He was there at the beginning, the first Formula 1 championship race at Silverstone in 1950. He won the second race of 1950, the Monaco GP and took two more victories in the inaugural season to finish second in the championship. He won in the championship in 51 and in four more years of the seven full Formula 1 seasons he raced, he missed one season 1952 recovering from a nearly fatal injury, and was runner-up in 1953.
 

Juan Manuel Fangio competed in 51 championship GP's,  and incredibly he started from the front row 48 times (including 29 pole positions) and set 23 fastest race laps en route to 35 podium finishes, 24 of them victories. Remarkably he won his five Formula 1 Championships, a record which stood for 46 years until eventually beaten by Michael Schumacher, with four different teams; Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati a feat that has not been repeated since.
 
Such a driving record puts Fangio in the very top echelons of greats, he is considered by some to be best of all, and certainly most would consider him in the same group as Jim Clark, Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. It is notable that Fangio was considerably older than the aforementioned and those he raced, he won his last driving title in 1957, when he was 46, perhaps such in some way explains that he was universally respected; displaying the virtues of honesty and integrity, self-discipline, respect for others and the sense of responsibility.
 

Fangio was raised in relative humble circumstances, leaving school at 11 years to start work as a mechanic. When a little older he began racing in self prepared cars in the arduous South American long distance races.
He went to Europe to race when he was 38, by such time he had an unrivalled repertoire of mechanical understanding, competitive experience and clever racecraft. He was a great exponent of the four-wheel drift, and able to take corners in a controlled tyre-smoking powerslides.
 
Juan Manuel Fangio was not a tall man, but had developed incredible strength and stamina that was a great advantage in driving cars that were very heavy and hard-to-handle. The sport in the 1950's was particularly dangerous and Fangio in common with the other drivers of the day had great nerve and courage.   

In 1950, the inaugural year of the F1 world championship Fangio drove for Alfa Romeo team alongside Nino Farina and Luigi Fagioli. Fangio won each of the three races he finished, but Farina's three wins and a fourth place allowed him to take the title.  Fangio won three more championship races for Alfa in 1951 in the Swiss, French and Spanish GP's, and with the improved Ferraris taking points off his team mates, Fangio took the title in the final race, six points ahead of Ascari.

Alfa Romeo did not race in 1952 and Fangio moved to Maserati. Driving to the race in Monza through the night from Paris and arriving half an hour before the start he was fatigued. Fangio started the race from the back of the grid but lost control on the second lap, crashed into a grass bank, and was thrown out of the car as it flipped end over end. He had multiple injuries, including a broken neck, and spent the rest of 1952 recovering in Argentina.

In 1953 he rejoined Maserati, the Ferrari of Alberto Ascari was dominant, Fangio won one championship race and three second places to finish in second place in the championship.
 
In 1954 Fangio raced for Maserati until Mercedes entered competition in mid-season. Winning eight out of twelve races (six out of eight in the championship) in that year, he continued to race with Mercedes in 1955. At the end of the second successful season (which was overshadowed by the 1955 Le Mans disaster in which more than 80 spectators were killed) Mercedes withdrew from racing.

In 1956 Fangio moved to Ferrari, replacing Ascari, who had been killed in an accident, to win his fourth title. At the season-ending Italian Grand Prix, Fangio's Ferrari team mate Peter Collins, who was in a position to win the World Championship with just 15 laps to go, handed over his car to Fangio. They shared the six points won for second place, giving Fangio the World title.

In 1957 Fangio returned to Maserati, who were still using the same iconic 250F which Fangio had driven at the start of 1954. Fangio started the season with a hat-trick of wins in Argentina, Monaco and France, before retiring with engine problems in Britain. At the next race, the German GP at the Nürburgring circuit, Fangio needed to extend his lead by six points to claim the title with two races to spare. From pole position Fangio dropped to third behind the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins but managed to get past both by the end of the third lap. Fangio had started with half-full tanks since he expected that he would need new tyres half-way through the race. In the event Fangio pitted on lap 13 with a 30-second lead, but a disastrous stop left him back in third place and 50 seconds behind Collins and Hawthorn. Fangio then produced an amazing display; setting one fastest lap after another, culminating in a record-breaking time on lap 20 a full eleven seconds faster than the best the Ferraris could do. On the penultimate lap Fangio got back past both Collins and Hawthorn, and held on to take the win by just over three seconds. Fangio claimed his fifth title.
 
After his series of back-to-back championships he retired in 1958, following the French GP. Such was the respect for Fangio, that during that final race, race leader Hawthorn had lapped Fangio and as Hawthorn was about to cross the line, he braked and allowed Fangio through so he could complete the 50-lap distance in his final race. Fangio was finally weary from pushing himself so hard for so long, he was also conscious  and saddened by the loss of so many of his peers, over 30 of them were killed during his career. Fangio retired, leaving behind a championship record that endured for 46 years.
 
In 1958 he became even more of an international celebrity when he was kidnapped in Cuba by members of Fidel Castro's revolutionary movement to draw attention to their cause. His captors were charmed by Fangio and they released him unharmed.

Fangio's strengths included being both a team player and a team leader of the highest order, providing inspirational qualities (he always befriended his mechanics) and making practical contributions (he often wielded wrenches himself) that invariably improved morale and brought the best out of the personnel.

Fangio and the other great drivers of the 1950's understood well the dangers that all racers faced, they acted with great integrity and respect for others and for the sport, and in so doing built a lasting foundation that drivers in subsequent years have had as a fine example of true sportsmanship.

Juan Manuel Fangio died in 1995, aged 84, at home in Argentina.
 

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