A lot of pandas have head gasket ho because the radiator at the bottom gets hit by stones behind the front bumper. This causes less cooling ability and then head gasket goes. Often the radiator never gets checked so the head gasket goes again.
Most unlikely, and pretty much impossible on any car with A/C since the condenser is in front of the radiator and protects it. And as soon as the coolant temperature starts to rise, the two speed fan will kick in to cool things down.
Even without the fins, these radiators are still pretty effective.
Also in this scenario the coolant temperature sensor would still be covered by the coolant and you'd have the double protection of both the temperature gauge and the over temperature light to warn you of an overheating situation before anything serious happened.
What
does kill these engines is
low coolant; this is particularly dangerous because once the coolant drops below the level of the temperature sensor, it no longer responds as quickly to an overheat and by the time either the temperature gauge or the overheat light shows anything, the engine is already seriously cooked.
Providing there's sufficient coolant, you'll have enough warning to take action and prevent serious damage.
The best way to safeguard these engines is to check the coolant regularly and keep an eye on the known weak points for any leaks. Once the system has settled down after a coolant change, the level should be stable; if you find you need to keep topping up on a regular basis, find the reason and fix it.
Remember the post 2012 cars are euro 6 so at low revs they feel softer powered than the older 1.2 litre euros 5 engines.
I don't think there was ever a Euro6 1.2 Panda 169. The Euro 5 engine replaced the Euro 4 in mid 2010, introducing another weak spot - the plastic pipe on the thermostat housing, another potential cause of a coolant leak.