Maestro Fangio

5 World Championships, 51 Grand Prix entries, 24 Grand Prix wins, 29 Pole Positions and years of breathtaking racing. One man stood out, cool and calm, amid a split second world where time is told in tenths – Juan Manuel Fangio. No man has ever given more to Formula One than the exceptional Fangio; arguably the best Formula One race driver the world has ever seen who always drove his car like the wind.

Nick named ‘bow-legged’ by his peers, Fangio was born in Balcarce, a small town in Argentina. At the age of eleven, the young Fangio went to work in a garage.  When he was seventeen, he rode as a mechanic in a race for Model T Ford. Since then Fangio drove all makes of American modified stock cars, participated in extremely long distance races (some even thousands of miles), which later made Formula One races seem like child’s play. Making a note of that, the government sponsored Fangio and sent him to Europe to pursue his racing career after the end of World War II. At the age of 38, Fangio was given a drive at Alfa Romeo. From here on, the Fangio domination began, at an age when many drivers think of retiring.

In 1952, since he had missed a connecting flight, he drove all the way from Paris to Monza to take part in a race; a promise he had made. An already exhausted Fangio crashed his car during the race, breaking his neck pretty badly. The accident left him with a permanently stiff upper torso. It took him a whole year to recover. But, post his recovery there was no looking back.

Through the sweeping high speed curves of Spa, past the sunlit terraces of Monaco, high on the Banking, down the historic ribbon of road that is Reims, through the flat wide open spaces of Silverstone, or winding round the unrelenting Nurburgring; wherever the roar of motor racing was heard, Juan Manuel Fangio was there, leading, and unstoppable.

For reasons known to him alone, the Nurburgring circuit was his favourite. In an interview in 2000, Fangio mentioned about the 1957 German Grand Prix and how he drove his Maserati on the tremendously challenging Nurburgring circuit, and how he conquered it. Apart from Alfa Romeo and Maserati, Fangio also drove Mercedes and Ferrari.

On February 23, 1958, the second Cuban Grand Prix was held. Fangio, who had won the first race, was back to retain his title. But, on the eve of the race he was confronted by a young man brandishing a pistol. Fangio was kidnapped. Interestingly, he was later released and remained a good friend of his captors ever since. And on 6^th July, 1958, after miles and miles of jaw-dropping car racing, he drove his last race in the French Grand Prix and retired at the age of 46. This was the end of an era never to be forgotten.

Fangio was a quiet man, not an extrovert. Virtues of honesty, integrity, self-discipline, respect for others and the sense of responsibility was typical of the man, and that characterized his approach to life. He was a true gentleman in every sense of the word, and will be always remembered as an ageing genius who showed young race drivers how to go fast and how to win.