Fangio is one of the three historical landmark figures of Formula One along with Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Some would add Jim Clark into that list and more recently some would put Lewis Hamilton with them too. What’s accepted though is that Fangio was the first driver to really set a standard that no one could best whilst he was still racing, the only driver that came close was Alberto Ascari although it’s hard to get an accurate read of their direct rivalry as neither were in title winning cars when the other one was. What is known is that Fangio definitely saw Ascari as his closest challenger as he reportedly said, on hearing news that Ascari had fatally crashed whilst testing at Monza in 1955, ‘I’ve lost my greatest opponent’.
After emulating Fangio in winning 5 titles Lewis Hamilton called Fangio the ‘Grandfather’ of the sport and of the drivers to have competed in it. Therefore, this piece aims to to showcase Fangio’s title winning seasons, giving an overview to Fangio’s best moments per season and the situation of the championship as well as other notable occurrences during certain years.
1951: Alfa Romeo 159
The season started in Switzerland, a race Fangio won in fine fashion as from pole he led 37 of the 42 laps to win by 55 seconds. To further boost this achievement the race was run in the heavy rain. At round 4, after loosing the championship lead to Farina Fangio preferably needed to win but during the race his Alfa began misfiring and thus he was forced to retire. After this Fangio took over Fagioli’s car all whilst Farina was still leading the race. Soon after Farina lost the lead to Ascari when his tyre punctured then when Ascari, who had taken over the car on González, was poised for victory himself he had to pit for a brake adjustment on lap 51 of 77. From there Fangio took the lead and won by almost a minute.
After two 2nd places at the next two events, the first of which was at Silverstone which witnessed González take Ferrari’s first grand prix win, Fangio had built up a 10 point lead in the championship although there would be a Ferrari/Ascari fightback at Monza. With an updated car, the Alfa Romeo 159E, Fangio took pole but a thrown tyre tread halted is charge. He managed to continue but whilst holding 3rd and broken piston put him out for good on lap 39 of 80. To make things worse for Fangio was the fact that Ascari had won the race and that his 10 point advantage was now down to just 2 with one round remaining.
Having won the last three races Ferrari had momentum on their side and with Ascari taking pole it was looking good but with Fangio lining up in 2nd the two title protagonists were bound for a race long battle, and it surely would’ve been had Ferrari not made a ‘Maranello Mistake’. The tyres and wheels they had brought to the race were of such a size that they generated too much heat and thus they were susceptible to determinations as was proven in the race, Ascari’s tyre letting go after just 8 laps and all four of the Ferraris running into tyre troubles within 14 laps of a 70 lap race. All this allowed Fangio to cruise to victory by over 50 seconds thus picking up his first world title.
1954: Maserati 250F/ Mercedes-Benz W196
*For three of their six races in 1954, Mercedes ran a ‘stromlinienwagen’ version of the W196 which had streamlined bodywork, the other W196 was a conventional open-wheel car*
Fangio started off the season with Maserati as he would later be recruited by Mercedes to head their challenge in grand prix racing. The races Fangio did competed with Maserati however he won those being the Argentinean GP and the Belgian GP. Both of these grand prix didn’t feature Ascari as he had signed for Lancia who wouldn’t be ready until the final race of the season. Fangio’s win in Argentina was an odd affair. Due to heavy showers during the race drivers had to pit for wets and when Fangio did so on lap 61 of 87 for hand-cut wet tyres, remarkable given the specificity of modern day Formula One, Ferrari lodged a protest as they thought more than the three permitted mechanics had worked on Fangio’s car. Given their confidence in their case they gave a ‘SLOW’ signal to their drivers who were running 1-2-3 and thus made it easy for Fangio to catch up and overtake them for the win. The matter of the pit stop was not upheld and thus Ferrari had lost themselves the race.
Mercedes turned up with their challenger at the French GP, the car itself streamlined and designed to top, unrelenting standards. Nowadays we mention the red cars of Ferrari but back in the 50’s Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Lancia all ran red cars so Ferrari weren’t alone in appearance so the shining silver of the Mercedes with its bold red numbers turned heads from its first race. As well as looks it also had speed as it won the French GP in a dominant 1-2 display a whole lap ahead of the field with Fangio and Kling just 0.1 apart at the flag. Fangio was now 3 from 3. Ascari was also back, taking Fangio’s vacated seat at Maserati.
Three races later Fangio was in a position to claim his second world title at the race he started his bid for his first, the Swiss GP. The two top Argentinian drivers, Fangio and González, quite fittingly qualified 1-2 (González on pole) as the race prior at the Nurburgring had seen the death of Onofre Marimón, the young Argentinian seen as Fangio’s successor. During the race Fangio led all 66 laps and claimed his second crown. Fangio won again at Monza but somewhat fortuitously. Ascari, leading the most laps of any driver that day, retired on lap 45 due to a dropped valve. Stirling Moss, who had passed Ascari before his problem, now looked good for the win but with 12 laps to go he too had to retire, this being attributed to a split oil pipe. Fangio took home the win by a lap, having been in the position to pick up the pieces which couldn’t have been said of his team-mates one of which was out after 3 laps and the other crashed out. Fangio’s 1954 title is special due to the fact that it remains the only title won whilst having driven for two different teams.
1955: Mercedes-Benz W196
1955 was a tragic year for motorsport but Mercedes, likewise nowadays, turned up the wick and were even more dominant in their second season. At the season opener in Buenos Aires Fangio’s performance made him seem superhuman. Excessive heat made it a race of endurance more than anything else with only two drivers finishing the race without sharing their car, those being Roberto Mières and Juan Manuel Fangio. At the flag Fangio was ahead of the nearest challenger by one and a half minutes whereas Mières finishing 5 laps down in 5th. Fangio only pitted once to douse himself with water.
Heading into the Belgian GP on 5th June the F1 world was shaken as within days of each other Ascari and Vukovich had both died at the wheel. Ascari, on the 26th May, had been testing a Ferrari sports car at Monza whilst Vukovich passed on the 30th May during the 39th running of the Indy 500. Vukovich had won two Indy 500’s and at the time of his accident he was leading and looking good for his third. In the F1 world Ascari was the closest driver to Fangio in terms of speed and ability and Fangio reinstated this himself as on hearing the news of Ascari’s death he reportedly said ”I have lost my greatest opponent”.
Belgium and the three remaining races went to Mercedes (Fangio 3, Moss 1). Moss’ first win came at Aintree in what was a Mercedes 1-2-3-4. At Aintree, by finishing second, Fangio claimed his third world title and matched his closest rival, Ascari, in becoming a back-to-back champion.
Excluding the Indy 500 Mercedes won all but one race, Monaco, of which they were leading comfortably in a 1-2 but problems forced both of them to retire and thus handing the win to the Ferrari of Maurice Tritignant. As well as the losses of Ascari and Vukovich, another tragic event occurred. On 11th June at the 24 hours of Le Mans, the Mercedes of Pierre Levegh was catapulted into the stands after contact with another car killing 84 spectators and injuring 100’s more. The ramifications on F1 would be the cancellation of 4 grand prix (France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain) of which Switzerland permanently banned motorsports up until the Formula E race in Zurich during the 2017/18 season. Due to the accident involving their car Mercedes withdrew from all forms of racing at the end of 1955.
1956: Lancia Ferrari D50
The 1956 season was one of the closest seasons of 1950’s F1 racing. After the withdrawal of Mercedes Fangio joined Ferrari who themselves were using the chassis of the now gone Lancia team. At the opening round Fangio took his third straight Argentinian GP although he did share it with Luigi Musso. At Monaco Fangio was handed Collins’ car after his own car had been given to Castellotti. Fangio finished 2nd.
The next two races were potentially title changing. At both the Belgian GP and the French GP Fangio was odds on to win but both races went to Peter Collins. At Spa Fangio had a 30 second lead over Collins at around half distance but with transmission failure for Fangio Collins took an easy victory by nearly two minutes. At Reims Fangio was leading when on lap 40 of 61 he pitted but was delayed with a split fuel line, this hold-up resulted in Fangio finishing 1 minute 35 seconds behind Collins who had now taken the lead of the championship.
Fortune swung the other way in Silverstone. Three British drivers in the top three positions on the grid- Moss, Hawthorn then Collins. In the race neither Moss or Hawthorn finished, Moss retiring agonisingly close to the end (lap 94/101). Fangio inherited the victory even though it seemed like he had wasted his chance with a spin at Becketts on lap 8. At the Nurburgring it was a ‘Fangio Formality’, leading every lap from pole to win the race and to take back the championship lead entering the season finale. British teams weren’t present in Germany but that shouldn’t take away from Fangio’s great drive.
At the finale at Monza Fangio was the title favourite and he further stated that claim with pole. His championship was put in jeopardy however on lap 19 when he was forced to retire with a broken steering arm. Musso refused to share his car and thus it looked to be Collins’ title as he was sitting in 2nd, doing enough. Then an act of true sportsmanship occurred when Collins handed over his car to Fangio and thereby gifting the title to him. Fangio went on to finish 2nd and claim his 4th title. After the race, when asked why he had given his car to Fangio and thus the title, Collins simply said ”Because he deserved it”. This only strengthened the belief in the paddock that Fangio was still the man to beat.
1957: Maserati 250F
Fangio’s last title was arguably his greatest. The season began in the best possible way for Fangio. Winning his home grand prix in a Maserati 1-2-3-4 whilst Ferrari were well and truly beaten. This fact is made more important as towards the end of ’56 Fangio’s relationship with Ferrari was uneasy and thus the result must’ve added some satisfaction. At round two Fangio won his second Monaco grand prix by almost half a minute, this victory made almost a formality once Moss crashed at the chicane at the exit of the tunnel. Fangio made it through, Brooks and Hawthorn not so. Fangio made it three from three in France after taking pole by 1.1 seconds and subsequently running away with the race as he lead 74 of 77 laps and won by 50 seconds. Fangio’s winning run came to an end at Aintree. A Vanwall shared by Brooks and Moss won to become the first British team to win a championship race.
Fangio returned to winning ways at the Nurburgring in what was his greatest ever drive. He got pole by an amazing 2.8 seconds and then led after lap 3 and pitted on lap 12 with a 30 second lead over the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins. The pit stop went badly however and the 30 second lead became a 50 second deficit. What followed was something rarely seen in motorsport let alone F1. Fangio started to knock away at the deficit and on lap 19 he had taken an astonishing 11 seconds out of the Ferraris and on lap 21 of 22 Fangio caught and passed both Ferraris to win by 3.6 seconds. The final win for Fangio was undoubtedly his greatest made greater by the fact it had won him his 5th world title. The final two rounds of the year went to Moss and Vanwall, signalling the end of the dominance of Italian teams in F1, although Fangio managed to finish 2nd in both races.
Conclusions:
The career of Juan Manuel Fangio of intrigue and greatness, his tally of 5 titles only being surpassed by Schumacher 2003. Across his title winning years Fangio picked up 20 wins, 22 pole positions and 7 triple crowns from 35 races. He did continue into 1958 but announced his retirement mid-season having said ”Surrounded by rear-engined cars painted green, I realised it was the end of an era”.
For many he is the greatest driver in the history of Formula One and some people will always think and stick to that no matter how many Sennas, Schumachers or Hamiltons come a go. What is for certain is that he set the standard for drivers at the time and laid the groundwork for drivers since. He is the grandfather of Formula One.