Argentine judge orders body of racing star Fangio exhumed

Judge Rodrigo Cataldo ordered the exhumation so DNA samples could be taken from the body.

Her son Oscar Espinoza, who briefly raced on the junior-level Formula Three circuit in Europe, is one of the men who has launched a paternity claim, along with another named Ruben Vazquez.

Espinosa had a brief spell in Formula 3 and was known to his colleagues as “Cancho Fangio”.

The won the World Championship five times in the 1950s- a record which only Michael Schumacher has bettered. Results are expected to be known in one to two months.

The other man claiming to be Fangio’s son is Ruben Vazquez.

Fangio died aged 84, having never married and is widely believed to have been childless.

The body of former Formula One champion Juan Manuel Fangio has been exhumed in a paternity row.

Vazquez, 73, said he was not after money when he sought to clarify whether he was Fangio’s son.

“The paternity request was started a long time ago and I’ve had to overcome a lot of blockages and obstacles”, Vazquez is quoted as saying in the same report. “There are no economic interests in my request”, he said. He just wants to ” be recognized for the Fangio surname”.

However, he is widely understood to have had a relationship lasting several years with a woman named Andrea Berruet, before they broke up in 1960.

The 77-year-old is reported to have provided as proof of Fangio’s paternity a collection of letters the world champion wrote to Berruet asking after him. It is also interesting to note that the government of Juan Peron funded most of his racing career.