El maestro: Juan Manuel Fangio

Balcarce, 24 June 1911 - Buenos Aires, 17 July 1995: Argentina is Juan Manuel Fangio’s birthplace; he is considered by many to be the greatest racing driver in the history of Formula 1. He won five World Drivers’ Championship titles (with four different teams); he started from the front row 48 times (including 29 pole positions) and has totaled 35 podiums, 24 of which resulted in victories.

 I learned to approach racing like a game of billiards. If you bash the ball too hard, you get nowhere. As you handle the cue properly, you drive with more finesse

Fangio was a modern driver for his time: very careful schemer, engineer, all in the name of an absolutely personal driving style. Fate, but above all his superfine intelligence, lead him on the most suited cars, so that he could always show off the precision of his driving.

Fangio flourished in Formula 1 at a fairly advanced age: most of his opponents were young enough to be his children, and almost all came from privileged backgrounds; nothing to do with Fangio’s humble origins, born and raised in a remote corner of Argentina. His parents were immigrant workers from the Abruzzi region of Italy, to whom Fangio was deeply devoted. Fangio gave his parents credit for teaching him the virtues of honesty and integrity, self-discipline, respect for others and a sense of responsibility that characterized his approach to life. At the age of 11, Fangio started working as a mechanic, testing his "creations"  in incredibly hard South American long distance circuits: these tracks made Formula 1 events seem like child's play! When at the age of 38 he went to Europe to compete in motorsport, he brought with him an unrivaled repertoire of mechanical knowledge and racing experience.

Fangio's monument in Abruzzo, Italy

Nicknamed 'El Chueco' (a term used ironically in Spanish as "crooked legs"), he disproved a personal magnetism that, along with his driving exploits, made him a figure of world adulation. Women found him enormously attractive and, although he never married (even though he had a 20-year relationship), he never missed women’s company. In 1958 he became even more famous when he was kidnapped  by members of the Cuban revolutionary movement of Fidel Castro, in order to draw attention to their cause! Like all those who met him, his jailers were fascinated by Fangio and eventually freed him. He was a true gentleman, the exception to the rule: not always good guys end up last. His generosity of spirit, his sense of fair play and his pure humanity have been universally praised and appreciated, especially by his peers.

"Members of Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement kidnapped Juan Manuel Fangio"

The first iridescent title came in 1951, on Alfa Romeo’s seat. Here begins an incredible adventure that will take him from one team to another and that still makes the Argentine campeon the emblem of transversality, as well as an unrivaled myth in choosing which car to sit on year after year. He couldn't win the titles in 1952 and 1953 (which were taken by Ascari and Ferrari), so he chose to go to Mercedes with which he dominated the two following championships. When Mercedes withdraws, here he is at Ferrari winning a new world title. But at the end of 1956 the incompatibility with Enzo Ferrari will make the divorce inevitable, not without mutual "reproaches". In 1957 he was at Maserati, where he won yet another title, the fifth, which will be an absolute record until 2003 when Michael Schumacher wins his sixth personal.

In 1959 Fangio decided to retire, at the age of forty-seven years old. With his retirement, an iconic and unrepeatable page of the history of motorsport was officially closed. He did not only compete in F1: we remember a formidable success at the 1954 Carrera Panamericana and two 12 Hours of Sebring. «If I knew how he did what he did, I would have then done it myself!» would have said Stirling Moss about him.