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Born: 24 June 1911, Balcarce, Argentina
Died: July 17, 1995, Balcarce, Argentina
GP Participations: 51
Pole positions:     28
Victories:            24
2nd places:         10
Fastest lap:          23
World champion ships: 5

Juan Manuel was the 4th child in a family of Italian origin.
At 16, with his passion for engines, he became car mechanic. After a stint as a driver in the army he opened a small garage in Balcarce.

In 1938 he entered a race in his own souped up Ford 34 V8 and took 3rd place. In an old Chevrolet carefully prepared, he participated in South American road races in 1939. He won the 9000 km Gran Premio International held between Buenos Aires and Lima.
In 1948 the Automobile Club of Argentina bought 2 Maseratis reserving one for Fangio. In the GP of Rosario, Fangio set a new lap record and made the international newspapers. The ACA sends Fangio to Europe to drive Simca Gordinis, but the Ferraris were unbeatable.
Back in Argentina Fangio participated in the grueling GP of South America over 9600 km. Fangio continues to have great success in South American Grand Prix’s in the ACA’s Maserati 4CLT. In ‘49 he is send again to Europe and wins the first four GP’s. The ACA sends him money and a telegram telling him to go and pick up a brand new Ferrari 2 litre in Modena, compliments of the Argentine government. He won Monza in his first race in the Ferrari.

Marcello Giambertone, track official at Monza and later Fangio's manager, tested Fangio's precise driving, by marking a spot where the right front wheel of Fangios car had last passed. To his astonishment he found that lap after lap the wheel passed within 1 cm of the mark. Fangio drove as if on rails. Back in Argentina he was welcomed as a national hero.

When the FIA organises the World Championship, Fangio teams up with Farina and Fagioli, the three FA’s of the Alfa Romeo Team. In the first year of the FIA GP, Fangio finishes second in the world championship. Juan Manuel was an exceptional driver with ultra fast reflexes. Before a race he would sleep twelve hours. He never drank nor smoked and always chewed a gum during a race like a boxer would have a mouth protector. Fangio could see like a cat in the night and had no problem driving without headlights in the pitch dark.

In 1951 winning 3 GP’s with 5 fastest laps, Fangio is for the first time World Champion. In ‘52 Alfa stops F1 competition and Fangio signs with the new BRM team.
On his way to Monza Fangio gets stuck in Paris. No flights because of bad weather and the train would take too long. He decides to rent a car and drive the 900 km. The airport hostess  exclaims; “Who do you think you are, Fangio or something?” He arrives 2 hours before the race in Monza. Too tired he hits the curb in lap 3. The crash puts him in the Monza hospital with serious neck injury and ends his season. In 1953 Fangio slowly gets back to racing. Another accident in Belgium, the great Nuvolari dies and Fangio wins...in Monza.
In 1954 Fangio signs with the new Mercedes Team. It was the perfect car for him.
The Mercedes team of Fangio, Kling and Hermann were unbeatable and often arrived one, two and three on the podium. Fangio earns his second World Championship. In 1955 Stirling Moss joins the Mercedes team and the two battle fiercely in the Mercedes 300 SIR.
On June 11th at LeMans, Hawthorn suddenly turns to the pits, Macklin steps on the brake, Levegh in the third Mercedes hits him in full acceleration and the Mercedes is catapulted into the air at 250 km/h, landing against the stands and explodes like a bomb.  Levegh dies along with 85 spectators. Fangio, just behind, miraculously escapes. It was the most tragic year in the history of motor sports.
In the next GP’s the Mercedes are still overpowering, giving Fangio his third World Champion title, but Mercedes stops F1 racing and Fangio says farewell to this spectacular automobile.
In 1956 Fangio signs with Enzo Ferrari. Fangio and Ferrari never were on good footing, they did not like each other. Suspicious that his many mechanical problems might be due to some mysterious commercial or personal interests of Ferrari, he demands a private mechanic for his car and then miraculously wins three GP’s in a row, providing his fourth World Championship and also the title for Ferrari. But Enzo was not happy at all and they part to go different ways.

In ‘57 Fangio signs with Maserati, his first love. He wins the first five races. In the GP of Germany with three Ferraris on the front row, he beats the lap record and takes the Ferraris by surprise. With eleven victories Fangio becomes World Champion for the fifth time, a record that was only beaten 46 years later by Michaël Schumacher.

 In 1958 just before the GP of Cuba, Fangio is kidnapped by the Castro guerillas to focus world wide attention on their movement. Maurice Trintignant drives Fangio’s car and Fangio was liberated after the race having been treated with great honours by Fidel Castro.
Later in the year in the 10th lap of the GP of Reims, Fangio loses his clutch. His mechanics told him to abandon, but without a clutch, shifting gears by ear and feeling, he finishes fourth. Fangio had the amazing ability to get more out of his cars and to finish a race with a car that was not fit to go another mile.
He stopped racing that year at the height of his glory, at age 47. He had achieved more than his childhood dream, and left the championship to other very eager and capable drivers.
He went back to his little village of Balcarce, with his garage and import business and became a very important Mercedes Benz dealer.

First race in Argentina

Ford V8 in 1938

In the Maserati in Argentina

Surrounded by Ascari and Farina

In Ferrari the silhouet to beat

With team mate Stirling Moss


The Fangio bronze in Monaco in the Noghès corner