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He was a god.
He couldn't be any better.
When you're a kid, you need an idol,
you need someone to inspire you.
And Fangio has inspired millions of people
who wanted to become racers.
You just had to watch him driving. It was as if he drove in slow motion
because of his class, his intelligence, and his focus.
He didn't make mistakes.
I think... my life is divided into several phases.
Since I was a boy in school, I wanted to be the best.
My father wanted me to work with him,
but I told him, "I want to learn mechanics."
Nobody would teach you back then,
you had to learn on your own watching others.
That's why for my first race, I was the co-driver.
I was... 18 years old.
I participated in that race without my father's permission, even.
And I felt that the car was alive!
Little by little, he stepped into his passion...
car racing.
And then in the 40s, something new called road racing came about.
Since we had no assistance on the road and there were few repair shops around...
there were almost no repair shops,
so we would carry spare parts inside the car in case something broke down,
and gasoline. We'd take 250 liters of gas with us in the car.
The car weighed about 1,700 or 1,800 kilos,
so it needed some heavy reinforcement.
In these kinds of races, out of 150 cars that crossed the starting line,
around 20 cars would make it to the end.
He won the championships of 1940 and 1941,
but what made him popular was the Buenos Aires-Lima race.
It was a long-distance race where they drove for days,
and it was very representative of those days' road racing.
During World War II,
I had to scrape out an existence.
Tires were scarce back then,
so I would buy trucks for their tires, keep the trucks and sell the tires.
I traveled Argentina's south provinces, the entire Patagonia,
buying trucks... just for their tires!
When the war was over, I went back to those places to sell trucks,
because I knew they didn't have any.
And I returned to the races in 47.
During that time, we had 4 different races in Argentina,
and due to our good performance,
the Argentine Automobile Club awarded Galvez, Puopolo and me
a trip to Europe.
GALLIATE, ITALY
When I raced in Europe,
my center was a town called Galliate, in the Novara province,
30 kilometers from Milan.
Mr. Varzi let me live in his house for free.
Varzi was already famous in Argentina since 1947 or 1948,
and he invited the entire team to visit his town, Galliate,
and to stay in his house in Galliate, where he wanted to establish
the team's base of operations.
But then Varzi had to travel to Berna,
to Switzerland, and in Berna
he participated in the Swiss Grand Prix.
On Thursday afternoon,
while Varzi was trying out the circuit,
he had an accident and died.
When Achille died, I was in Berna, so I went to his funeral.
And I hired his mechanic.
Then Mr. Varzi, Mr. Menotti Varzi, his father,
offered me his house for me to live in.
So I named the Argentinian team Achille Varzi Argentinian Team,
to honor Varzi.
The entire Argentinian team was there.
There were many Argentinian racers in the Varzi Villa,
he had let them stay in his house.
Then they would go out to the bar at night
and meet my husband and other people.
I don't think there's anyone of them left.
I'm the last one. The rest of them passed away.
Every year, he would come in May.
He would come to Galliate to visit his old friends.
Well, I have so many memories.
Some are good, some are bad.
But the good ones compensate for the bad ones.
Except for an accident I had, my first accident, in Peru,
where my co-driver, which was my friend, died.
1948 - GRAND PRIX OF SOUTH AMERICA ROAD RACING
In the premises of the Argentine Automobile Club,
we'll hold the raffle for the Grand Prix of South America.
Veteran Ernesto Blanco draws ball number one,
with Fangio holding the first position,
and the second, his friend, Domingo Marimon.
From Buenos Aires to Caracas, the drivers will join efforts
with the most diverse topographies in the most difficult race in the world.
We had several problems.
There were these regulations that said
that the starting positions in each stage of the race
would vary depending on the general classification.
I had some issues in the first stage.
The pinion and crown gear were worn away, and that cost me a lot of time.
I was one of the last ones to reach Salta.
The next stage was Salta to La Quiaca, in the border with Bolivia.
In that stage, I made third place. I passed 60 cars on the road.
But in the general classification, I was in 50-something,
so the next day, I had to start from the back again.
I had to drive on dirt roads and pass the other cars,
and that was hard on the car, because every day I'd break something different.
And that's how we reached Lima.
We were about to go to bed when we were summoned
to tell us that we had to start the race that same night, at 10:00 p.m.,
because a revolutionary attack was imminent,
they feared something would happen,
so they sent us out there without knowing the circuit, with no sleep at all.
In Lima, I was in the lead
when I took a curve faster than I should,
so I... I didn't faint,
so while the car was spinning and falling, I felt like it was a huge disaster,
as if we were falling off a cliff, especially because my co-driver
was thrown off the car along with the car door.
That was my first accident.
I thought I would never race again.
Urrutia's death... I caused that accident.
Fangio, there's a lot of talk about your health.
In order to bring some peace of mind to all car racing fans,
could you tell us how you feel?
I'm perfectly well.
I'm just waiting for my chance to face new and brave opponents.
And whether I win or lose, I'll dedicate all my efforts
to my good friend Urrutia, my brother through thick and thin.
I speak for all of us here when I say thank you very much.
There's an old saying that goes, "There's no substitute for experience."
I was almost 37 when I started racing in Europe,
and I kept doing it until I was an old man, 47 years old.
SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND
STUDY ON WHO WAS THE BEST RACER OF ALL TIMES
When you compare the cars from the 50s with today's cars,
I'm talking about competition cars,
the first point is the comfort.
These cars weren't comfortable.
It sounds obvious, right?
But back then, they were more interested in having a fast car.
The gearboxes were difficult to maneuver, the clutch was stiff, um...
You had to be an expert to drive a race car in the 50s.
Today, the cars are built with carbon fiber
and composite materials, and they're heavily tested.
The category is much safer, and the tracks are also safer,
and that's something that's definitely changed.
If you want to be efficient in today's cars, you need precision.
If you wanted to be efficient in the cars from the 50s, you needed art.
Now, like I always say,
if you add precision to the art from the 50s,
the result is a world champion.
And if you add art to today's precision,
the result is also a world champion.
So what we need to do is to add to each period
what that period was missing.
One of the things that was certainly helpful
was my knowledge of mechanics,
knowing how to properly use a car.
When I started to race with them, I'd ask the mechanic
what's the maximum power for the cars,
and I never exceeded that maximum.
MODENA, ITALY
Today's pilots aren't familiar with the technical aspects of racing,
like the pilots in Fangio's time were.
These days, the car is driven by the pilot,
but everything else is handled in the boxes
by dozens of engineers that control the car remotely
and tell the driver, "Do this or that," and the driver does it.
That's why I've always appreciated the work of the mechanics.
They're the real heroes of the races.
You always mention the pilots, but never the mechanics.
Without them, you can't win a race.
They're the ones that handle those tiny little details
that can make you lose a race.
BRACKLEY, ENGLAND
1949 - SAN REMO GRAND PRIX, ITALY OSPEDALETTI CIRCUIT
In 1949
he began his international campaign in the San Remo circuit.
He started having problems with his Maserati, mechanical problems,
and his team leader, Amadeo Viñani,
advised him not to race.
They were used to work under any kind of conditions,
something they brought with them from their road racing days,
so he decided to dismantle the engine
and stayed up all night until 1:00 a.m. polishing the crankshaft
to give the bearings a proper alignment and make everything perfect
so that, once that work was done, the mechanics would be able
to put the engine back together while he got some sleep
before the start of the race.
That was his first race in Europe.
Welcome to the Ospedaletti circuit, home of the San Remo Grand Prix.
Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio, in his European debut,
has won first place in the table, outdoing his teammate Prince Bira.
Looks like there's trouble with Righetti's Ferrari.
Meanwhile, Fangio takes the lead at the Ponticello curve.
Perfect job by Fangio, winning both heats of the race,
showing the world that the new Argentinian Formula 1 team
is here to fight for the top.
I was lucky to win that time.
But you have to take those compliments with a grain of salt,
otherwise you might end up believing that you're the best.
Trying to be the best in everything? I agree with that.
But never believe you're the best.
MODENA, ITALY
My name is Adolfo Orsi, I was born in 1951.
My family bought Maserati in 1937.
It stayed in the family until 1969.
Maserati has been one of the most important teams
in Formula 1 during the 1950s,
because it developed the 250F not only for the official team,
but also for the private racers
that, in those times, made up a significant part
of the Formula 1 starting grid.
My name is Ermmano Cozza.
I was born in Modena in 1933.
When I finished technical school, my love for engines drove me to Maserati.
I would say that, for Maserati, Fangio,
in the entire history of Maserati,
was its most important pilot
and, in my opinion, the best.
And he was the best not only for Maserati;
for Mercedes in 1954/55, he was also the best.
Maserati was a family business,
it was run by the Orsi family,
and I was good friends with their chief mechanic, Guerino Bertocchi,
and with his brother.
I was very comfortable with them,
I even raced for them without signing any contracts.
And the car ran wonderfully.
I was fortunate to win 6 races in Europe:
San Remo, Pau, Perpignan,
Marseille, Albi.
The Pau Grand Prix begins.
Argentinian Fangio and Graffenried are head to head.
Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio has won three races this year alone.
Welcome to Marseille.
Fangio is making every racer's dream come true,
winning over his Italian teammates in their own home
in the Mecca of car racing, Monza's historical circuit.
Racing in Monza was, for any pilot that was starting racing in Europe,
a dream come true.
Fangio is now in the home stretch.
There's the checkered flag, and Fangio wins his sixth race this year.
The Argentinian won! The victory goes to Fangio!
From the years 49 to 50,
Alfa Romeo returns to the races.
They invited me to a race.
Mr. Alessio, the president of Alfa Romeo back in those days,
had seen me won the previous year in San Remo.
The return of Alfa Romeo was a highly publicized event.
ALFA ROMEO MUSEUM ARESE, ITALY
When World War II ended,
Alfa Romeo began a period of reconstruction.
Their buildings had been destroyed by bombings.
Italy in its entirety needed to be rebuilt,
so they didn't have an automobile market.
There was a pause, but in 1950,
when the first Formula 1 world championship started,
a new world was born.
And Alfa Romeo shows up
with a perfectly fine-tuned and evolved car,
and with a team of champions, the so-called three Fs team.
There was Farina, the last Italian champion from the pre-war era,
Luigi Fagioli, who had the most experience,
and a young Fangio that showed us all that he's one of the best.
1950 - SAN REMO GRAND PRIX, ITALY OSPEDALETTI CIRCUIT
In San Remo, we had two cars in the race.
Before it began, Farina hurt his arm,
so the team decided to withdraw from the race
because all they had left was some unknown racer.
The people that had put the money for the publicity complained about this,
and they started arguing.
So I intervened, I said, "Gentlemen, what's the problem here?
If I lose, only some unknown racer will lose, not Alfa Romeo.
Now, if I win, Alfa Romeo wins, no matter who's driving."
The San Remo race has started.
One of the Alfa Romeos seems to have skidded at the start.
It's the Argentinian rookie Fangio, who's losing several positions.
It's lap number 32,
Ascari went off the course and withdrew his car.
The Argentinian Fangio makes a stunning come back
and Froilan Gonzalez and his Maserati abandon the race.
Fangio leaves his compatriot Pian behind with a spectacular maneuver.
And Fangio does it.
The checkered flag falls in front of the Alfetta.
I was fortunate to win that race.
The only Alfa in the race.
That night, we had a meeting to discuss the contract.
I told them, "You fill it and I'll sign it."
I had a chance to race with the best car in existence at that time.
And I didn't have to pay money or anything,
I just put my body to their service.
I think that helped build a strong friendship
with the Alfa Romeo team.
1950 - BRITISH GRAND PRIX SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT
Before the start, we're a little nervous, until we sit inside the car.
Once you're in the car,
everything else disappears.
You become somebody else.
In Fangio's first racing season in 1950,
the Alfetta wins 11 out of 11.
Despite this superiority and, in a certain way,
the rivalry between the three teammates,
their relationship inside the team was always very positive.
In some races, the drivers would make a close formation
to wait for their teammate to catch up,
or they would slow down to warn them about some danger.
That was a sign that the camaraderie in those teams was wonderful,
and that was a time when, at almost 300 km/h,
they were risking their lives in the tracks.
Back in those days, we had to be careful not to overwork the cars.
Otherwise, we would overheat and exert the engine,
so as a pilot, it was very useful to me
to be familiar with the mechanics of the car.
STUTTGART, GERMANY
Fangio had the special ability
of being prepared
both physically and emotionally,
and also mechanically,
he knew the engine, the clutch, the brakes, everything about his cars.
The mechanics used to say that,
had he taken 3 or 4 more laps,
the engine would've died.
He felt like he was making the most out of himself
and of the machine
in order to reach their peak.
Despite the heavy rain, Fangio wins this difficult race
and takes the first place in the world championship
with 9 points in his favor.
1950 - MONACO GRAND PRIX MONTECARLO CIRCUIT
Montecarlo was very interesting.
The day before the race,
I was at the Montecarlo Automobile Club looking at some pictures
when I came across a picture of an accident from before the war.
There was this curve called "The Tabaccaio" that had a tall wall
and you couldn't see what was on the other side,
and in the picture you could see several cars piled up against it.
One of the cars spun around and the ones behind it
crashed into it.
I had a very good car, so when the race started,
I took the lead and, in the second lap,
I see a yellow flag waving at us.
It didn't mean we had to stop. A yellow flag means precaution.
Still, that picture came to mind,
and when I reached the curve, I saw the cars piled up in a heap.
So I drove by them very slowly,
and that gave me the chance to go on,
because the cars behind me could do the same thing I did.
Eight cars were involved in that accident.
Fangio makes history in Monaco and wins his first race
in the top category.
The Argentinian is now among the best pilots in the world.
I was happy because it was my first world championship.
I never thought I'd win.
GENOLIER, SWITZERLAND
In 1951, Fangio started his second season with Alfa Romeo.
He won second place behind Farina the previous year,
and this time he needed to beat team Ferrari
with his teammate and friend Froilan Gonzalez.
Another driver that was very important in those times was Ascari.
That was an important year
because he had made a name for himself,
but he needed to prove that he could also win a championship.
1951 - SPANISH GRAND PRIX, BARCELONA PEDRALBES CIRCUIT
In this race, they had several problems in Alfa.
They made a car with a de Dion tube and two lateral tanks,
to have the other team believe
that we wouldn't stop for the entirety of the race,
which wasn't true.
That was Ferrari's mistake.
To match my speed,
they had to overexert themselves and the tires would fray,
so they had to change them for smaller tires.
They tried to follow my lead, and they were left behind.
I managed to stop, change the tires, and still maintain the lead position.
The only two accidents I had in my entire life
were due to the same reason: physical exhaustion.
If you're tired, you shouldn't drive.
1952 - ULSTER TOURIST TROPHY NON-CHAMPIONSHIP CATEGORY
That Saturday, I raced in Ireland.
And I had promised I would race in Monza on Sunday.
Prince Bira had offered his private jet
to take me there, to Monza.
But then Prince Bira's car broke down
in the middle of a storm,
so when I finished the race in Ireland, Prince Bira was already gone.
So a group of us bought plane tickets to London, and among us was Rosier.
In London, I asked if there was some way to go to Italy from there,
but there was none, so we went to Paris.
We arrived in Paris at midnight, so there were no trains to Italy.
Rosier lent me his car to complete the trip.
Back in those days, the tunnel didn't exist yet,
so I had to climb the Moncenisio mountain,
and arrived in Monza that Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
The race was set to start at 2:30 p.m.
1952 - ITALIAN GRAND PRIX MONZA CIRCUIT
The drivers are ready. In the first line,
the Ferraris of Farina and Andre Simon. The current champion, Juan Manuel Fangio,
will be in the last position because he didn't participate
in the classification.
I started the race from the last position
and in my second or third lap,
I was overcoming cars at a very high speed.
Fangio, at full speed, keeps trying to win positions.
He's on the Lesmo curve, but his inner side touches the rail.
The car is out of control.
When I woke up, I was in the hospital.
I woke up maybe three hours after the accident.
Back in our time, in Formula 1,
according to the statistics
by "Auto motor und sport,"
65 Formula 1 drivers died during that period.
65.
Three, four, five every year.
Each year.
I thought it was very easy to die without realizing it
and between life and death there's nothing.
So when you get back to your senses,
back to reality,
you realize that dying is not so terrible,
you don't have time to think.
The 1953 season begins, it's a difficult season,
it's hard coming back from an accident,
going back to the competition rhythm
and it didn't help that in Argentina, Holland and Belgium,
he had problems with his car and can't finish the competition.
Then his luck changes.
He has three second positions in France, England and Germany.
And he closes the season in the most conflictive place: Monza,
where he had that serious accident.
He had to prove to himself and everybody else
that his ability was intact.
Autodromo di Monza.
1953.
One hundred thousand people came to the most prestigious race of the year
the Italian Grand Prix.
On the starting line, on the front row,
the ex world champion, Farina, with number 6,
Fangio, number 50, another ex world champion,
and champion Alberto Ascari, with number 4.
ITALIAN GRAND PRIX MONZA CIRCUIT
I first met Fangio in Monza
in September 1953 at the Grand Prix.
I was in the boxes and...
it was Fangio, Marimon, who was Fangio's young apprentice,
Menditeguy and Mieres.
And for many laps they kept going past each other.
In one lap, Fangio was ahead, another lap Ascari was ahead.
In the last lap, Ascari was ahead,
but he took a bend badly because Fangio was pressuring him.
He got off track, Fangio went past him and won.
This bend decided the race.
And I thought,
"If I manage to keep close instead of going wide,
maybe I won't get past,
my car is stronger when going straight.
I'll do it in the last lap,
it's less risky and least expected.
I tried, I did it, and I won.
Going for the last lap, Ascari,
followed by Fangio, who looks stronger for the straight.
Fangio went past Ascari. He's going to beat him.
Fangio is coming in first. The speed, the power!
Fangio won, the champion is back!
WORLD DRIVERS' CHAMPIONS
I got along with everyone.
I never had a rivalry,
a personal rivalry with anyone.
The only rivalry was during the race, not outside the race.
In the year 1954,
Mercedes Benz came back
in the history of that race
with the famous manager Neubauer.
And for Neubauer, there were two drivers:
one was obviously the best driver,
Juan Manuel Fangio,
and Karl Kling.
Those two had established themselves.
And me.
MERCEDES BENZ MUSEUM STUTTGART, GERMANY
FRENCH GRAND PRIX REIMS CIRCUIT
With Mercedes we did things differently.
There were three mechanics for one driver.
They were exclusive, not interchangeable.
Three for me, three for Kling, three for Hermann.
We were a force unit.
I wrote a book together with Carozzo
and I dedicated a whole chapter to luck or fate.
Undoubtedly, you have to help fate, fate can do it on its own.
If you sit back, it won't come to you.
But I do believe we all have
a delineated path.
GERMAN GRAND PRIX NURBURGRING CIRCUIT
Onofre Marimon, son of Domingo Marimon, Fangio's great friend,
was his apprentice in the European tracks.
And in Nurburgring circuit,
an extremely difficult circuit
because of the elevations, the amount of bends, the length,
Juan asked Onofre to wait for him
to check out some useful details.
He was an obsessive man, he'd go to the circuit
two, three days before.
If it was a three, four-mile circuit, he'd do it on his bike.
If it was 7, 9 miles, like Spa,
or 14 like Nurburgring, he'd do it on his motorbike.
He wanted to memorize the track,
where he'd place his car,
what the race-deciding spot was.
He'd study it days before.
And he expected his colleague to do the same.
Unfortunately, when Fangio got to the circuit,
Onofre was already in his car
and on a downgrade
he gets off track and dies.
Marimon was a young man,
a cheerful man full of life.
A very likeable fellow, always smiling.
He was Fangio and Gonzalez's protégé.
They were his mentors.
I have a photograph, after his death,
of Fangio and Gonzalez holding each other in tears.
For them, it was a real tragedy.
I believe in predestination.
No one dies before his time.
WORLD DRIVERS' CHAMPIONS
He left for the old continent in 1949
heading the first international auto racing Argentine team.
His past and present success in the highest auto racing category
is undeniable.
Juan Manuel Fangio is like no other driver.
He has dominated every circuit.
Today we can be sure he'll go down in our country sports history.
He has achieved his second championship
this time with Mercedes Benz.
Argentineans have gathered to welcome him this afternoon,
moved by the Balcarce driver's achievements
and excited for the 1955 new season,
whose first stop will take place right here.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Argentina Grand Prix.
ARGENTINA GRAND PRIX BUENOS AIRES CIRCUIT
All eyes are on Buenos Aires.
The racing aces will battle at 17 de Octubre Circuit
for the third Argentina Grand Prix
and get points for the World Champions.
Here's the famous Mercedes Benz team,
with Fangio, the 1954 world champion.
In Buenos Aires,
the team was made up of Fangio, Kling,
Stirling Moss and me.
When I first saw Stirling Moss racing,
I felt great admiration for the guy.
He was fighting with the best.
And over the races, we became friends.
I consider him one of my best friends.
We had four racing cars.
And even for Argentina
the intense hot weather was unusual,
I think it was in January.
I started to feel
I was getting a heatstroke.
The champion's serenity can be seen at every bend.
His strong car and the strong heat have taken many out.
It's 151ºF where the wheels touch the track.
What happened to Moss
is that he stopped on the track,
not in the boxes.
I felt I had to make it to the boxes at least.
I got there, but couldn't get out of the car.
I was so weak I had to be taken out.
Karl Kling was thrown of his car.
Fortunately, nothing happened to him.
I just remembered something else that happened.
During that race,
he went directly to the boxes
and, who knows why,
a bottle of water was poured on his head,
and he was put back on the track.
The great Argentine driver handles his car marvelously
displaying admirable physical condition.
Together with Mieres, he's the only one racing the full three hours.
Fangio wins! The great champion wins Argentina Grand Prix!
Fangio had to be taken to the hospital afterwards
due to serious burns on his legs because of the hot weather.
Conditions are different now.
But just as Fangio raced with burns on his leg,
I remember a race at Baren in 2009,
where a radiator tube came off
in the direction of the cockpit, of my seat,
I got burns on my back and I got severely dehydrated
due the burns and the heat in the cockpit.
Different levels, different circumstances,
but in auto racing
drivers still face extreme conditions.
But it's safer now, thankfully.
24 HOURS OF LE MANS, FRANCE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MAKES
The accident at Le Mans happened in front of me.
It was the time for the swap.
Hawthorn, in the heat of the moment,
got into the boxes a bit too fast
and Mackling swerved out from behind,
at that moment, Levegh swerved to go past,
he went over Mackling's wheels,
killing many people.
I held tight waiting for the crash, but the path cleared.
After I went past, Mackling's car crashed into the box
and killed the people in the box.
Everybody thought I had caused the accident.
We were all going very fast.
Way too fast. Hawthorn too.
WORLD DRIVERS' CHAMPIONS
In 1956,
when Mercedes retired
from motor racing,
I knew Ferrari or Maserati would want me.
So I talked with Neubauer and asked for his advice,
"If Ferrari and Maserati want me, which one should I pick?"
"Ferrari," he said.
FRENCH GRAND PRIX REIMS CIRCUIT
When I raced for Ferrari, some problems cropped up.
Ferrari's system was different.
You didn't have an exclusive mechanic.
Every mechanic work on every car.
Castellotti got mad at that race.
He wasn't satisfied with his car.
He said, "I'm going to quit."
And I said, "If you're the only one quitting, nothing will change."
So, in solidarity with Castellotti,
who was my friend, I quit, too.
For any driver in the history of the sport,
the goal has always been racing for Ferrari.
Ferrari is Formula 1, it's the myth.
The most incredible thing in Formula 1.
You watch a Formula 1 race, and 70%, 80% of the audience
is wearing the red cap with the horse on the yellow background.
Fangio was the only one who said no to Ferrari.
Ferrari wouldn't let me go.
So I set one condition.
I wanted a mechanic
exclusively for my car
because all the mechanics work on all the cars.
There wasn't one person in charge.
Ferrari accepted and gave me a mechanic in charge of my car.
And I was able to win the following races.
ITALIAN GRAND PRIX MONZA CIRCUIT
In the tough hellish Monza circuit,
the best drivers of the world will battle for the prize.
For our compatriot Fangio his result here will be key.
A new world title depends on it.
That day in Monza, if Fangio came out third or fourth,
he'd get enough points to win the championship.
He even said to his teammates, Muzzi and Castellotti,
that they shouldn't worry about the race.
He wasn't going to fight for the first positions.
At one moment in the race, he began having difficulty holding.
And he detected a problem in one of his front wheels.
They managed to find
a crack in the steering column.
They ask Musso for his car so that Fangio could finish the race
and get the points to win the championship.
Musso refuses to do it, but moments later,
Peter Collins, who saw what was going on,
got out of his car and gave it to him.
In the 35th lap, a surprise.
Collins, with a big gesture, gives his car to Fangio,
and El Chueco gets the second position
behind Stirling Moss, enough to become
world champion for the fourth time.
WORLD DRIVERS' CHAMPIONS
Fangio was a true gentleman, a kind, polite man,
but he was distrustful.
He suggested how the car should be built,
how it should be prepared,
the right connections.
He'd drive around the circuit
and suggest changing some connections.
And Ferrari didn't listen to drivers' instructions, like his.
There was never a good understanding between them.
So when his contract was over, he came back to Maserati.
He always said he was most comfortable with Maserati,
more than with any other maker.
In 1957, Maserati debuted the 250F
with a 12-cylinder engine,
a more powerful engine
than the 6-cylinder 250F.
The 12-cylinder was stronger
but heavier,
so it used up a lot of fuel
and wear out the tires.
Finally, Fangio said he preferred driving the 6-cylinder
and he'll get that half a second difference himself.
I wasn't an extraordinary driver.
I worked within my means
and calculated my rival's strength.
At that time, I had to do things I may have never done.
GERMAN GRAND PRIX NURBURGRING CIRCUIT
The stakes were against me.
My car wore out the tires unlike the opposing team's.
So I said, "Add less fuel,
I'll be able to go faster."
And they'd change my tires halfway into the race.
When they were off,
he let Hawthorn and Collins with Ferrari go past him.
He let them stay ahead for two laps.
And they got better times than their pole times,
he wanted his tires to get hotter.
After the second lap, he started speeding up,
and improved his times: 9:38, 9:36, 9:34, etc.
By the time he stopped at the 12nd lap,
he was 23 seconds ahead.
If he changed his tires in 22 seconds
and was back on the race first or second,
he'd go past his rivals in the next lap.
Everything went as planned.
Fangio got to the boxes with some advantage.
He stopped.
Whiles his tires were being changed,
one of the wing nuts fell under the car.
So when the mechanic had to let Fangio go,
realized there was missing nut.
This fell off under the car.
The chronometer kept going.
A new nut was brought.
But instead of 22 seconds, he lost 58 or 59.
The race was a lost cause.
El Chueco zoomed back to get the lead.
He steps on the gas and the gap gets shorter.
He gets closer by the second and beats his rivals' resistance.
I started stepping up gears.
I moved from second into third gear.
From third to fourth gear.
And I gained a lot of time.
I started beating the records.
In the second-to-last lap, I got passed Collins.
Then Collins got passed me.
And finally I got passed him again and reached Hawthorn
at an upward bend.
When he swerved, I could sneak in.
And I could take the straight without the cars suction.
I won the race by four seconds.
The nicest thing about it, though,
was that the two drivers came up to hug me after the race.
As if I were their father.
Hawthorn and Collins, both of them.
I had won a practically impossible race.
WORLD DRIVERS' CHAMPIONS
REIMS, FRANCE
When you're in your prime, it's very hard to retire
in any aspect of life.
I talked with the mechanic, I said that if the car worked well
I'd do four races that year.
From the start, my car didn't hold well.
I asked why was that, and they said they changed the absorbers.
"Why didn't you put the same?"
"Because these people pay more."
It was becoming more commercial.
And in the 15th lap, my clutch pedal got broken.
I had no clutch pedal.
I strongly believe in fate.
And a lot had happened that year.
I'd been to Cuba and was kidnapped and couldn't race.
In Indianapolis, I got a car that didn't work.
So during a race, I started thinking
about my parents, who were quite old by that time.
I thought, "I still have time to make up for everything they went through
while I've been racing around the world," because your family suffers.
So a lot of things were piling up.
My plan was racing for one year and I'd been racing for ten.
I grew tired of racing.
So during a race, I decided, "When this is over, I'll retire."
And so I did.
Retirement for a sports person
or anyone with an extremely intense activity,
especially one like this,
is the hardest part of their life.
Readapting
is the most difficult part.
He managed it well.
He went back to work,
always related with Mercedes Benz, first as a car dealer,
and he kept an active life,
a life committed to his past in the sports.
That car is perfect.
There's a book in Argentina
entitled, "When the man is bigger than the myth."
I believe that book title
reflects perfectly well what Fangio is.
In my last book,
I mention all the drivers and friends,
Rodriguez, Linge...
And here we have
my very dear friend, Juan Manuel Fangio.
Let me read a bit.
"Fangio was, to me, the driver
that thanks to his skills
and despite his humble origins,
had a radiant presence whenever he came into a room,
you could tell he was someone special.
He was the best."
When I was a kid I read a book
in second grade, I think, and there's a boy asking his granddad,
"Is it sad to grow old, have white hair and wrinkles?"
And his granddad answers, "Not if you did your duty."
And that's true.
You can't be afraid of death.
Death will come at the right time. It's only natural.
If we realized that one day we'd be gone,
we would all be nicer.
That's for sure.
LORETO FANGIO FAMILY
JUAN MANUEL FANGIO WON 5 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
PARTICIPATED IN 51 RACES GOT 29 POLES
GOT 23 FAST LAPS GOT ON 35 PODIUMS
WON 24 VICTORIES
ALL THESE PERCENTAGES ARE THE HIGHEST IN THE CATEGORY