Juan Manuel Fangio

Juan Manuel Fangio (24 June 1911 - 17 July 1995), nicknamed "El Chueco" ("knock-kneed") or "El Maestro" ("The Master"), was an Argentine racing driver who competed in Formula One from 1950 to 1958 and became one of motorsport's greatest legends. Born in Balcarce, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, Fangio's path to Formula One glory was unconventional—he began racing relatively late and was considered "over the hill" by many when he began his assault on Europe at age 36. Fangio made his debut in the 1938 Turismo Carretera series, a popular stock car racing series in Argentina, driving a Ford V8. By 1940, now driving a Chevrolet, he won the championship and repeated the feat the following season, establishing himself as Argentina's leading racing driver.

His European campaign began in earnest after World War II when he traveled to Europe with Argentine government support. Fangio won the Formula One World Drivers' Championship five times—in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1957—an achievement that remained unbeaten for 46 years until Michael Schumacher won his sixth title in 2003. What makes Fangio's achievement even more remarkable is that he became the only driver in Formula One history to win championships with four different teams: Alfa Romeo (1951), Maserati (1954 and 1957), Mercedes-Benz (1954 and 1955, though primarily Mercedes in 1955), and Ferrari (1956). This demonstrated his extraordinary adaptability and ability to extract maximum performance from different machinery.

Fangio holds the highest winning percentage in Formula One history at 46.15%, winning 24 of the 52 Formula One World Championship races he entered, a record of consistency and dominance that remains unmatched. His victories came during the sport's most dangerous era, when safety equipment was minimal and fatal accidents were tragically common. Many of Fangio's contemporaries died in racing accidents, yet Fangio navigated this perilous period with exceptional skill and judgment.

His 1957 German Grand Prix victory at the Nürburgring is considered one of the greatest drives in motorsport history, where he overcame a lengthy pit stop to hunt down and pass Ferrari drivers Peter Collins and Mike Hawthorn, setting lap records on virtually every lap in a display of sustained speed that has become legendary. Fangio's driving style was characterized by smoothness, mechanical sympathy, and supreme racecraft rather than raw aggression. He famously said he aimed to win races at the slowest possible speed to preserve the car, a philosophy that served him well in an era of mechanical fragility. After retiring from racing in 1958, Fangio returned to Argentina where he became a national hero and served as honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina from 1987, a year after the inauguration of the Fangio Museum in Balcarce, until his death.

When Lewis Hamilton equaled Fangio's five titles in 2018, he praised Fangio, calling him the "Godfather of our sport." Fangio passed away on 17 July 1995 at age 84 in Buenos Aires, revered in Argentina as one of the greatest sportsmen the nation has ever produced and remembered worldwide as perhaps the greatest racing driver of all time, pound-for-pound.