Luigi Fagioli

Fagioli was born in Osimo, in the Marche region of central Italy. As a boy he was fascinated by the automobile and the newly-born racing scene. He started racing in hillclimbing and sports cars before entering Grand Prix racing in 1926. In 1930 he joined the Maserati team, winning the Coppa Ciano and the Circuit of Avellino Grand Prix.

In 1931 Fagioli raced against Louis Chiron and his Bugatti Type 51 at the Monaco Grand Prix. Chiron took the chequered flag first but Fagioli received universal praise for racing a car set up for long stretches on the tight street circuit of Monte Carlo. Fagioli then won the Autodromo Nazionale Monza Grand Prix ahead of Chiron and fellow Italian drivers Achille Varzi and Tazio Nuvolari.

In 1932 Fagioli won the Grand Prix of Rome driving for Maserati. For the 1933 season he signed with the Alfa Romeo team of Scuderia Ferrari. At the wheel of an Alfa Romeo P3, he won the Coppa Acerbo, the Grand Prix du Comminges, and the Italian Grand Prix. The Coppa Acerbo win came at the expense of Nuvolari, who was forced to retire with a mechanical failure while in the lead during the closing stages. For this reason Fagioli became known as "Il ladro degli Abruzzi" (The Abruzzi Robber).

In 1934 Mercedes hired Fagioli to drive one of their Silver Arrows alongside chief mechanic Hermann Lang. In his first outing, Fagioli abandoned his car after team manager Alfred Neubauer ordered him to stay in second place and let fellow Mercedes driver Manfred von Brauchitsch win. Despite this friction, Fagioli went on to win his second consecutive Coppa Acerbo and, together with Rudolf Caracciola in a Mercedes W25A, won his second straight Italian Grand Prix. His third win of the season came at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuito Lasarte.

For 1935, Fagioli's factory Mercedes was upgraded to a W25B model. He won the Monaco Grand Prix, the AVUS, and the Penya Rhin Grand Prix. His relationship with the team soured after he displayed a blatant disregard for team orders by trying to take on Caracciola on multiple occasions.

Fagioli left Mercedes at the end of the 1936 season and joined Auto Union. No longer restricted by team politics, his rivalry with Caracciola escalated, culminating in a physical altercation between the two at the Tripoli Grand Prix. Towards the end of the season, health problems including crippling rheumatism began to severely affect his racing ability. At the 1936 Coppa Acerbo he could only walk with the aid of a cane and was forced to drop out of the race.

By the end of World War II, Fagioli's health had improved and at 52 years old he joined Alfa Romeo's 1950 Formula One squad for the first ever FIA World Championship. Fagioli drove the 158/159 Alfetta and scored five podium finishes in six races, entering the final round as one of three drivers in contention for the title. Giuseppe Farina eventually won the championship, with Juan Manuel Fangio finishing second and Fagioli third.

In 1951 Fagioli won the French Grand Prix with Fangio, earning the distinction of being the oldest person ever to win a Formula One race. During the race the Alfa Romeo team manager ordered him to hand over his healthy car to Fangio while Fagioli would drive Fangio's car, which was plagued with engine problems. Fagioli was allegedly so disappointed with this arrangement that he elected to retire from Formula One racing there and then.

For 1952 Fagioli signed with Lancia to drive sports cars. He finished third at the 1952 Mille Miglia ahead of arch rival Caracciola.

In June 1952, while practising for the Monaco Grand Prix — a sports cars event that year — Fagioli crashed a Lancia Aurelia during practice in the tunnel. His injuries, initially believed to be minor, worsened after a few days. Fagioli died in a Monte Carlo hospital three weeks later.

Fagioli ranks as one of Italy's greatest race car drivers. With the exception of the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix, where a pile-up on the opening lap involving seven cars forced him to retire, he managed to finish on the podium of every single Formula One race he entered. That gives him the second-highest percentage of podium finishes in the Formula One World Championship (85.71%), after Dorino Serafini who has a perfect 100%.

Avusrennen 1935

Coppa Acerbo 1933, 1934

Coppa Ciano 1930

French Grand Prix / European Grand Prix 1951

Grand Prix du Comminges 1933

Italian Grand Prix 1933, 1934

Monaco Grand Prix 1935

Penya Rhin Grand Prix 1935

Spanish Grand Prix 1934

This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.