

Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." ...

at the inaugural Formula One season to become a pioneer of the sport alongside fellow World Champions Giuseppe Farina and Alberto Ascari, finishing runner-up behind Farina before clinching his maiden drivers' title the following year. Fangio became one of the leading drivers in the early days of Formula One as he dominated the mid-

1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...

by winning four consecutive world championships with

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

Mercedes Mercedes may refer to: People * Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name Automobile-related * Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...

and

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

to become the only driver to win world championships with four different teams and, most importantly, the record world champion at the time with five drivers' titles. Fangio is also the oldest driver to win a Formula One World Championship to date, aged 46 years and 41 days. Fangio achieved his first victory at the

1950 Monaco Grand Prix The 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, formally titled the ''Prix de Monte-Carlo et XI Grand Prix Automobile'', was a Formula One motor race held on 21 May 1950 at Monaco. It was race two of seven in the 1950 World Championship of Drivers. The 100-lap race ...

on 21 May, followed by two further victories at the same year in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He remained with Alfa Romeo for another season and won his maiden driver's title by achieving three victories. Following Alfa Romeo's sudden withdrawal in , Fangio found himself without a seat and was therefore unable to defend his title. He was driving instead for

BRM British Racing Motors (BRM) was a British Formula One motor racing team. Founded in 1945 and based in the market town of Bourne in Lincolnshire, it participated from 1951 to 1977, competing in 197 grands prix and winning seventeen. BRM wo ...

in non-championship Formula One races, but was later ruled out from the remainder of the season following a serious crash in

Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...

. Fangio returned to the sport in with Maserati, winning the final race of the season in

. In , he took two wins at the start of the season before joining Mercedes midway through the season, securing a further four wins en route to winning his second world championship overall. He repeated his success by winning the following three seasons from to with Mercedes, Ferrari and Maserati respectively, achieving four Grand Prix wins in 1955, followed by three in 1956 and four in 1957. The majority of his race victories came with Mercedes as he scored eight wins with the German manufacturer; he also took seven victories with Maserati, six with Alfa Romeo and the remaining three victories with Ferrari. He was most successful at the

Autódromo Oscar y Juan Gálvez The Autódromo de Buenos Aires Oscar y Juan Gálvez is a 45,000 capacity motor racing circuit in Buenos Aires, Argentina built in 1952 under president Juan Perón, named ''Autódromo 17 de Octubre'' after the date of Loyalty Day until Perón's ov ...

on home soil in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

with four victories, more than any other driver. His largest winning margin happened on three occasions (

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

) by respectively lapping the entire field. His narrowest winning margin was at the

1954 French Grand Prix The 1954 French Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Reims on 4 July 1954, the same date as the 1954 Football World Cup Final. It was race 4 of 9 in the 1954 World Championship of Drivers. The 61-lap race was won by Mercedes driver ...

by finishing just 0.100 seconds ahead of Karl Kling, which is considered as one of the closest finishes in Formula One history.

Wins

Key: * No. – Victory number; for example, "1" signifies Fangio's first race win. * Race – Race number in Fangio's Formula One career; for example "20" signifies Fangio's 20th Formula One race. * Grid – The position on the grid from which Fangio started the race. * Margin – Margin of victory, given in the format of minutes:seconds.milliseconds * – Driver's Championship winning season.

Number of wins at different Grands Prix

Fangio has won at 11 out of 12 different Grands Prix he has partaken in. The

Pescara Grand Prix Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxi ...

is the sole event he has entered and not won.

Number of wins at different circuits

Fangio has won at 12 out of 14 different circuits he has competed on. The

Aintree Motor Racing Circuit Aintree Motor Racing Circuit is a motor racing circuit in the village of Aintree, Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. The circuit is located within the Aintree Racecourse and used the same grandstands as horse racing. It was b ...

and the

Circuito di Pescara The Coppa Acerbo was an automobile race held in Italy, named after Tito Acerbo, the brother of Giacomo Acerbo, a prominent fascist politician. Following Italy's defeat in World War II, and the consequent demise of fascism, the race was renamed the ...

are the circuits he has driven on and not won.

Notes

References

External links