Now, here was a giant killer. A man who beat the hell out of Mercedes-Benz at least twice and won Ferrari’s very first World Championship Grand Prix by beating the most successful racing car of all time.
Born in Arrecifes, Argentina, in October 1922, Gonzalez was a tubby baby who grew up to be a tubby man with an XXL head. His countrymen called him El Cabazon or Fat Head, the British a more conservative Pampas Bull. He was a flailing windmill of a driver whose style was the complete opposite of his fellow countryman and friend Juan Manuel Fangio, the master of seemingly effortless speed and precision. Even so, José Froilan was one of the few drivers to beat the five-times World Champion.
