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Sports Legend - Juan Manuel Fangio

Simply Known as “Maestro” (Master or Teacher) this shy Argentinean was the first man to win five World formula one championships titles. He drove in the days when cars and values were different, his talent and technical qualities will always be admired in the automobile racing world, for his excellence, had no equal.   
        
 Juan Manuel Fangio was born June 24 1911 en Balcarce, Argentina.

The son of a working class Italian immigrant family, worked as a young man in a mechanic garage. His other passion apart from cars was football (soccer).

In 1934, he began racing and the simple fact that he survived made him a champion, due to fact that Argentines circuits at the time were very precarious and dangerous. Fangio turned out to be a persistent fighter, which made him Argentine National Champion twice, (1940, and 1941). He hoped to go to Europe in search of greater glories, World War II postponed those dreams, but in 1947 finally did so with Peron’s government financial aid.

From Europe Fangio could demonstrate to the world his driving abilities. With his small body frame and his low tone of voice, when he sat behind the steering wheel, he became an exceptional driver, as no one saw before. Fangio talked about car racing from two points of view, it had to be scientifically studied, and simultaneously like a work of art that had to be cared for as such - he used to compare it to the painting.

In the middle of 1950, at the beginning of modern era Grand Prix racing, on his debut in Formula 1, Fangio drove for Alfa Romeo. In that year, he finished second but soon he gained his first World Championship in 1951. During a race in 1952, he suffered a serious accident at Monza, his neck was broken, and that kept him away from racing for almost two seasons. In 1954 he moved from Maserati to Mercedes, a move that helped him conquer his second world title, in a series of titles to come, always obtaining pole position and winning six of eight races of the championship. The following year and again with a Mercedes, his wins his third world championship and Sterling Moss joins him as his teammate. The young Sterling idolized his older mentor and used to call him "Master” affectionately.

In 1955 at Le Mans, when Fangio was indirectly involved in an accident that caused the death of eighty-one spectators, this had an impact on his career. Mercedes retired from motor racing and there was a real risk of European governments prohibiting F1 because of the tragedy. When he moved to Ferrari, Fangio recovered the glory of F1, obtaining six pole positions in seven races and winning three of them (in the other four he came in second) to claim his fourth, and as they say, his best, World Championship.

In 1957, he left Ferrari to return to Maserati, winning the fifth world title with an extraordinary performance. In the German circuit of Nürburgring driving a light Maserati 250F, he run out of fuel thus he had to start from behind, and with one lap to go he managed to overtake the two (first and second) Ferraris , astonishing both the crow and the rest of the drivers through his virtuosity. This gave him, in February of 1958, the annual French Academy Sports Award, for the most outstanding sport feat in the world.

After a few races in 1958, he retired from motor sports, having nothing to prove to anyone, he simply said, “It has finished”. He returned to his garage with the “rescue” of the F1 post Le mans in his conscience and having established a standard of excellence and mastering over the machine that will never be equaled.

He calmly passed away on July 17 1995 at the age of eighty-four. Of all those that came after his retirement, the legendary Fangio said that only Jim Clark and Ayrton Senna had come close to his abilities on the steering wheel.

In nine seasons, he drove fifty-one Races with twenty-four Victories, twenty-nine Pole Positions. twenty-three Lap Records, two hundred and forty-five Points, and five F1 World Championships.