Juan Manuel Fangio
Formula 1 has always had an aura of romanticism about it. Always a technological tour de force, back in the '50s and '60s, this aura was forged by men who were more afraid of losing than dying - men for whom competition was all. Men for whom creating history was more important than making money.
Names like Hawthorne, Collins, Moss, Caracciola are still spoken in hushed tones wherever F1 enthusiasts gather. These men were race-hardened in times of extreme duress - and drove when cars weren't computer-controlled. Then, grave mistakes were literally that - grave - often causing serious injury or death.
F1 cars, in those days, looked like squashed cigar tubes with wheels. The power plant was located in front, unlike today's rear-engine format. Gaskets and seals hadn't the reliability of today's components either; yesterday's racing driver usually ended up wearing most of the engine fluid by the time the race was over.
The leather cockpit was snug: cars had a huge Nardi steering wheel (remember, no power steering in those days!), open cockpit - designers thought in those days that it was best that drivers be flung from the car in an accident - and no seat belts. Most helmets were made of leather. The Mercedes W196 had an estimated 300hp, and was as light as cork. Rudolf Caracciola claimed he could get wheelspin in top gear.
Into these fearsome beasts - and that famous post-war era - was injected a 36-year-old Argentinian named Juan Manuel Fangio. A self-taught mechanic, Fangio grew up in a racing scene that had no equal in the world at the time. He was involved in events that covered literally thousands of miles - and went on for weeks.
unfair advantage
Fangio - quick-thinking and quick-moving.
These races were held through the mountains, with sometimes thousands of feet of sheer nothingness on one side - in places - and solid shale on the other. Add to this a thundering, front-heavy, home-built race car, zipping by day and night for thousands of miles (it isn't an event that your average insurance agent is going to want to underwrite). This 'training' became Fangio's 'unfair advantage'.
The European F1 drivers were choirboys in comparison. At 36, Fangio was the 'Old Man' in the paddock, a name that stuck with him till he retired in 1959 (he was also called 'El Chueco' by his compatriots - a name he was given because of his knock knees). By then, his 12-year career had seen it all - five world championships, 51 starts and 25 outright victories. He was a driving legend.
Fangio's win in the 1957 German Grand Prix at Nürburgring - a circuit 14.7 miles long with more than 395 corners, plus serious elevation changes; a circuit for history, not histrionics - saw him leaving for dead Hawthorne, Collins and the once-indomitable Sterling Moss in an inferior car, no less. Several scribes have voted this race the best Formula 1 event of all time.
But after 12 years in the sport, one begins to think about the next best thing. An exhibition race was held in Cuba the year before, called the Grand Premio. It was held over a street course called the Macelon - and attracted the jet set.
Fully 150,000 spectators lined the streets of Havana to watch Fangio and his mob drive the wheels off Porsches, Maseratis, Vanwalls and Ferraris. Seriously hot iron. Fangio won, having fought the Marquis de Portego's Ferrari street and lane until the latter's engine gave up the ghost. The Argentinian captured the chequered flag. We should have been able to hear, in Jamaica, the noise that was made.
abusive attack
The race, meant as a showcase for Fulgencio Batista's Cuba, was a complete success. However, the ever-present proletariat after the race stormed Batista's motorcade as it was held up in traffic leaving the race. One eyewitness said they were "seeking merely to speak to the president and request favours of him ... . The escort detachment, including the Presidential Palace Secret Service, all in suits, fell on the supplicants, battering them with brutal blows in the most indiscriminate and abusive attack I have ever witnessed in my life."
It was with acts like this which Batista sowed the seeds of his own demise. They started the spark which could be fanned into flames of discontent by Fidel Castro and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara.
The following year, Fangio and other F1 drivers were again invited to Cuba. Fangio already had decided he would retire at season's end and was going through the motions. Everyone settled in, anticipating a scintlillating episode come February 24. But Seņor Castro had other plans.
The night before the race (Saturday, February 23, 1958), a lone gunman politely stuck a pistol into Fangio's side while he was in the lobby of the hotel he was staying and said, "Fangio, you must come with me. I am a member of the 26th of July revolutionary movement." A friend of Fangio picked up a paperweight and cocked his arm - but he was ordered to stay still and, fearing that the assailant would shoot the ace race driver, complied. Fangio was whisked away in a waiting automobile.
His captors rushed to tell of their prisoner and who they were. The message was clear - if Batista wanted to stage a big-time race the next day, they would have to do it without the defending world champion. However, Fangio was, in his own words, treated well. Faustino Perez, one of the original Castro rebels and survivor of the Fidel's return from exile in the Granma, came to apologise personally for the inconvenience. Fangio was fęted in a well-furnished apartment, given steak, and even a radio so he could listen to the race as it unfolded.
In spite of the kidnapping, the race was staged, but it proved to be a disastrous decision. Fangio's Maserati 300S was piloted in his absence by Maurice Trintignant, also a Maserati driver. After the start, Moss led from American Masten Gregory, both in Ferraris. The world champion's Maserati, in Trintignant's hands, had fallen to 13th place.
Five laps later, the circuit's corners were slick with oil, presumably from a Porsche that had blown an engine but possibly from Castro's insurgents. As a result, Cuban driver Armando Garcio Cifuentes, driving a bright yellow and black Ferrari, skidded and ploughed into the crowd.
There were at least 40 casualties and, depending on which report is read, seven or eight deaths. The driver lived. Fifteen minutes after the start, the race was called off. Sterling Moss was declared the winner.
Fangio's release
But the revolutionaries had had their day in the sun; print media around the world, especially in Europe, trumpeted in bold headlines the struggle of the insurgents. Fangio was to be released, his captors said, in the care of Argentinian Ambassador, Rear Admiral Paul Lynch.
However, he was released near the house of Argentine Consul Gulio Lopez the day after the race and was recovered by embassy staff after a phone-call tip-off to the ambassador. Fangio said his captors treated him with compassion.
Years later, Fangio was received as a guest of the Cuban people.
mario.james @gleanerjm.com