"5-Time World Champ" Juan Manuel Fangio Dies - July 17, 1995

June 24, 1911 – July 17, 1995
Juan Manuel Fangio

(Photo; telegraph.co.uk)
Born in Mar del la Plata, Argentina.

He won the World Championship of Drivers five times, a record which stood for 46 years until beaten by Michael Schumacher. He won it with four different teams, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati, a feat that has not been repeated. A member of the Formula 1 Hall of Fame, he is regarded by many as one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time and holds the highest winning percentage in Formula One - 46.15% - winning 24 of 52 Formula One races he entered. Fangio is the only Argentine driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, having won it four times in his career, the most of any driver.

After retirement, Fangio presided as the honorary president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina from 1987, a year after the inauguration of his museum, until his death.

Juan Manuel Fangio died in Buenos Aires in 1995, at the age of 84; he was buried in his home town of Balcarce. His pall-bearers were his younger brother Ruben Renato ("Toto"), Stirling Moss, compatriot racers José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann, Jackie Stewart and the president of Mercedes-Benz Argentina at the time. In 2011, on the centenary of his birth, Fangio was remembered around the world and various activities were held on the occasion of his birthday.

(Photo;motorsportm8.com)

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