Letter to Time Magazine in 2001 from Count Giovanni Volpi who employed Fangio to occasionally race his cars. Sorry, discovered file too large to upload. gary barnhill
The automobile drivers world championship started in 1950. Before that, huge stars like [Tazio] Nuvolari, [Achille] Varzi, Germanys [Rudolf] Caracciola and newcomer Juan Manuel Fangio were racing and consequently their wins do not count in the records. Fangio won five world titles between 1951 and 1957. He bowed out in mid-season at Reims in 1958, saying he thought that this wasnt a thing to be done by a grown-up man like me. He had taken Alfa-Romeo, Mercedes, Maserati to glory and in 1956, even Ferrari, which that year insistently tried to win without Fangio. He never went off the road whether testing or racing, as too many drivers do today, never spun his car and never, ever criminally pushed another car with his own. Fangio only had two accidents in his career: in 1948, during the 6,000-mile Buenos Aires-Lima-Caracas road race, and in 1952 at Monza. In those days Fangios competitors were no less than Alberto Ascari, Nino Farina and kids like Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins. Fangio raced in Formula One for eight years (in a world with six to 11 Grands Prix a year vs. 17 today), with a still unequaled percentage of wins, however you play the numbers. By contrast, Schumacher, [Alain] Prost, [Ayrton] Senna and others have been around much longer, collecting seemingly more impressive numbers of pole positions, wins and races run. When asked why he was a tad slower than Fangio, Stirling Moss, at the top of his form and about 20 years his junior, answered, I never got close enough to find out. Despite his deeply human discretion and modesty (and earning only $150,000 in his best-paid year), Fangio had more people in awe of him than any astronaut would later. His fame boosted Fidel Castros visibility to global orbit when Castro kidnapped him at gunpoint, politely, before the Havana race of 1958. Can anyone state about Schumacher as TIME does on its cover that Now his only challenge is history? Let us give to Schumacher what belongs to Schumacher but let us not give to Schumacher what belongs to Fangio. GIOVANNI VOLPI, PRODUCER OF FANGIO FORMER OWNER OF RACING TEAM SERENISSIMA AND MAKER OF SERENISSIMA CARS Venice HUGH HUDSON, DIRECTOR OF FANGIO AND CHARIOTS OF FIRE London TIME, OCTOBER 1, 2001
Excellent! The Road & Track interview with Fangio's kidnappers is fascinating reading. They remained friends after the event, and were among the last to meet with Fangio, at his home before his passing...... No comparison between the two careers, in racing.
Klementaski commented, when taking pics of Fangio, how he would consistantly 'just' graze the curb in Monaco, lap after lap........he observed many laps, before taking the famous photo....... Amazing.........
I find it hard to rate Schumacher or any of the modern drivers in the same context with Fangio. During the 9 years Fangio raced at the top level in Europe, no less than 22 of his fellow drivers were killed. Back then, you didnt make many mistakes. An accident like Schumacher had at Silverstone in '99 would have been fatal in '59. Baloney like Schumacher taking Villeneuve out in '97 would have gotten you killed in '57. The entire race driving experience is simply a very different sport when the penalty for making a mistake is death and not just getting stuck in a gravel trap. Im not saying I would like to see a return of those days! Having your heros die is not a fun sport. I do not miss "The Cruel Sport" days at all. But, I certainly consider those who raced and won during those times as heros on a different level. Schumacher has accomplished some amazing things and he is certainly among the best there have ever been. But.... he is no Fangio and I think he would agree. Terry
they both pale into insignificance when Nuvolari is bought up, he lived through an even more dangerous era and did incredible things with cars that had NO hope of winning . Fangio drove only the best car of the day and often took over his team mates car to win a race and championship (peter Collins comes to mind immediately) Not saying JMF wasn't a great driver just that Tazio was more talented in harsher circumstances. OK , hold it ...... yep , flameproof suit on...go for it
Note the contradiction ... ? ... obviously to have had an accident he left the road or made a mistake. Also in the famous 57' Ring race he finished with tree branches (or something) stuck/jammed in the front suspension ... thus unless trees grow in the middle of a road he obviously had a hairy moment somewhere. He also hammered the cr@p out of the Maserati all year in 57' and stated so to somebody somewhere in some article I read. They were discussing rev limits and he quoted that he used whatever it took, as after all he got a brand new engine for every race ... thus he was a hoon too (BTW: I mean that honourably ). Fangio was a great, great driver as were many past drivers, but those sort of comments go too far IMO. Pete
There was a great quote in an R&T article about the era a few months ago by DePortago, from memory, "if the absolute maximum the car can go around a corner is 102kmh, the old man will come through at 101.5 every time." It's hard to compare Nuvolari, Fangio, Clark, Senna, Schumi for obvious reasons. I do think that Fangio had the most God-given talent of anyone to sit in a racecar though. He didn't even drive a car on the streets until he was 21 IIRC. Off the top of my head, I don't think he raced until he was 28. It was a different era, but he was a late starter even back then.
Fangio began his european racing career at the top level when he was 38 years old. WWII and the subsequent destruction across europe robbed him of his prime youthful racing years. He was 47 when he won his final world championship. Tazio was phenomenal as well. He had a much longer career and indeed did some amazing things in lesser cars. But, did not have the consistency that Fangio did. Nuvolari could suffer from a lack of motivation from time to time. When he was "on", he was totally in a league of his own as was Fangio. The difference was that Fangio was always on. Its easy to say that drivers like Moss or Nuvolari were better in broad terms because Fangio has something of a reputation of not being at the top in sportscars. While its true that he didnt have as much success in europe in sportscar as he did in F1 cars, he was not exactly a slouch. Then consider how dominant he was in all the extreme long distance open road races he won in South America. One interesting topic on Fangio is his use of little magic pills. He was famous for his incredibly endurance, and for his use of his special little pills. Moss took some before the '55 Mille Miglia. Not only did he win the 1000 mile race, but he stayed awake for 2 days afterward driving all the way across europe! What was in those magic pills???? Terry
First I've heard of it, but some sort of amphetamine. Maybe benzedrine as it was big in Europe around WWII, sheer magic...
Both are great drivers in the very top echelon of motor racing. Whether one is greatest or not is matter of personal opinion as the world of F1 has changed so much since the 50s. I think Michael is himself in awe of great drivers like Senna or Fangio. He has never proclaimed himself to be the best of all time! Personally my Top 5 are: 1. Tazio Nuvolari 2. Michael Schumacher 3. Ayrton Senna 4. J M Fangio 5. Rudolf Caracciola
Do you know that Fangio was never told that Senna had died before him? He spent his last year in bed thinking about how Ayrton was going to win the 94 Championship.... And on another note Schumacher still is a great fan of both Ayrton Senna and Fangio, something we don't see very often nowdays with kids racing perfect cars.....
As good as MS is, and no matter how many world championships he winds up with I would never consider him one of the best ever. He has no class, and will do anything including running someone else off the road to win. I guess to some, winning is everything, but not to me...
Exactly...Senna raced anybody on the same team. You forget to Mention that Stirling Moss rates Fangio and Senna as the greatest drivers of all time. Personally I pick Jim Clark. But that is my opinion. One last thing Fangio had Stirling Moss as a Teammate, who did MS have that rates like that?
that's the thing with the new F1, there are 2 or 3 really good drivers, the rest are all average. For me the best of the last 15 years were Prost, Senna, Hakkinen and Schumacher, you pick the order.... Alesi had some great moments. The way F1 is run today doesn't pay to have the best in the same team..... as was back in the 50's. And don't forget that Schumacher raced against Mansell, Prost, Senna..... wich most of todays kids can only dream about..... I would've loved to see Raikkonen and Alonso banging wheel in Monaco against Senna and Mansell..... and Alonso giving the hand for not letting him pass......
-Fangio had a relatively short GP career (10 years max.) and hardly had a chance to shine during the 2 years GPs were run under F2 rule - Ascari & Ferrari were dominating. There were also less GP per year in those days. Fangio won GPs and championships on 4 different makes: Alfa, Mercedes, Ferrari & Maserati switching from team to team almost every year. -Schumaker has been in F1 since 94, driving & winning for only 2 teams: Benetton & Ferrari. At Ferrari, he has been Number One for over 10 years and ALL his team mates ran under team orders. Fangio may have benefited from some favours from team mates (much is recalled about Collins), but Schumaker has received constantly preferential treatment from his team. Fangio was talented and cunning. Schumaker is fast and agressive. Fangio never play 'dirty tricks' on the track. Schumaker has been known to use all the tricks in the book, plus some...
Not sure what Count Volpi's beef is. I mean why coming out with such a letter now? If he had written that just when MS eclipsed Fangio's 5 titles with his sixth, then I'd understood, but why now come up with this? You can't compare drivers of such different times. MS himself said that when asked after he clinched the 6th title. He also went on to say that he would not have wanted to drive back then and I remember seeing a pic of him (at the Ring?) driving one of these old cars, but wearing a modern helmet. Despite my criticism of MS on occasion, I was rooting for him all the way to his 6th title. I really wanted him to win that one to set a new mark.
Letter came out in 2001 when Schumi had 3 titles to his name. I remember a cool picture of a Mercedes celebration where Michael and JMF took out some of the pre-war Mercs for a sortie on a track.
I think some of our memories of the old GP drivers are heavily influenced by what we read or maybe some newreels or Video clips. Very few of us were witnesses at a track when Nuvolari was caning Alfas and Bugattis around. Who knows whether any of them employed dirty tricks or not. I think as time goes by, the mistakes and the dirty driving aspects tend to be forgotten and the plaudits remain. Rose tinted glasses and such. Today with so much TV coverage and internet and what not, mistakes are broadcast everywhere and more people remember it. Schumacher will always be a legend like Nuvolari, Varzi, Caracciola, Fangio, Clark, Moss, Ascari, Stewart, Lauda, Senna, Prost and Mansell before him.
