Fangio’s F1 Debut

Yesterday, in 1948, the historic driver Fangio made his F1 debut

3y ago
3.9K

On the 18th July 1948, Juan Manuel Fangio made his Formula One debut in Reims, France. The then little-known driver was to become one of the greatest to ever grace the F1 circuit, breaking a vast number of racing records – some of which still stand today. Fangio was aptly nicknamed “El Maestro” – he was a master of the racetrack, a talent which many fans of the sport have not seen since.

Fangio was born in the city of San Jose de Balcarce, Argentina in 1911. He first raced for Ford in the Turisma Carretera in 1938 and went on to win the Grand Prix International Championship in 1940 with Chevrolet.

Winning the World Championship of Drivers title a total of five times was arguably Fangio’s greatest racing achievement. It was a record that was only broken by Michael Schumacher, close to half a century later. He also holds the record for the highest percentage of F1 wins – a total of 24 victories from 53 starts.

Most famously, Fangio was kidnapped by Fidel Castro’s 26th July Movement in February 1958. The stunt was carried out to gain publicity for Castro’s revolution against the Batista Dictatorship. With Fangio being the biggest name in global motorsport, kidnapping him at gunpoint from his hotel while he attended the GP would humiliate the Cuban government in front of the world.

Fidel and his men were actually great fans of Fangio and released him after the Grand Prix unharmed. He was quoted in an interview describing the men as apologetic and kind toward him, they even left a letter of apology to the Argentinian government. Fangio later noted on the Ed Sullivan Television show it was ironic that it had taken his own kidnapping to get him a televised interview, and not his five World Championship titles.

So on this day, we are thankful to the automotive gods for bringing Juan Manuel Fangio to his first F1 race – thereby giving us one of the greatest racing drivers in history.

Here are a couple of video links showing Fangio's great driving talent:

Onboard footage at Monaco: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-BZ0NbriI

Testing the 1957 Maserati F1 car: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xg4Fr9SY04

Who else do you think deserves to be remembered as a great driver of history? Let me know in the comments below.

Join In

Comments (3)

  • Hi congratulations - your post has been selected by DriveTribe F1 Ambassador for promotion on the DriveTribe homepage.

      3 years ago
  • Hi congratulations - your post has been selected by DriveTribe highlights Ambassador for promotion on the DriveTribe homepage.

      3 years ago
3