50 Fun Facts About Juan Manuel Fangio

Which country was Juan Manuel Fangio from?

He remains the only driver from his country to have won either the World Drivers' Championship or his home Grand Prix.

How many Formula One World Drivers' Championships did Fangio win?

He won them in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957, all after his 40th birthday.

Which driver finally surpassed Fangio's record number of world titles in 2003?

The record had stood for 46 years; the German said Fangio was 'on a level much higher than I see myself'.

What nickname, meaning 'the master', do Argentines use for Fangio?

His other nickname, El Chueco, came from his football-playing days.

Fangio's childhood nickname El Chueco referred to what?

He earned it for the way he bent his left leg around the ball to shoot in football games.

In which Argentine town was Fangio born in 1911?

His grandfather had emigrated from Italy's Abruzzo region and bought a farm nearby by making charcoal.

How many different teams did Fangio win world titles with, a record that still stands?

No other driver has managed titles with more than two teams.

With which team did Fangio win his first world championship in 1951?

He clinched it at the final race in Spain, six points ahead of Alberto Ascari.

Who beat Fangio to the very first world championship in 1950 as his teammate?

Fangio won every race he finished that year but three retirements handed his teammate the crown.

How many World Championship Grands Prix did Fangio win from 52 entries?

That works out to a winning percentage of 46.15 percent, still the highest in the sport's history.

What was Fangio's Formula One winning percentage, the highest ever?

Alberto Ascari's 40.63 percent is second best.

In which Argentine stock-car series did Fangio make his 1938 debut in a Ford V8?

He was the series champion in 1940 and 1941 driving Chevrolets.

Fangio's first big victory, the 1940 Gran Premio del Norte, ran from Buenos Aires to which city and back?

The nearly 10,000 km rally through the Andes took 15 days, with a headlight at one point tied on with his co-driver's necktie.

Which Argentine leader's government bought Fangio a Maserati and sent him to Europe in 1948?

Throughout his career he was backed by funding from that government via the Argentine Automobile Club.

Fangio's co-driver Daniel Urrutia died in a 1948 road race from Buenos Aires to which capital?

Fangio lost control in thick coastal fog in northern Peru and briefly believed he would never race again.

What serious injury did Fangio suffer in his 1952 Monza crash after driving overnight from Lyon?

He had missed a flight, arrived half an hour before the start and crashed on lap two; he spent the rest of the year recovering.

Which Mexican open-road race did Fangio win in 1953 driving a Lancia D24?

He set a record time of 18.5 hours over five days without winning a single stage.

What was the Mercedes-Benz Formula One car Fangio drove to his 1954 and 1955 titles?

It came in both streamlined closed-wheel and open-wheeled forms; one of them fetched $30 million at auction in 2013.

Which Maserati model did Fangio drive in early 1954 and again through his 1957 title season?

He won in Buenos Aires and Spa in it before Mercedes arrived mid-season in 1954.

How many of the eight championship races did Fangio win in 1954?

They include Monte Carlo, Monza, Montmelo, Stuttgart and Buenos Aires, plus one German circuit.

Fangio won the 1955 Argentine GP alone as rivals shared cars. What was the air temperature?

Track temperature topped 57 degrees; his leg was badly burned by the hot chassis and took three months to heal.

Fangio twice came second in which 1,000-mile Italian open-road race?

In 1955 he did it with a Mercedes 300 SLR running on seven of its eight cylinders.

Which Ferrari teammate handed Fangio his car at the 1956 Italian GP, forfeiting his own title?

They shared the six points for second place, which was enough to give Fangio his fourth crown.

Fangio won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1956 sharing a Ferrari with which driver?

He won Sebring again in 1957 with Jean Behra in a Maserati 450S.

At which circuit did Fangio's celebrated 1957 comeback drive win the German Grand Prix?

After a botched pit stop dropped him 50 seconds behind, he broke the lap record repeatedly and repassed both Ferraris on the penultimate lap.

By how many seconds did Fangio beat the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins at the 1957 German Grand Prix?

On lap 20 he had lapped a full eleven seconds faster than anything the Ferraris could manage.

In which race did Fangio compete for the last time in Formula One, in 1958?

Race leader Mike Hawthorn braked before the line so the lapped Fangio could complete the full distance.

What did Fangio say to his mechanic on climbing out of his car after his final race?

He was famous for winning at what he called the slowest possible speed, to conserve unreliable cars.

In February 1958 Fangio was kidnapped in which city?

Two gunmen from Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement took him from the Hotel Lincoln the night before the Cuban Grand Prix.

How long did Fangio's captors hold him in 1958 before releasing him?

They let him listen to the race on the radio and he later said he had been treated very well.

What was the kidnappers' aim in seizing Fangio?

Batista ordered the race to go ahead anyway, and many Cubans concluded he was losing his grip on power.

What was the title of the 1999 Argentine film that dramatised the 1958 kidnapping in Cuba?

It was directed by Alberto Lecchi.

How much was Fangio offered to qualify a car at the 1958 Indianapolis 500, an offer he declined?

He was not interested in racing cars that gave him no chance to win, and both cars barely made the last row with other drivers.

Which young driver did Fangio meet at a German circuit in 1984 and later call his 'heir and successor'?

After the Brazilian's death in 1994, Fangio attended his funeral in Sao Paulo.

In 1994 Fangio fought a Buenos Aires law that denied driving licences to people over what age?

He reportedly challenged officials to race him to Mar del Plata in under two hours, and an exception was made.

How much did a Mercedes-Benz W196R raced by Fangio sell for at auction in England in 2013?

It was a record price for any car sold at auction at the time.

In Australian slang, what does the phrase 'to fang it', derived from Fangio's name, mean?

Popularised by Mad Max, it was recorded as early as 1969 in an Alexander Buzo play.

How many statues of Fangio by sculptor Joaquim Ros Sabate stand at race venues around the world?

They include Monte Carlo, the Nurburgring, Monza, Montmelo, Stuttgart and Buenos Aires.

Which supercar maker released a model named in Fangio's honour ten years after his death?

Pagani founder Horacio Pagani, an Argentine, was a friend and attended the 2021 reburial ceremony.

Which driver equalled Fangio's tally of world titles in 2018 and called him the 'Godfather of our sport'?

He went on to a seventh title in 2020, matching Schumacher's total.

In which year did Fangio die, aged 84, in Buenos Aires?

Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart were among his pallbearers at the Casa Rosada.

In 2021 Fangio's remains were moved from the cemetery in his home town to where?

The two-day ceremony coincided with the 70th anniversary of his first Formula One victory.

What speed did Fangio's car clock on the Flying Kilometer straight at Pescara in 1950?

That was on a 16-mile public road circuit, in a car with no seatbelts or roll-over protection.

What did Fangio offer Maserati's mechanics if they cured his car's vibration before the 1953 Italian Grand Prix?

He beat Nino Farina by just 1.4 seconds for his only win of the season.

Which cardiologist performed Fangio's quintuple bypass operation in 1982?

He was the Argentine surgeon who pioneered coronary bypass surgery.

From which Havana building was Fangio kidnapped by Castro's 26th of July Movement in 1958?

Two gunmen took him on 23 February; Batista ordered the race to go ahead regardless.

Fangio's grandfather Giuseppe bought his farm near Balcarce within three years by making what?

He had emigrated from Italy to Buenos Aires in 1887 and brought over his family, including seven-year-old Loreto, the driver's father.

Fangio began racing in Argentina in 1936 in which rebuilt car?

He had opened his own garage after military service; his first Turismo Carretera race came in 1938 as a co-driver.

In 1941 Fangio beat Oscar Gálvez in a six-day public road race named after which Brazilian president?

The 3,731-kilometre route began and ended in Rio de Janeiro via São Paulo and Belo Horizonte.

Where did President Carlos Menem arrange for Fangio's first funeral to be held in 1995?

Stirling Moss and Jackie Stewart were among the pallbearers in the presidential palace's White Room.