Juan Manuel Fangio (Spanish: [ˈxwan maˈnwel ˈfaŋxjo], Italian: [ˈfandʒo]; 24 June 1911 – 17 July 1995) was an Argentine racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1958. Nicknamed "el Chueco" and "el Maestro", Fangio won five Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles and—at the time of his retirement—held the record for most wins (24), pole positions (29), fastest laps (23), and podium finishes (35), among others.
From childhood, Fangio abandoned his studies to pursue auto mechanics. In 1938, he debuted in the newly-formed Argentine stock car racing series Turismo Carretera, competing in a Ford V8. In 1940, he competed with Chevrolet, winning the Grand Prix International Championship and devoted his time to the Turismo Carretera becoming its champion, a title he successfully defended a year later. Fangio then competed in Europe between 1947 and 1949, where he achieved further success.
One of the most successful drivers in Formula One history, Fangio made his debut in the inaugural Formula One season in 1950 to dominate the first decade of the championship. He went on to win the World Drivers' Championship five times—a record that stood for 46 years—and became the only driver in F1 history to win titles with four different teams: Alfa Romeo (1951), Maserati (1954 and 1957), Mercedes-Benz (1954 and 1955), and Ferrari (1956). He holds the highest winning percentage in Formula One at 46.15%, winning 24 of 52 Formula One races he entered. Additionally, Fangio also holds the record for the highest pole percentage at 55.77%, achieving 29 pole positions from 52 entries. Fangio is the only Argentine driver to have won either the World Drivers' Championship or the Argentine Grand Prix.
Among his greatest F1 wins is the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix, contested in very hot weather for three hours. While the few other finishing cars were driven by two or three younger drivers who took turns, the 44 year old drove the whole race on his own, and set fastest lap doing so. His last GP win was for Maserati at the 1957 German Grand Prix where he faced better Ferrari cars, and opted to make a pit stop for fuel and tyres. After this stop was delayed by mistakes, and his lead was lost, he patiently drove with new tyres and half full tank, then went all-out and caught up to the leaders by taking unprecedented risks and beating the lap record several times.
Fangio also competed in endurance sports car racing, winning the 1953 Carrera Panamericana and the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1956 with Ferrari and in 1957 with Maserati. He finished second in the 1955 Targa Florio, and twice in the Mille Miglia.
After retirement, Fangio presided as the honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina from 1987, a year after the inauguration of his museum, until his death in 1995. In 2011, on the centenary of his birth, Fangio was remembered around the world and various activities were held in his honor.
Fangio's grandfather, Giuseppe Fangio, emigrated to Buenos Aires from Italy in 1887. Giuseppe was able to buy his own farm near Balcarce, a small town near Mar del Plata in southern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, within three years by making charcoal from tree branches. Giuseppe brought his family, with his 7-year son Loreto, later the racing driver's father, to Argentina from the small central Italian town of Castiglione Messer Marino in the Chieti province of the Abruzzo region. His mother, Herminia Déramo, was from Tornareccio, slightly to the north. Fangio's parents married on 24 October 1903 and lived on farms, where Herminia was a housekeeper and Loreto worked in the building trade, becoming an apprentice stonemason.
Fangio was born in Balcarce on 24 June 1911, San Juan's Day, at 12:10 am. His birth certificate was mistakenly dated 23 June in the Register of Balcarce. He was the fourth of six children. In his childhood he became known as El Chueco, the bandy-legged one, for his skill in bending his left leg around the ball to shoot on goal in football games.
Fangio started his education at School No. 4 of Balcarce, before transferring to School No. 1 and 18 Uriburu Av. When Fangio was 13, he dropped out of school and worked in Miguel Angel Casas auto mechanics' workshop as an assistant mechanic. When he was 16, he started riding as a mechanic for his employer's customers. He developed pneumonia that almost proved fatal, after a football game where hard running had caused a sharp pain in his chest. He was bed-ridden for two months, cared for by his mother.
After recovering, Fangio served compulsory military service at the age of 21. In 1932 he was enlisted at the Campo de Mayo cadet school near Buenos Aires. His driving skills caught the attention of his commanding officer, who appointed Fangio as his official driver. Fangio was discharged before his 22nd birthday, after taking his final physical examination. He returned to Balcarce where he aimed to further his football career. Along with his friend José Duffard he received offers to play at a club based in Mar del Plata. Their teammates at Balcarce suggested the two work on Fangio's hobby of building his own car, and his parents gave him space to do so in a rudimentary shed at the family home.
After finishing his military service, Fangio opened his own garage and raced in local events. He began his racing career in Argentina in 1936, driving a 1929 Ford Model A that he had rebuilt. In the Tourismo Carretera category, Fangio participated in his first race between 18 and 30 October 1938 as the co-driver of Luis Finocchietti. Despite not winning the Argentine Road Grand Prix, Fangio drove most of the way and finished fifth. In November of that year, he entered the "400 km of Tres Arroyos", but it was suspended due to a fatal accident.
During his time racing in Argentina, Fangio drove Chevrolet cars and was Argentine National Champion in 1940 and 1941. One particular race, the 1940 Gran Premio del Norte, was almost 10,000 km (6,250 mi) long, one that Fangio described as a "terrible ordeal". This rally-style race started in Buenos Aires on 27 September, and ran up through the Andes and Bolivia to Lima, Peru, and then back to Buenos Aires, taking 15 days, ending on 12 October with stages held each day. This gruelling race was held in the most difficult and varied conditions imaginable—drivers had to traverse through hot and dry deserts, insect-ridden jungles with crushing humidity, freezing cold and sometimes snowy mountain passes with 1,000 feet (300 m) cliff drops at extremely high altitude, sometimes in total darkness, and cold, highly elevated deserts such as the Atacama- all on a mixture of dirt and paved roads- none of which were closed off to the public. Early in the race Fangio hit a large rock and damaged the car's driveshaft, which was replaced in the next town. Later on at an overnight stop in Bolivia one of the townspeople crashed into Fangio's car and bent an axle—he and his co-driver spent all night fixing it. Following this repair the fan blade got loose and punctured the radiator, which meant another repair before it was later replaced. They drove 150 miles (240 km) through scorching desert with no water, and during a night stint one of the headlights fell off and they had to be secured with his co-driver's necktie. The weather in the Andes mountains and the Atacama was so cold that Fangio drove with his co-driver's arms around him for hours. These mountainous routes in Bolivia and Peru sometimes involved going up to altitudes of 14,000 feet (4,300 m) above sea level—a 40 percent reduction of air thickness, making breathing incredibly difficult and the engine being severely down on power. When Fangio finally got out of the mountains and back to Buenos Aires, after traversing all these external challenges, he had won the race, which was his first big victory.
In 1941, Fangio beat Oscar Gálvez in the Grand Prix Getúlio Vargas in Brazil, which was a six-day, 3,731-kilometre (2,318 mi) public road race starting from and ending at Rio de Janeiro, going through various cities and towns all over Brazil such as São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. For the second time, Fangio was crowned champion of Argentine TC. In 1942, he took tenth place in the South Grand Prix. In April he won the race "Mar y Sierras", and then had to suspend activity due to World War II. In 1946, Fangio returned to racing with two races in Morón and Tandil driving a Ford T. In February 1947, Fangio competed at National Mechanics (MN) at the Retiro circuit, and on 1 March, he started the race for Rosario City Award. Subsequently, Fangio triumphed in the Double Back Window Race.