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The Argentine-born son of Italian migrants was born on June 24, 1911 and raced to five world championships - the last at age 46 when he made up a huge time penalty and broke the (then) Nurburgring track record to win his last title.
His five-win record stood for 46 years until beaten by Michael Schumacher. Fangio, who raced with four teams - Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes-benz and Maserati - has the highest winning percentage in Formula One (47.06 per cent) by winning 24 world championship Grands Prix from 51 starts. This compares with Schumacher's 33.09 per cent.
He is the only Argentine driver to have won the Argentine Grand Prix, winning it four times in his career. He retired from racing in 1958.
His life was not without incident away from the track. Cuban rebels kidnapped him on February 23, 1958, but he was later released, and remained a good friend of his captors afterwards.
The incident was dramatised in the 1999 Argentine film "Operacion Fangio".
After retirement he ran his successful Mercedes-Benz dealership in Buenos Aires. He died aged 84 in 1995.
Fangio will be honoured at the Goodwood Revival (September 16-18) in the UK this year, which is also the 60th anniversary of him winning the first of his world championships.
Goodwood will stage a daily track parade including a variety of his most famous cars, including his winning 1957 Maserati 250F.
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