1950-1959

The 1950s were the goldern age of motor racing. The nurburgring saw its far share of great races. Best amoung the best of them must be the 1957 Grand Prix.

The race of the maestro's life : Nurbürgring 1957

Juan manuel Fangio was the first driver to win five Grand Prix championships : in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957.

In a legendary race at the Nurbürgring he took his last title. He owed the victory to his driving skills after the chosen strategy failed.

He drove a Maserati 250 F and his main adversaries, were Peter Collins and mike Hawthorn, both with Ferraris.

Fangio knew he had to make a pit stop for tyre change during the race, while the Ferraris could do without. So he took just enough fuel to make it to the stop. His lighter car should allow him to build a considerable advance. the advance was 30 seconds when he made the pit stop on lap 12 ; however, the break lasted 52 seconds and Collins and Hawthorn took the lead. On lap twenty Fangio had bridged the gap but for two seconds, beating the lap record several times. he passed Collins and then Hawthorn and crossed the line 3,6 seconds ahead.

After the end of the race he said he hoped to never again win a race in that way !

Karl Kling's testimony about Juan manuel Fangio

When the name Fangio is mentioned, for me he was one of the greatest drivers of those days, and one of the most congenial and fair ! A good colleague and a principled sportsman. Few were quite so fait as fangio.I was in a position to experience that. Few were as open and above-board as fangio was at that time.

In Argentina Juan Perón himself was a fan of motorsport. he provided a great deal of support for fangio. After he took note of him in the beginning (Fangio had his own private Grand Premio Standard Chevrolet, which is what made him great in the first place) Perón recognized very early that fangio was a great talent, and supported him.

I came into contact with fangio fairly frequently in the sport. Once, for example, I was faster than him at the Nüburgring. Fangio immediately move aside. he didn't defend his position or anything like that. twice at monza I was faster than him at certain places - And he moved over. I can't say the same of many others.

Fangio remarked : "We came up against each other a few times."Perhaps at such moments I had a bit better engine ; that could well be. purely from a driving standpoint he was better, that's all there was to it. that's why I won't hear a word said aginst him. that's why I'm honest about him.

Many opportunities came that way. Sometimes I had a slightly better engine ; engine performance was scattered over a broader range then. they were not at all the same. When I got into the car I could tell immediately : "You've got a good engine" or "you've got a bad engine".

Fangio didn't notice this. Because fangio was actually not that well versed technically. He sat in the car and was satisfied with it. He never said, "I'd prefer different shock absorbers for this course, or a different gear ratio". Fangio got in the car and drove it...

However, Fangio was the faster. He could always pull out a few more stops. from time to time it was stated accurately enough that he could powerslide. Earlier this had always been his objective.

I'm not a powersliding driver, nor I am an advocate of such technique. I think that a clean, smooth lap brings me better results. But Fangio - at the extremity - could control a powerslide that was colossal. And he mastered it right to the ultimate limit.

Personally as a driver I profited a great deal from him. Frequently I found myself driving behind him ; when that happened I watched his technique. I wanted to learn somthing for him. It was a unique experience - and rarely hazardous.

I can state quite confidently that fangio and i were close friends. there is scarcely a driver - and I know a great many - whom I learned to esteem more than Juan Manuel fangio. Also a friend and comrade.

Karl Kling and Fangio

  The 1957 German Grand Prix. Click the screen to play

Start of the Nurbürgring Grand Prix in 1957. Hawthorn is leading, just ahead of Peter Collins

Juan Manuel Fangio

  was born on June 24, 1911 in Balcarce, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

  He abandoned school at the age of 12 and got a job as an apprentice in an iron-works factory and at a auto repair shop where he washed pieces of engines and learned to assemble and disassemble engines; opening the door to his passion for cars. As time went by, he learned more about mechanics and improved his driving skills. He used the auto-repair shops' car to pick up and deliver orders in neighboring towns crossing different terrains and occasionally a lagoon.

  In 1929, he run his first race in a four cylinder Chevrolet '28 in with Manuel Ayerza as co-pilot. In 1934, he began competing in argentine circuits, which were very dangerous due to the bad shape of the tracks where many drivers lost their lives. In 1938, he made his debut in the Gran Premio Argentino of the Turismo Carretera category, driving a Ford cupe '37, with Luis Finochietti, and arrived in seventh place.

  In 1940 Fangio drove a Chevrolet in the "Gran Premio Internacional del Norte", a race between Buenos Aires to Lima, (Peru) of almost five thousand kilometers crossing the finish line in the first place after 109 hours of race. The race took almost two weeks with daily phases and resulted in his first victory in the car racing. In this competition the car repairs were made by the pilot and the co-pilot at the end of every tiring phase. Many victories followed and a rivalry between Ford and Chevrolet was born. At that time, Ford was being represented by Oscar Galvez and Chevrolet by Juan Manuel Fangio, but the rivalry resulted in the start of a friendship the would last forever.

  Fangio was the Argentine champion in 1940 and 1941, but the world's economy was in decline due to the second world war and the lack of tires and the recession determined the temporary suspension of the races. During this period he became a truck salesman. He traveled back and forth in different towns and was very successful in his new job. People respected his professionalism and his honesty as a business person.

  The races resumed towards the end of the war and the Automovil Club Argentino started organizing international races of "special cars, now known as formula 1, with the best national and international racers. On the 15th of February of 1947 Fangio went back to the tracks and got the third place at the Retiro Circuit in Buenos Aires. Afterwards, the government of Juan Perón funded Fangio's trip to Europe and in 1949, at 37 years of age, he started winning races in the European circuit. In 1950, he made his debut with Alfa Romeo's formula 1 team and was victorious in San Remo's Ospedaletti circuit. That same year he participated in the First Formula 1 Championship that took place in Silverstone (England), where he had to abandon due to mechanical problems. On May 21, 1950 he obtained his first victory in the World Grand Prix of Monaco, Montecarlo, with an Alfa Romeo 158, after escaping a collision that left nine cars out o the race in the first lap. A few months later he was world champion's runner-up in Italy's Grand Prix, where his teammate Nino Farina got the title. On October 28, 1951 he obtained the Worlds Drivers Championship Award after winning the Pedralbes Grand Prix in Barcelona, Spain, with an Alfa Romeo 159, being the last race with Alfa Romeo.

  In 1952, he debuted with the British BRM of 4500 cm3 in France's Albi Grand Prix, where he abandoned the race; and later that year he suffered the worst accident of his career when he went out of the track during the first lap of the Monza Grand Prix while driving a Formula 2 Maserati A6GCM. The previous day, Fangio raced in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and lost his connection to Paris, so he drove all night to be on time for the Monza Grand Prix, arriving half an hour prior to the race. With his reflexes notably reduced due to the tiredness, he made a mistake while changing gears and the Maserati hit the side of the track and went flying. Fangio broke his neck and had cervical injuries that forced him to step of for the rest of the season.

  He was back on his feet for the 1953 season, and on the 13 of September he won again in the Formula 1 category leading in the Italian Grand Prix, and obtaining the second place in the world championship.

  In 1954 he started racing for Mercedes Benz, who allowed him to race for Maserati while the Mercedes cars where not available; and it was then that he obtained the World Championship for the the second time. Fangio ran twelve Grand Prix for Maserati, winning eight; and leading to the beginning of a winning spree of four consecutive prizes.

  In 1955 he won again with Mercedes Benz and his teammate Stirling Moss nicknamed him "El Maestro" (The Teacher) in s sign of respect and admiration. On September 11, 1955, with a win in Italy, he obtained his Third World Championship in Formula 1 and decides to leave Mercedes Benz and join Ferrari with whom he got his Fourth World Championship.

  In 1957 he went back to race for Maserati and got his Fifth World Championship on board of a Maserati 250F. In a race in Nurburgring, while leading by 28 seconds over the Ferraris driven by Hawthorn y Collins; Fangio made a pit stop and lost the 28 seconds he led plus an additional 48 seconds. With only 12 laps left he made an astonishing recovery and in the previous to last lap he passed Collins and subsequently passed Hawthorn near the curves, winning the race by 3.6 seconds. This exceptional maneuver is considered a "driving monument" in the history of formula 1 races.

  In February of 1958, Fangio was acknowledged as the author of the "Worlds' Most Outstanding Accomplishment in Sports" and received the Annual Award from the French Academy of Sports. That unbelievable race was his last conquest in Formula 1 and that same Juan Manuel Fangio decided to retire from the professional circuits after a long list of races and a glorious career.

  In 1972, the racetrack "Juan Manuel Fangio" was inaugurated in his hometown of Balcarce and in 1974 he was named honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina.

At the beginning of the 80's, Juan Manuel Fangio started to suffer heart conditions that resulted in a successful bypass surgery.

  The honors continued and on November 22, 1986 a museum named "Centro Tecnológico y Cultural Museo del Automovilismo Juan Manuel Fangio" was inaugurated in Balcarce On the 17th of July of1995, at 84 years old, he died in the city of Buenos Aires, surrounded by the love of friends and family, in a country that always cherished him.

His winning score may never be topped.