Juan Manuel Fangio
Ferrari wins 3
Ferrari titles 1
Before Mercedes disrupted the pecking order in its short-lived foray into Formula 1 in the mid-1950s, Ferrari had been the class of the field. Once the Stuttgart firm had absconded after winning the drivers’ titles in 1954 and 1955 with Fangio, he considered retiring from racing, but circumstances at home in Argentina kept him behind the wheel. President Juan Peron had been ousted and exiled, and asset-freezes for some of Argentina’s most renowned figures had been implemented, Fangio included. So he kept racing, and linked up with Ferrari to drive its Lancia-designed D50.
Fangio faced stern competition in team-mate Peter Collins and Maserati pair Stirling Moss and Jean Behra, but victory in Buenos Aires got the ball rolling for 1956, albeit in a shared drive with Luigi Musso after his own car was hamstrung by an ailing fuel pump. Despite some reliability issues, Fangio reeled off two further wins at Silverstone and the Nurburgring to sit eight points clear of Collins in the standings at the Monza finale, needing just one point to sew up the title. Disaster struck when Fangio’s steering arm broke, but Collins took sportsmanship to new heights by giving up his car to help
