Fangio Tribute at Goodwood by Hugues Vanhoolandt

Chevrolet TC (Turismo de Carreteras) coupe with which Fangio won his first big race in 1940 that was run from Buenos Aires to Lima Peru, and back. The Gran Premio del Norte was full of memories, like the first time he heard his name shouted by the people in Rosario. Then Fangio thought, “How marvellous it would be for my father to be here to hear this!”

Volpi-Chevrolet ‘La Petisa’ in which Fangio scored six wins in Argentina and Uruguay in 1947-49. Fangio’s brother “Toto” maintained the triple carbed monoposto. It was his first ‘real’ racecar and Fangio was thrilled, remembering it as a “jewel of a car.”

Fangio’s first tests with the Alfa Romeo 158 took place at San Remo in 1950, where he won handily in his debut with the car. “I had never driven an Alfetta. On Saturday, they let me try it out. It was raining and I drove a few laps. Then I said to them. ‘Look, you’ve got nothing to lose. I’m an unknown, and if I lose, Fangio loses. If I win, Alfa Romeo wins.’ They agreed to let me race. Nice and slowly, I began to get my hand in the Alfetta, and set about beating them one by one.”

Lemans beckoned but Fangio never won the 24 hour classic. He drove this 1433 cc Gordini Coupe in 1950 teaming with his friend Gonzales. Fangio thought that Gordini was one of the first European constructors to give much credence to the power to weight ratio. While he enjoyed racing for Gordini, they often let him down. However, Fangio did win the Grand Prix of Marseille in May of 1949 with the French car.

Fangio drove a Talbot-Lago T26GS at Le Mans in 1951 with Rosier, but failed to finish. The big Talbots were favored to win; the 1950 event Rosier had one with his Talbot Lago. Results list cooling problems retired the car but Fangio recalls that the oil tank broke after a few hours.

The Gordini Type 16, in which Fangio raced at the ’51 GP of Paris, followed by a Maserati A6GCM of a type with which he won the Italian GP in 1953, 16 months after severely injuring his neck in an earlier accident at Monza. He was in a cast from the waist up for two months. He panicked, worrying about all the races he might miss. “But later I calmed down, and thanked God that I had escaped death.”

Perhaps only a Fangio could have tamed the fantastic supercharged V16 BRM, which put out around 600 hp at 12,000 rpm. He gave it its only victory at Albi in the F1 heat in May of 1953. “That [engine] had scarcely any power in the low range of rpm. But when it did start to accelerate, it was as if someone had struck you a sudden blow…it hardly went in a straight line for one moment!

In 1953, Fangio signed to drive for Lancia. The team entered the Mexican Road Race with the D24. Each class winner would take home $17,442 USD, a huge amount at the time. Fangio would win the dangerous marathon. But there was much rivalry between the team members, so Fangio suggested to Gianni Lancia that all the winnings should be pooled and shared among the drivers. “Lancia liked the idea… and what happened in the end was that all the money was equally distributed.”

The new 1954 Mercedes Benz W196 (here driven by his nephew Juan Manuel Fangio II) was beautiful but had some drawbacks due to inboard front brakes and the lack of cooling air. “My streamliner had no brakes left after ten laps, and so I couldn’t keep up with Moss and Ascari. Ascari and Moss broke down… and I won, not exactly deservedly.”

Sir Stirling Moss in Fangio’s 1955 Mercedes 300SLR. In the Mille Miglia, Fangio finished second to Moss despite a severe misfire. “An unusual problem cropped up during the race: a fuel injection pipe broke…and the engine was running on seven cylinders. In Florence they finally discovered the broken fuel injection pipe and changed it. But they didn’t change the plugs, so the car continued to run on seven cylinders.”

Fangio’s problems with the Silver Arrows, however, were few. With the team he won the World Championship in 1954 and 1955. “The best team was Mercedes…the team was so strong technically. That’s why I won eight of the twelve races I drove for them…I only retired in one (the 1955 Monaco GP). The Mercedes was a very advanced car.”

The 1956 Lancia Ferrari D50 provided Fangio with his fourth World Championship and he proved its worth at the Nurburgring and again won. The Nurburgring was Fangio’s favorite track . “The Lancia-Ferrari was a very pleasant car to drive on that circuit. It was agile in corners and braked well, qualities not shared by the Mercedes Benz cars of 1954.”

Fangio never won the Mille Miglia. Seen here is the Ferrari 290 MM he drove to fourth in 1956. “The Mille Miglia was difficult because the cars were very fast and were driven over very narrow roads. To try to run a 1000 mile race in ten hours was madness…there were parts where crowds seemed to block the roads. You would drive on, and an invisible hand would seem to part them.”

Fangio began his European career driving a Maserati, winning his first ever Grand Prix at San Remo with a 4CLT/48 in 1949, competed in 56 sports and F1 events with the marque and ended his career at Reims in 1958 aboard a 250F. Here, Jackie Stewart pilots the 250F which Fangio drove to his greatest victory at the Nurburgring in 1957. “I had never driven as I drove then, but I also knew that I’d never be able to go so fast again, ever!”

In 1955, Fangio won the Venezuelan Grand Prix with this 300S Maserati, and had many successes with both the sports and F1 Maserati cars. But by 1958 the sport was rapidly changing. The atmosphere was different, “not like before when it was a sport for its enthusiasts.” Then at the Buenos Aires 1000 sports car race, he was driving a 300S Maserati owned by Francisco Godia and made a rare mistake, going off the road and damaged the car. At the French Grand Prix in July 1958, Fangio realized that he had every excuse for quitting. “I told my mechanics that I would drive four races as long as the car went well. It was going less than well. I finished fourth. I stopped the car at the pits and by the time I had gotten out the decision was made.”

Etcetera: In 1958, Fangio was asked to participate in the Indy 500 with a Kurtis Kraft Offy. A variety of mechanical difficulties meant that Fangio was unable to qualify for the race. For Fangio it was very frustrating, but he enjoyed the “…pleasant atmosphere of a healthy and admirable sporting spirit that prevails there. That is the main reason why I consider my Indianapolis adventure, in many ways so discouraging, as one of the more pleasant experiences in my life.”

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For me, Fangio was the greatest of them all. He was, and is, a simple and humble man, but a man of enormous determination, pride and tenacity. It can truly be said that Juan Manuel Fangio, the man, is greater than the myth.
Stirling Moss, 1986.

Quotes from “Fangio, My Racing Life”, Fangio/Carozzo, 1990
While apparently this excellent book is no longer in print, Haynes offers another great book about Fangio by Karl Ludvigsen and can be ordered at Haynes.com.