When F1 legend Juan Manuel Fangio was kidnapped at gunpoint in Cuba

Juan Manuel Fangio, without any doubt, is one of Formula 1’s greatest legends. We know him for his five Championships with four different teams, and his unbeatable winning percentage. But did you know that in 1958, Fangio was kidnapped ?

Cuban revolutionaries approached Fangio in his hotel ahead of the Havana Grand Prix, pointed a gun at his ribs, and forced Formula 1’s most iconic racer into the back of a car. It kicked off a chain of events that would change the entire history of Cuba’s fight for freedom from its tight-fisted leader.

Juan Manuel Fangio and the Cuban Grand Prix

The Cuban Grand Prix, also known as the Havana Grand Prix, first took place in 1957. The 3.23-mile track stretched across El Malecón, the gorgeous palm-tree lined esplanade that crept across the seafront, and was the personal idea of one Fulgencio Batista.

Batistia had been Cuba’s elected president between 1940 and 1944, but his time in office was marred by corruption. He was ousted from office before seizing power again in 1952, this time establishing a dictatorial regime that saw the American Mafia infiltrate Havana while poor locals were treated with disdain.

It was into this environment that the idea for the Cuban Grand Prix germinated. As resistance to his rule grew, Batista invested in a high-profile international race to keep Cuba’s name in the news in a more positive way.

Drivers from all disciplines were invited to take part, enticed by both the generous expenses afforded by the Batista regime as well as the generous prize purses and appearance fees.

Just by turning up at the inaugural Havana Grand Prix in 1957, Juan Manuel Fangio earned $7,000 — which amounts to about $50,000 today. His victory in the event behind the wheel of a Maserati 300S netted him even more.

After 1957’s riotous success, Batista was prepared to double down on the race’s propaganda efforts in 1958. With his retirement on the horizon, Fangio was sure to be a favorite for the race, and fans would flock to see him compete one final time.

But in the year that had passed since the first Havana Grand Prix, Cuba had completely changed. Political unrest was so rampant that the government struggled to hide the frustrations behind the country’s star-studded, Americanized veneer.

Big-name drivers like Fangio were given bodyguards and put up in the swanky Hotel Lincoln; the hope was that this would provide an adequate safety net to help the Monday race go off without a hitch. Until that point, things had been fine, and Fangio had set pole position for the race behind the wheel of a Maserati 450S that had been loaned to him by American entrant Temple Buell.

But on Sunday, February 23 — the night before the event — Cuba’s illusion of safety was shattered.

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Kidnapped at gunpoint

The bar in the lobby of the Hotel Lincoln was filled with drivers and other race personnel, and by 9pm, they’d naturally drawn a crowd of fascinated locals who wanted to catch a glimpse of their idols and perhaps even sign an autograph.

As Fangio stepped forward to sign something for a young gentleman in the crowd, however, he was shocked to find not a napkin or a piece of paper in front of him, but a Colt 45 pistol.

At first, Fangio assumed he was the victim of a bad joke and laughed with the shaky-looking gentleman brandishing the gun. That is, until he was politely informed that he was being kidnapped by the shaking man and his armed friend by the door, and would he please come with them.

Fangio chose to comply rather than cause havoc or get anyone killed. No shots were fired, and the kidnappers escorted Fangio to a black Plymouth. There, he was given a briefing on what was happening.

Fangio recounted this part of the kidnapping in detail in The International Grand Prix Book of Motor Racing : “It was explained to me that the Movement of the 26th of July was a Castro political organization.

“‘ You are to be our guest’ said the man beside me, ‘and you’ll be treated with courtesy. We are doing this because you are, at the moment, the most famous visitor to the island.

“Tomorrow you will not be at the start of the Grand Prix. Afterwards, you will be liberated. Our intention is to focus world attention in this way on our political movement, which Batista and his regime are trying to suppress. Claro ?'”

Fangio was taken from one house to the next as the kidnappers attempted to keep their location under wraps. He was served dinner and was allowed to call his family to let them know he was safe, and on race day, he and his kidnappers watched the Havana Grand Prix together on television.

The Argentine driver also learned about the goals of his kidnappers.

They were part of Fidel Castro’s 26th of July movement, named after a 1953 attempt to overthrow the Batista regime, and they had attempted to kidnap Fangio the year previously but failed.

With their success in 1958, they hoped they’d draw attention to Batista’s failed state by using Fangio as their pawn. No longer could Batista control the media narrative coming out of the country, not when motorsport’s biggest star had been successfully kidnapped by revolutionaries.

As soon as Fangio had been kidnapped, members of the 26th of July Movement went right to the news agencies to get the word out: Juan Manuel Fangio had been kidnapped, and Batista’s government hadn’t been able to stop it. His fellow drivers had been placed under greater surveillance while a massive Batista-endorsed manhunt attempted to track Fangio down.

Suddenly, the narrative around the race had shifted from state-sponsored propaganda to all-out exposés on the dangers of the country under Fulgencio Batista’s rule.

Things only got worse for Batista. He demanded the start of the 1958 Cuban Grand Prix be delayed for two hours, confident that perhaps the police might just find the event’s star driver, who had helped attract a crowd of over 250,000 people.

The delays couldn’t go on forever, though, and when it became clear that Fangio was not going to make the grid, his Maserati was given to driver Maurice Trintignant, and the race was ready to run.

A disastrous race — and an end to Batista

The 1958 Havana Grand Prix, though, was a disaster.

When the green flag flew, one car on the track began to leak oil around the circuit. By the fifth of 90 laps, the offending car had slicked down key corners of the street track, which was flanked by thousands of spectators.

One of the race’s entrants was an inexperienced Cuban racer, 26-year-old Armando Garcia Cifuentes. At a corner near the American Embassy, Cifuentes lost control in a slick patch of oil and barreled into the crowd.

Seven spectators were killed, and almost 40 more were injured by the scything machine.

A concerning lack of crowd control also meant that, in the aftermath, audience members desperate to flee from the scene actually ran right onto the hot race track, where cars were still racing at full speed.

After just six laps, the race was red-flagged — but only because drivers Phil Hill and Bob Said had gotten out of their cars and demanded it happen.

The 1958 Cuban Grand Prix was over.

But Fangio’s kidnappers were faced with a new dilemma: How could they safely free Fangio?

See, they were concerned that, should they simply let Fangio go, Batista would have Fangio killed nevertheless and blamed it on the revolutionaries. They also didn’t want to wait to be discovered by Batista’s military and face an all-out gun battle that would inevitably leave many hurt or killed.

Fangio himself had the answer: they should simply drop him off at the apartment of Raul Lynch, who was serving as Argentina’s ambassador to Cuba. The captors did exactly as he asked — and for good measure, they even apologized for inconveniencing him as they dropped him off.

He had been in captivity for 29 hours.

Fulgencio Batista’s government began to crumble after Fangio’s release. His failure to find the reigning World Champion despite a massive manhunt revealed underlying weaknesses in what had once seemed to be an unstoppable military dictatorship.

Within nine months, Batista had fled to another country, where he attempted to hide out under exile as the U.S. implemented arms bans on the country and his supremacy as leader began to fall into question.

Even though the 26th of July Movement failed to get the Havana Grand Prix canceled, they ultimately found greater success from the tragedy that the race ultimately became. Cifuentes’ crash and the subsequent failure to control the crowd continued to reveal that the Batista government was not quite in control the way it wanted itself to seem.

In fact, further shockwaves reverberated in the aftermath of the event when the Batista government attempted to blame Cifuentes for the crash — while Cifuentes was still fighting for his life in the hospital.

The government refused to apportion any blame to the race organizers for the unacceptable lack of crowd control, perhaps because the event happened to be run by Batista’s brother-in-law. It all served to further highlight the cruelty of the dictatorship.

Fidel Castro’s guerilla tactics ultimately proved successful, as a revolutionary named Che Guevara helped overthrow the Batista government. However, the new governmental regime would turn out to be highly restrictive in its own right, leaving the citizens of Cuba struggling for basic rights.

All that, in large part because a small group of revolutionaries managed to successfully kidnap one of Formula 1’s greatest drivers.

For more detail on Fangio’s kidnapping, check out the first episode of Elizabeth Blackstock’s podcast “ Deadly Passions, Terrible Joys .”

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