49 Fun Facts About Juan Manuel Fangio

Fangio narrowly escaped the deadliest crash in motor racing history at which 1955 race?

Le Mans 24 Hours. A teammate's car flew into the crowd right in front of him, killing more than 80 people; Fangio said the doomed driver's raised hand had warned him just in time.

Which Ferrari driver won both titles between Fangio's first two?

Alberto Ascari. Fangio sat out the 1952 championship after a serious crash, and when he came back in 1953 his car was no match for Ascari's Ferrari.

Which driver finally surpassed Fangio's record number of world titles in 2003?

Michael Schumacher. After winning his sixth title in 2003 he waved away the comparison, saying Fangio was 'on a level much higher than I see myself'.

What nickname did Fangio's racing career earn him?

El Maestro, 'the master'. His mastery showed in restraint: he aimed to win every race at the slowest possible speed, nursing the car to the finish.

Fangio's childhood nickname El Chueco referred to what?

His bandy legs. El Chueco means 'the bow-legged one'; by one account the name came from the way he hooked his left leg round the ball when shooting at football.

Where in Argentina was Fangio born in 1911?

Balcarce. In 1939 his neighbours there held collections to buy him the coupe that launched him in long-distance road racing.

Which teammate narrowly beat Fangio to win the 1955 British Grand Prix?

Stirling Moss. It was his first championship win, on home soil, and he wondered for years whether Fangio had let him through; Fangio always insisted Moss was simply the faster man that day.

With which team did Fangio win his first world championship in 1951?

Alfa Romeo. He sealed the title by winning the final race, in Spain, and the team then quit Grand Prix racing, leaving its new champion without a car for 1952.

Who beat Fangio to the very first world championship in 1950 as his teammate?

Giuseppe Farina. Fangio won every championship race he finished that year, but three retirements let his teammate take the first world title.

Which Lotus driver broke Fangio's record of Grand Prix wins in 1968?

Jim Clark. His 25th win, in South Africa at the start of 1968, finally passed Fangio's 24, but it was his last Grand Prix: he was killed in a Formula Two race that April.

Where did Fangio dodge a first-lap pile-up in 1950 after noticing the crowd wasn't watching him?

Monaco. Leading towards a blind corner, he saw the backs of the spectators' heads instead of their faces, guessed that a crash lay out of sight and braked just short of the wreckage.

In which Argentine racing series was Fangio champion in 1940 and 1941?

Turismo Carretera. Its races were marathons over open public roads, and Fangio's wins at home drew the official backing that later sent him to race in Europe.

Fangio's first big victory, the 1940 Gran Premio del Norte, ran from Buenos Aires to which city and back?

Lima. The round trip of about 9,500 km crossed the Andes twice and took two weeks, and the win carried Fangio to his first Argentine road-racing title.

Which Argentine president's government sponsored Fangio's first seasons racing in Europe?

Juan Peron. His government paid for a team of Argentine drivers in Europe, and in 1949 Fangio rewarded it with wins at San Remo, Pau, Perpignan and Marseilles.

Fangio's co-driver Daniel Urrutia died in a 1948 road race from Buenos Aires to which capital?

Caracas. Driving at night through thick fog in Peru, Fangio rolled the car and Urrutia was killed; he came close to giving up racing over his friend's death.

What serious injury did Fangio suffer in 1952 after driving through the night to reach a race?

A broken neck. He had raced in Northern Ireland the day before, missed a flight and driven all night to make the start; he was out for the rest of the year.

Which gruelling open-road race did Fangio win in 1953 without taking a single stage?

Carrera Panamericana. When a teammate was killed while leading the dash across Mexico, Fangio took over at the front and his team told its drivers to hold position to the finish.

Which German make built the W196 that carried Fangio to his 1954 and 1955 world titles?

Mercedes-Benz. The bond outlasted his racing: he ran a dealership for the firm at home, became president of its Argentine company in 1974 and was later made its honorary president for life.

After leaving Ferrari, Fangio won his final title in 1957 in the 250F built by which Italian rival?

Maserati. The 250F was no new weapon: Fangio had won with the same model back in early 1954, and three years on it still carried him to four wins and the title.

Which trade did Fangio learn as a boy and practise for years before he raced in Europe?

Car mechanic. He left school young to work in a garage, and the know-how paid off in South America's road marathons, where crews had to mend their own cars between stages.

Fangio's 1956 title-winning Ferrari had actually been designed by which rival Italian marque?

Lancia. When money troubles forced it out of Grand Prix racing in 1955, Ferrari inherited its cars, and Fangio won the 1956 title in the modified Lancia-Ferrari D50.

Fangio twice finished second in which Italian open-road classic, in 1953 and 1955?

Mille Miglia. It was the great race he never won: in 1955 he tackled the thousand miles with no navigator beside him and still came second to a teammate who had one.

Which Ferrari teammate handed Fangio his car at the 1956 Italian Grand Prix, giving up his own title chance?

Peter Collins. The young Englishman could still have become champion himself, yet he gave up his car at a pit stop, and their shared second place sealed Fangio's fourth title.

Which American endurance race did Fangio win in both 1956 and 1957?

12 Hours of Sebring. He won the Florida race for Ferrari in 1956 after the Jaguar that had led for hours lost its brakes, then changed teams and won it again a year later.

At which circuit did Fangio's celebrated 1957 comeback drive win the German Grand Prix?

Nurburgring. He smashed the lap record again and again to catch two Ferraris, then admitted he had never driven so hard and never wished to again; it was his last Grand Prix win.

What went wrong for Fangio in mid-race at the 1957 German Grand Prix, leaving him far behind two Ferraris?

A botched pit stop. He had started light on fuel so as to build a lead and stop for more, but his crew fumbled the stop and a half-minute lead became a large deficit.

In which race did Fangio compete for the last time in Formula One, in 1958?

French Grand Prix. It was run at Reims, where he had made his European debut ten years before; climbing out of the car, he told his mechanic simply, 'It is finished.'

Fangio came late to Grand Prix racing, yet as of 2025 he still holds which Formula One age record?

Oldest world champion. The war halted racing at home from 1942, so he was 37 before he first raced in Europe, and 46 when he won his fifth title in 1957.

In February 1958 Fangio was kidnapped in which city?

Havana. Gunmen from Fidel Castro's rebel movement seized him at his hotel on the eve of the Cuban Grand Prix, and the showpiece race started without its defending winner.

To whom did Fangio's kidnappers hand him over, unharmed, in 1958?

His country's embassy. The gunmen apologised for the inconvenience as they dropped him off, and he told reporters he had been treated as well as if he were among friends.

Which Ford-driving brothers, later namesakes of Buenos Aires's race circuit, were Fangio's great rivals on Argentina's open roads?

The Gálvez brothers. Their duel with Fangio began in the 1940 marathon he won: Oscar, with Juan beside him, lost his lights at night and plunged off a curve into a ravine, yet both lived to race him for years.

Which American race did Fangio enter in 1958, only to withdraw before qualifying?

Indianapolis 500. It counted towards the world championship in those days, but after practising he decided the cars he had been given were not up to it and stood down.

Which driver, who revered Fangio, embraced him on the podium after winning the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix?

Ayrton Senna. He once said that even a driver who beat Fangio's records could not compare with what Fangio had achieved, and on that podium he stepped down from the top step to embrace him.

What set Fangio's win in the scorching 1955 Argentine Grand Prix apart?

Drove the whole race alone. Nearly every other finishing car had two or three drivers taking turns in the heat; Fangio stayed at the wheel for three hours and won, badly burning a leg in the process.

Fangio won his two Argentine national titles driving which American make?

Chevrolet. Fords had won every national title before him; Fangio's two championships broke their hold and began a Chevrolet-versus-Ford rivalry that outlasted his career.

In which country's slang does 'to fang it', from Fangio's name, mean to drive flat out?

Australia. Dictionaries there, the Macquarie among them, trace the verb 'fang' to a clipped form of Fangio's surname, his name having become a byword for speed.

Why was Fangio's body exhumed in 2015, twenty years after his death?

For DNA tests in paternity claims. He died unmarried and officially childless, but the tests confirmed that three men he had never recognised were his sons, and they became his heirs.

Which supercar maker released a model named in Fangio's honour ten years after his death?

Pagani. Its Argentine founder, Horacio Pagani, grew up idolising Fangio in car magazines and later became his friend; the F in the 2005 Zonda F stands for Fangio.

Which driver equalled Fangio's tally of world titles in 2018 and hailed him as the 'Godfather' of the sport?

Lewis Hamilton. Days before sealing his fifth title he called it 'crazy' to be matching a tally Fangio had set six decades earlier; a year later he passed it.

Which three-time world champion helped carry Fangio's coffin in 1995?

Jackie Stewart. A friend of many years, he was a pallbearer at the funeral and came back in 2021 to speak when Fangio's remains were moved, calling it one of the most important moments of his life.

In 2021 Fangio's remains were moved from the cemetery in his home town to where?

The museum bearing his name. A motorcade carried the coffin past his father's house and his old school to a new mausoleum there, 70 years after his first world title.

Which British team's fearsome 16-cylinder car did Fangio race in 1952 and 1953?

BRM. Its supercharged 1.5-litre V16 made well over 500 horsepower and a famous scream, but it was forever breaking: Fangio retired one in Northern Ireland the day before the crash that ended his 1952 season.

At which circuit did Fangio snatch victory at the final corner in 1953 when the leader spun?

Monza. The leader spun at the last bend of the Italian Grand Prix, the second man swerved onto the grass to miss him, and Fangio slipped through for his only win of the season.

Which heart surgeon performed Fangio's quintuple bypass operation in 1982?

Rene Favaloro. He had developed the coronary bypass operation himself at the Cleveland Clinic in the 1960s before going home in 1971, so Fangio was treated by the technique's own pioneer.

Which race leader slowed near the finish of Fangio's last Grand Prix to spare the old champion from being lapped?

Mike Hawthorn. On his way to victory he eased off rather than put a lap on the man every driver looked up to, and at the season's end he succeeded Fangio as world champion.

Fangio was named Juan because he was born on 24 June, the feast day of which saint?

John the Baptist. His feast is San Juan's Day in the Spanish-speaking world, marked with bonfires; Fangio arrived ten minutes after midnight, just in time to earn the name.

What was the day job of the borrowed Ford Fangio first raced in 1936?

A taxi. It belonged to a friend's father, and Fangio entered under the alias 'Rivadavia', the name of his football club, so that his parents would not find out he was racing.

In 1941 Fangio won a six-day public road race in Brazil named after which president?

Getúlio Vargas. He was Brazil's president at the time, and the win abroad that June sent Fangio on his way to a second straight Argentine title.

Where did President Carlos Menem arrange for Fangio's first funeral to be held in 1995?

The Casa Rosada. In 1949 the president of the day had decorated him on the palace balcony as a returning hero; 46 years later he lay in state in its White Room.