Juan Manuel Fangio
Nation: | Argentina | ||||||||
Automobile world championship | |||||||||
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First start: | Great Britain Grand Prix 1950 | ||||||||
Last start: | 1958 French Grand Prix | ||||||||
Constructors | |||||||||
1950–1951 Alfa Romeo • 1953–1954 Maserati • 1954–1955 Mercedes • 1956 Ferrari • 1957 Maserati • 1958 Scuderia Sud Americana | |||||||||
statistics | |||||||||
World Cup balance: | World Champion ( 1951 , 1954 , 1955 , 1956 , 1957 ) | ||||||||
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World Cup points : | 277.64 | ||||||||
Podiums : | 35 | ||||||||
Leadership laps : | 1,313 over 9,031.7 km |
Juan Manuel Fangio (born June 24, 1911 in Balcarce , † July 17, 1995 in Buenos Aires ) was an Argentine automobile racing driver . He shaped the early years of Formula 1 and became world champion five times in this class - a record that was only exceeded in 2003 by Michael Schumacher . Not least because of this, Fangio is still considered one of the most successful and best racing drivers in the history of Grand Prix racing. In 51 Grand Prix starts, he won 24 times, which means he has won 47% of the races in which Juan Manuel Fangio participated, which is an unmatched success rate within Formula 1 to this day.
Life
Childhood and adolescence
Fangio was the son of Don Loreto and Herminia Fangio. During his school days he wanted to become a doctor, but he became more and more enthusiastic about cars and soon took part in a public race.
He started school when he was six and ended when he was an apprentice in a metal shop at age eleven. He soon got a job in an auto repair shop, where he first came into contact with these “hellish machines”. By cleaning and repairing the parts, he acquired a lifelong fascination with auto mechanics. At 13 he got a job as a locksmith's apprentice. To his delight, this company also prepared racing cars. In this way he expanded his knowledge of mechanics many times over. His duties also included making delivery trips to neighboring cities with pick-ups.
Career
Fangio competed in rally events in South America before World War II , killing his co-driver Daniel Urrutia in an accident. From then on he only drove alone if possible, even in sports car races in Europe.
Fangio came to Europe in 1949 and immediately won the Gran Premio di San Remo in Italy in 1949 . In the same year he got a contract in the works team of Maserati . For the Modena-based manufacturer , he quickly achieved success on the 4CLT and was hired by Alfa Romeo for the 1950 season , in which the drivers' world championship was held for the first time . In 1950, Fangio won three Grands Prix and was runner-up behind Giuseppe Farina .
It soon turned out that "El Chueco" ("The crooked leg") was superior to the competition in terms of driving ability and tactical skills despite his almost 40 years of experience. In 1951 Fangio became world champion for the first time with 37 points on the Alfetta . In 1952, Fangio drove a few races for the British BRM team, but achieved no success with the complicated and unreliable BRM P15 developed as a joint project . After Fangio suffered a serious accident in Monza , he was out for half a year. In 1953 he drove for Maserati again, but could only win one championship run. His fiercest competitor that year was Alberto Ascari , who drove a clearly superior Ferrari 500 . Fangio was runner-up behind Ascari in 1953. In the same year he won the Carrera Panamericana for Lancia .
For the 1954 season , Juan Manuel Fangio was hired as a driver by Mercedes-Benz . The new racing cars, with which the factory wanted to return to Grand Prix racing, were not finished until the French Grand Prix . In order not to risk the chances of the World Championship, Fangio drove the first races of the season in Argentina and Belgium for Maserati. With a total of six wins this season, he won the world championship for the second time. He was then named Argentina's Sportsman of the Year 1954.
In 1955 , too , Fangio drove a Mercedes-Benz W 196 and was world champion for the third time with 40 points and four wins this season. At the end of the season, Mercedes withdrew. The board of directors had already made the decision to withdraw at the end of the year in the spring of 1955 and Fangio moved to Scuderia Ferrari . In 1956 he became world champion for the fourth time with this team.
For the 1957 season, Fangio moved again to the Maserati team, with whom he became world champion for the fifth time on a 250F . In the same year, he showed his most inspiring performance on August 4, 1957 at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring , when he caught up with his rivals Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins , a seemingly hopeless deficit caused by a botched pit stop, by constantly setting new lap records drove. Fangio finished the race as the winner and thus secured his fifth world title.
On February 26, 1958, Fangio was kidnapped in Cuba by the July 26th Movement ( Fidel Castro ). Instead of taking part in a sports car race in Havana organized by the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista , he had to spend time with the revolutionaries. After his release the next day, he reported good treatment in the world's press.
In 1958 , Fangio started again, but only drove two world championship races and announced his retirement from motorsport after the French Grand Prix in Reims-Gueux . However, he continued to take part in classic car races.
Back in Argentina, Fangio passed the driving test in 1961. Despite his success story and talent, Fangio carried out his entire career without a license .
In addition, Fangio remained connected to the Mercedes-Benz brand and set up an engine plant for the Stuttgart-based company in his home country Argentina . From 1974 he was President of Mercedes-Benz Argentina SA.
Juan Manuel Fangio, who had pneumonia, had a heart attack and died of kidney failure on July 17, 1995 in Buenos Aires at the age of 84.
statistics
Records
- Oldest world champion: 46 years and 31 days (1957)
- highest win rate: 47.06%
- highest pole quota: 56.86%
- highest rate of starts from the first row: 94.11%
Statistics in the automobile world championship
These statistics include all the driver's participations in the World Automobile Championship .
Grand Prix victories
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general overview
season | team | chassis | engine | run | Victories | Second | Third | Poles | nice Round |
Points | WM-Pos. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1950 | Alfa Romeo SpA | Alfa Romeo 158/159 | Alfa Romeo 1.5 L8C | 6th | 3 | - | - | 4th | 3 | 27 | 2. |
1951 | Alfa Romeo SpA | Alfa Romeo 159/159 M. | Alfa Romeo 1.5 L8C | 7th | 3 | 2 | - | 4th | 5 | 37 (31) | 1. |
1953 | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati A6GCM / A6SSG | Maserati 2.0 L6 | 8th | 1 | 3 | - | 2 | 2 | 29.5 (28) | 2. |
1954 | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati 250F | Maserati 2.5 L6 | 2 | 2 | - | - | 1 | 1 | 17th | 1. |
Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz W 196 | Mercedes 2.5 L8 | 6th | 4th | - | 1 | 4th | 2 | 40.1 (25) | ||
1955 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz W 196 | Mercedes 2.5 L8 | 6th | 4th | 1 | - | 3 | 3 | 41 (40) | 1. |
1956 | Scuderia Ferrari | Lancia-Ferrari D50 | Ferrari 2.5 V8 | 7th | 3 | 2 | - | 6th | 4th | 33 (30) | 1. |
1957 | Officine Alfieri Maserati | Maserati 250F Tipo 2 | Maserati 2.5 L6 | 7th | 4th | 2 | - | 4th | 2 | 46 (40) | 1. |
1958 | Scuderia Sud Americana | Maserati 250F Tipo 2 / Tipo 3 | Maserati 2.5 L6 | 2 | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 7th | 14th |
total | 51 | 24 | 10 | 1 | 29 | 23 | 277.6 |
Single results
season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9 | 10 | 11 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1950 | |||||||||||
DNF | 1 | DNF | 1 | 1 | DNF / DNF | ||||||
1951 | |||||||||||
1 | (9) | 11 / (1) | 2 | 2 | DNF | 1 | |||||
1953 | |||||||||||
DNF | DNF | DNF | 2 | 2 | 2 | DNF / (4) | 1 | ||||
1954 | |||||||||||
1 | 1 | 1 | (4) | 1 | 1 | (1) | (3) | ||||
1955 | |||||||||||
1 | (DNF) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
1956 | |||||||||||
DNF / 1 | 4 / 2 | DNF | 4th | 1 | 1 | 8 / (2) | |||||
1957 | |||||||||||
1 | 1 | 1 | DNF | 1 | 2 | (2) | |||||
1958 | |||||||||||
4th | DNQ | 4th |
Legend | ||
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colour | abbreviation | meaning |
gold | - | victory |
silver | - | 2nd place |
bronze | - | 3rd place |
green | - | Placement in the points |
blue | - | Classified outside the point ranks |
violet | DNF | Race not finished (did not finish) |
NC | not classified | |
red | DNQ | did not qualify |
DNPQ | failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify) | |
black | DSQ | disqualified |
White | DNS | not at the start (did not start) |
WD | withdrawn | |
Light Blue | PO | only participated in the training (practiced only) |
TD | Friday test driver | |
without | DNP | did not participate in the training (did not practice) |
INJ | injured or sick | |
EX | excluded | |
DNA | did not arrive | |
C. | Race canceled | |
no participation in the World Cup | ||
other | P / bold | Pole position |
SR / italic | Fastest race lap | |
* | not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered |
|
() | Streak results | |
underlined | Leader in the overall standings |
Le Mans results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1950 | Automobiles Gordini | Gordini T15S | José Froilán González | failure | ignition |
1951 | Louis Rosier | Talbot-Lago T26S | Louis Rosier | failure | Leak in the oil tank |
1953 | SpA Alfa Romeo | Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM | Onofre Marimón | failure | Engine failure |
1955 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | Stirling Moss | withdrawn |
Sebring results
year | team | vehicle | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1954 | Scuderia Lancia | Lancia D24 | Eugenio Castellotti | failure | differential |
1956 | Scuderia Ferrari | Ferrari 860 Monza | Eugenio Castellotti | Overall victory | |
1957 | Maserati Factory | Maserati 300S | Jean Behra | Overall victory |
Individual results in the sports car world championship
season | team | race car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4th | 5 | 6th | 7th |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1953 |
Alfa Romeo Lancia |
Alfa Romeo 6C 3000 CM Lancia D24 |
SEB | MIM | LEM | SPA | ONLY | RTT | CAP |
2 | DNF | DNF | DNF | 1 | |||||
1954 | Lancia | Lancia D24 | BUA | SEB | MIM | LEM | RTT | CAP | |
DNF | 2 | ||||||||
1955 | Daimler-Benz AG | Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR | BUA | SEB | MIM | LEM | RTT | TAR | |
2 | DNF | 2 | 2 | ||||||
1956 | Scuderia Ferrari |
Ferrari 410 Sport Ferrari 860 Monza |
BUA | SEB | MIM | ONLY | KRI | ||
DNF | 1 | 4th | 2 | DNF | |||||
1957 | Maserati | Maserati 450S | BUA | SEB | MIM | ONLY | LEM | KRI | CAR |
DNF | 1 | 5 | |||||||
1958 | Scuderia Centro Sud | Maserati 300S | BUA | SEB | TAR | ONLY | LEM | RTT | |
DNF |
literature
- Ronald Hansen, Federico B. Kirbus : The Life Story of Juan Manuel Fangio. Edita SA, Lausanne 1956.
- Hartmut Lehbrink: Fangio & Mercedes-Benz. Alliance of the best. Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2011, text in German and English, ISBN 978-3-86852-551-9
- Günther Molter: Juan Manuel Fangio. Most successful racing driver of the 20th century. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-613-03313-9 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Juan Manuel Fangio in the catalog of the German National Library
- Fan page for Fangio
- Juan Manuel Fangio at motorsportmemorial.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Olimpias de oro www.cpd.com.ar. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
- ^ "Le Mans battlefield" (faz.net on June 14, 2005)
- ↑ Anecdotal fact mentioned in “Fangio & Mercedes Benz - Alliance of the Best”, Hartmut Lehbrin, Heel-Verlag, text in German and English, 192 pages, 200 illustrations, ISBN 978-3-86852-551-9
- ↑ Anecdotal fact mentioned on Eurosport. https://www.eurosport.fr/formule-1/les-petites-histoires-de-la-f1-fangio-ferrari-bravoure-le-temps-des-pionniers-1950-1965_sto4167883/story.shtml
- ↑ Anecdotal fact mentioned by the Franco-Argentine Chamber of Commerce https://ccfa.fr/antibrouillard/balcarce-un-musee-pour-juan-manuel-fangio-au-bout-du-monde/
- ↑ Since 2015, the FIA has decided to introduce a new rule in Formula 1: Drivers must be at least 18 years old and have passed their driving license.
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Fangio, Juan Manuel |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Argentine racing car driver |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 24, 1911 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Balcarce |
DATE OF DEATH | July 17, 1995 |
Place of death | Buenos Aires |