Juan Fangio

Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentine master known to a generation as "El Maestro," remains one of the most revered figures in Formula 1 history. Born on 24 June 1911 in Balcarce, Argentina, he won five World Championships in the 1950s, a record that stood for nearly half a century until Michael Schumacher surpassed it in 2003. His command of the machine and his serene authority at the wheel set the standard against which every champion has since been measured.

Fangio came to grand prix racing relatively late, already in his late thirties, yet between 1950 and 1958 he amassed 24 wins from just 57 starts, an extraordinary win rate of better than four in ten. He captured the title in 1951 with Alfa Romeo, then again in 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957, winning championships across four different manufacturers: Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Ferrari and Maserati. No driver has ever matched the breadth of that achievement.

He retired in 1958 having finished runner-up in the very first World Championship of 1950 and as champion an unprecedented five times. His final great drive, the 1957 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, in which he overhauled a huge deficit in his Maserati 250F, is routinely cited among the finest performances the sport has produced.

Fangio drove with a smoothness and economy that disguised his ferocious speed, always appearing to have a margin in hand. He had an uncanny ability to read a race, conserve his car and his tyres, then strike when it mattered most. Decades after his death in 1995, he is still spoken of by historians and fellow champions as the benchmark of the sport's first golden age, the standard by which greatness in Formula 1 is judged.