Fangio A Pirelli Album

Juan Manuel Fangio is, quite simply, the most successful Grand Prix racing driver that has ever lived. Not only because he won a record five Formula One World Championships - two more than any other man - but also because his iron will, computer-like driving precision and uncanny ability to take calculated risks that always paid off, combined to produce a dominant driving ability that was both feared and admired by his contemporaries. In motor racing terms, Fangio was already an old man when, in 1949 he came to Europe with his three car racing team sponsored by the Auto Club of Argentina. At 37 he had already become a superstar in his own country, where he had won many of the hair-raising long distance races of up to 5000 kms each, which typified motor sport in Argentina before and immediately after the Second World War. But he was completely untried on the Grand Prix circuits of Europe. That he would become the greatest Grand Prix racer of all time never entered his own head. He was, after all, just a mechanic from the potato-growing town of Balcarce. But in just over a decade, this mechanic won the Formula One World Championship of 1951 in an Alfa Romeo, 1954 in a Maserati and Mercedes Benz (he switched teams in mid season), 1955 in a Mercedes, 1956 for Enzo Ferrari and 1957 in a Maserati. Fangio's score of five world titles will, probably never be equalled, much less beaten. When the winning was over, Juan Manuel Fangio became a successful businessman and property owner and, to this day, is still Honourary President of Mercedes Benz in Argentina. In his homeland, Fangio is treated like royalty, a potential embarrassment he handles with great dignity and understanding. He is feted all over the world, whether at a modern Grand Prix to drive one of his old cars in front of millions or attending a reunion of old racing drivers at a small track in the middle of France. Stirling Moss, himself the winner of 16 Grand Prix and four time runner-up in the Formula One World Championship, competed against Fangio for much of his racing career and the two men were the all-conquering Mercedes Benz team of 1955. He tells what it was like to have Fangio as an opponent, team-mate and friend.