We will have an Argentine Pope (Francisco), a princess (Maximum) and the best football player (Messi), but we must never forget the old glories of national sport. After German Michael Schumacher (seven titles) and Britain’s Lewis Hamilton (six championships), our Juan Manuel Fangio is the most winning driver in Formula One history, Having been proclaimed champion five times: 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1957.The motorist from the city of Balcarce (province of Buenos Aires) became passionate about nuts from his early youth when he left school to devote himself to mechanics and try his luck in second-class competitions. His official debut came on March 27, 1938 at The Tourism Road, more precisely, at the Necochea circuit where he took third place. Not bad for a “beginner.” The start of a long and fruitful race that marked him in history with 24 wins, 35 podiums, 29 pole positions and 23 fast laps over 51 Grand Prix.
As we said, Schumacher took away his record, but nearly 25 years after his death (July 17, 1995), “El Chueco” still holds the best winning average, is the only driver to win different championships with four different teams and the longest-running winner in history so far (46 years and 41 days). These are not the only outstanding ingredients of his biography, which also adds a very serious accident in Monza in 1952 that took him away from the slopes and an unusual kidnapping in Cuba, in 1958.La life and sports career of Juan Manuel are no strangers to the big screen (or the girl). In 1950, Román Viñoly Barreto and Armando Bó premiered “Fangio, the Devil of the Tracks”, which recounts his first year in F1. We also have the documentary “De Balcarce a la Gloria” (1966) by Carlos Alberto Aguilar, made with unpublished material provided by the same pilot. Hugh Hudson’s “Fangio” (1971) and Alberto Lecchi’s “Operation Fangio” (1999) add up to his fictional share, but Netflix brings us another alternative.
Give him gas…
One of the best plans for this weekend of quarantine and social isolation is “Fangio: The Man Who Tamed the Machines” (2020), a new biographical documentary that is now available on the on-demand platform. Francisco Macri’s film (“#SodaCirque”) traces the life of this penta-champion through his most momentous exploits, based on a study by the University of Sheffield in 2016, which determined that Fangio is the best Formula One driver in history. Go refute it, Miguelito.” Fangio: The Man Who Tamed the Machines” was filmed in our country and is a mixture of archival images – largely ceded by the Fangio Museum of Balcarce – and recreations carried out at the racetrack of that city. The idea is not only to show his exploits on the tracks, but to try to understand the phenomenon and the man who did not fear risk his life in the name of speed.
“The Demon of the Tracks”
“Juan Manuel Fangio was the king of F1 and won five world championships in the 1950s, before protective equipment or safety devices were worn. This is a film that seeks to understand what led him and other pilots to risk their lives by running in cars that flew at the same speeds as today’s, but with minimal precautions,” says the statement that accompanies this premiere and just reading it puts the goose skin on us. In this note:
