Why Argentina’s current great isn’t motivated by emulating Fangio

Having twice missed out on Formula 1 and reinvented himself as a touring car driver, Jose Maria Lopez has had a rocky ride to becoming a four-time world champion. One more would put him level with his nation's favourite son, but there's another prize he would value far more than the honour of matching Juan Manuel Fangio's tally

Updated Aug 15, 2021, 10:27 AM

If Vernon Kay were to front a motorsport-themed edition of Family Fortunes asking for the names of Argentinian racing drivers, you can bet that the first answer given would be five-time Formula 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. F1 aficionados might cite Jose Froilan Gonzalez or Carlos Reutemann, with Oscar Larrauri and Esteban Tuero at the more niche end of the spectrum.

It’s unlikely that one would immediately think of Toyota’s World Endurance Championship charger Jose Maria Lopez for the simple reason that he never raced in motorsport’s most popular series. But with four world titles already to his name, Lopez is arguably the nation’s foremost export since the late Reutemann and it's not too much of a stretch to picture him surpassing Fangio in the world titles stakes.

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.