 |
| (dianefineart.ca) |
"After he
retired, when he was in Europe he would often take the opportunity to visit a
Grand Prix. On these occasions, years and years after his last race, his
presence was still magical and 'FANGIO!' was the word that rippled through the
crowd and along the pit lane. He would make a tour of the pits with various
officials, pausing to greet familiar faces from his old teams and to shake
hands with drivers like Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart,
Alain Prost or Ayrton Senna. They all loved him. Fangio was Fangio. There was
no need to embellish his name. It was powerful enough on its own." - Denis
Jenkinson (journalist)
"More than
thirty years after he last acknowledged a chequered flag, fans who had never
seen him would jostle to glimpse the unprepossessing little Argentine who, by
most available yardsticks, had been the greatest racing driver of all time. His
achievements made him a legend, but his modesty made him loved." - Richard
Williams (journalist)
"He
commanded awe. When he entered a room it went quiet. His whole bearing was
almost like royalty but it was accompanied by considerable modesty." -
Tony Brooks (driver)
"I don't
think I knew a more softly spoken man, yet he still had real presence. You were
always aware of him when he entered a room, even if you couldn't see him."
- Phil Hill (driver)
"You came
into a room full of racing personalities, World Champions and so on, and then
Fangio comes in. All eyes turn
towards him, all
else is forgotten." - Jackie Stewart (driver)
"He treated
all those he met, from the highest to the lowest, with equal dignity and
importance. When he was talking to you,
you were the only one that mattered." – Stirling Moss (driver)
"His manners
were as refined as his driving. As a competitor he was necessarily ruthless,
but he was never calous. He was revered by his contemporaries, none of whom
ever presumed to question his place on the pedestal." - Nigel Roebuck
(journalist)
"He was
recognised not only as the best driver but also the fairest. I never heard a
single complaint about his behaviour, in or out of the cockpit, and there
aren't many world champions you can say that about." Tony Brooks (driver)
"He was
always so willing to share what he knew. It was a heck of a quality. At the
Nurburgring he once asked me what gear I was using through a certain section. I
told him third. He said try fourth. And I did and I picked up three
seconds." - Phil Hill (driver)
"The great
thing about him is that he won five world titles in four different cars and he
never had a row with anyone." – John Cooper (team owner)
"He was
always the leading figure and centre of attraction among the travelling
entourage of drivers, mechanics, organisers and journalists. But never did
allow this to affect him in any way, never did he become a prima donna - and
always he somehow succeeded in shunning the publicity which nowadays is so
often thrust upon public figures and idols. In private life he was the best,
the most loyal and sporting friend, unanimously respected and loved by all the
drivers, who do not generally waste time in being nice about each other."
- Olivier Merlin (Fangio biographer)
"Fangio, the
driver, is a man who loves cars with an almost physical passion, who considers
sport like a religion. and to whom speed is an expression of human beauty.
Fangio is a born gentleman, in every meaning of the word. I have never heard
him raise his voice or be aggressive to gain the upper hand in a discussion.
Fangio would stay calm and control himself even in situations which made others
shout with anger. He has never been a snob. He is natural with everybody. He
has no inferiority complex. For the former modest mechanic, shaking hands with
a ruling monarch is as pleasing as shaking hands with a pump attendant, so long
as the handshakes are sincere." - Marcello Giambertone (Fangio manager and
biographer)
***
"Anyone who
has been fortunate enough to talk to Fangio, or to be close enough to him to observe
his eyes, cannot have helped noticing their remarkable sharpness. There is no
doubt that eyesight plays a very vital part in Fangio's success. There are
times when he appears to be taking no interest in his surroundings and appears
to be in a sleepy and lethargic mood, but watch his eyes closely and you will
see that they are observing everything going on around him. Though he moves his
head very slowly, mostly due to the neck injury he received in the crash at
Monza in 1952, and in normal everyday life his whole body moves slowly, his
eyes will flash from one thing to another with great rapidity, which is made
all the more noticeable by these slow body movements." - Denis Jenkinson
(journalist)
"It is his
eyes, more than any other single feature, that distinguish him from his
fellows. He possesses steely blue, penetrating, rapid eyes shielded by heavy
eyebrows, which can also occasionally, merely by winking an eye, give some
remarkably youthful glances." - Olivier Merlin (Fangio biographer)
"He was of
average height, stocky of build, slope-shouldered, thinning hair. He walked with
a sort of rolling, bandy-legged gate. His voice was traditionally described as
thin and reedy. Like any description of Fangio it falls short of Truth because
what must be immediately understood about Fangio is that his ordinariness is an
extraordinary disguise. And all the more extraordinary because it is totally
seamless. Never can you catch Fangio out of character. He is completely what he
seems to be, wholly centred within his own being. No quirks for the camera. He
is modest, direct and without artifice. He is humble in the exalted sense of
the word." - Denise McCluggage (journalist)
"I admire
him so much because he has been a great champion. He was so calm I used to say
he had distilled water instead of blood in his veins. A fantastic boy, not only
for his great class but his simplicity. Few of them know how to remain
themselves, once having attained fame and success. Their heads seem to expand
and they can't wear their crash hats naturally. But Fangio, who could give all
the young ones lessons even today, has stayed simple, sincere and loyal. He is
a great gentleman, in spite of his modest origins, and I am very fond of
him." - Louis Chiron (driver and race official)
***
"I got his
autograph as a wee lad and when I started racing
he was there one
year when I won at Monaco and came up to me after and spoke to me in his quiet,
squeaky voice. Through an interpreter he said he had watched me and I had
driven a good race, not made any mistakes, all the things you want to hear.
Another year when I won at Monaco we went to dinner with him and some friends
in Menton. And he drove, a Mercedes it was, and Helen and I were sitting in the
back and I couldn't believe I was in a car being driven by Juan Manuel
Fangio." - Jackie Stewart (driver)
"I had the
opportunity to meet Fangio in Vienna in the 1960's as he opened the Racing Car
Show. Later, I had the honour of driving with him in a Mercedes 6.3, it was a
350hp touring car, a heavy touring car, around the old Nurburgring. This was
about 1967 I think, and he told me about his greatest race there ten years
earlier, when he drove the Maserati and
beat loads of young guys. He showed me
where he had cut the grass and where he was drifting nearly to the trees, and
it was a fantastic lap - quite mad, really. As he was talking to me he was
driving very quickly, and the tyres on the Mercedes were smoking. But I was not
afraid and felt very comfortable because he was so relaxed behind the wheel. I
drove with him again in 1984, when Mercedes was introducing a new model of car
and he was demonstrating them on country roads in Austria. By this time he was
73 years old and he was wearing glasses and looking his age. But Fangio seemed
as fast as ever, and he was still really quick in the way he drove, braked,
shifted gears, accelerated, turned the steering wheel. It was for me
significant for this man to be able to still have such sensitivity, such
feeling for the car in every move he made. You could see his outstanding class.
And then we arrived near this village and rain started and the road was really
slippery, and we drove at 120 kph around a corner and suddenly one of these
farmer's trucks was crossing the road right in front of us. Fangio never
panicked and hardly slowed down. He braked a bit, slid the Mercedes right and
left, corrected the slide and went easily around the farmer, whose eyes we
could see were bulging. Fangio had a smile on his face and he was murmuring something in Spanish. For me, this
was fantastic to see such brilliant reaction time, really marvellous. This was
the Maestro at work." - Helmut Zwikl (journalist)
"He was the
most natural driver around at the time. He was so good that he could produce
outstanding performances without exceeding his personal safety margins. Some of
his qualities were: anticipation, judgement, sensitivity in his hands and the
seat of his pants, and of course great mental strength. He read a race very
carefully and drove very intelligently. He was always one step ahead. But when
you try to analyse exactly what gave him his edge you come up against a stone
wall." - Tony Brooks (driver)
"The
greatness of the Maestro lay in a combination of many things: flawless timing,
great speed, near-perfect judgement, phenomenal sensory and extra-sensory
perception, self-discipline, patience and widsom in the heat of battle, and an
amazing conservation of equipment. These are the abilities one can put into
words, but the degree to which he possessed them is indescribable, as are a
collection of other abilities which can't even be identified." - Marie
Heglar (journalist)
"You could
see that he was a very, very accurate driver. Lap after lap, if you were to put
a coin on the road he would put his tyres on that coin lap after lap. He was
extremely precise. But, the real reason why he was so special I could not see.
However, in those days when they were sliding their cars, Fangio was of course
fantastic at that. I remember I once had a rather boozy evening with Jean Behra
and I asked him why Fangio was the better driver. And Jean said that while he
could slide his car up to about 200kph, Fangio could slide his at much faster
speeds and hold his slide for considerable distances. That suggests he had more
car control, probably through better reflexes. I don't think Fangio had more
bravery than Behra, who after all died from an overdose of bravery. It's just
that while Behra thought he knew his limit, Fangio's limit was higher." -
Jabby Crombac (journalist)
"To begin with,
'El Chueco' is a driver born, just as there are great musicians, painters and
sculptors born. He is a natural with a highly develped sixth sense which behind
the wheel resolves itself in a combination of super-sensitive balance,
hair-trigger reaction and faultless judgement. He seems touched by magic -
almost infallible and invulnerable behind the wheel of a race car. His eye is
dead true, his evaluation of chances a cold, detached, objective process,
entirely unaffected by feelings of the moment. The secret of his very high
percentage of finishes is that he knows instinctively just how much any machine
will take. The calm and casual style that cloaks 'El Chueco's' absolute mastery
behind the wheel is actually a carry-over of his everyday existence, from which
all unnecessary activity has been eliminated. He is the most relaxed individual
imaginable and - partly perhaps because of his low blood pressure - he simply
does not know the meaning of emotional crisis." - John Bentley
(journalist)
"At the height
of his racing career adjectives singing his praises had as good as run out.
When he was nearer 50 than 40, and beating drivers young enough to have been
his sons at the time of his fifth world title in 1957, his feats put in the
shade what those with long memories recalled of Nuvolari, Varzi, Rosemeyer,
Caracciola and Wimille. At that age, drawing from his vast experience and
knowledge, he was able to remain one step ahead of anything that happened, to
anticipate his rivals' manouevres, and beat them by whatever cunning or
strategem was necessary." - Roberto Carozzo (Fangio biographer)
"For his
admirers the 'Old Man' symbolized the heroic age when racing drivers went about
their business in cork helmets, polo shirts, string-backed gloves and suede
loafers. forearms bare to the wind, faces streaked with hot oil. It was an age
when chivalry played a part and when the physical danger was such that each
race seemed to thin the ranks of the participants. Perhaps the two were not
unconnected." - Richard Williams (journalist)
"There is no
way you can compare me with him. What he achieved, at the wheel of fairly basic
cars in just shirt sleeves and with no helmet, hardly bears thinking about. It
wasn't even the same sport. No, I could never do what he did. That man was a
hero." - Michael Schumacher (driver)
- excerpt from FANGIO
The Life Behind The Legend |
|||
No comments:
Post a Comment