Formula One mourns the loss of Chris Amon, a retired New Zealand racing driver who managed to stand on 11 podiums, but never on the top step. Amon passed away at the age of 73 following his battle with cancer. Amon was widely considered the greatest F1 driver to have never won a Grand Prix.
Amon made his Formula One debut in Monaco in 1963, qualifying 15th on the grid. He didn’t take part in the race, as his teammate, Maurice Trintignant, took over Amon’s car after his own engine started to misfire. Trintignant would retire from the race due to a clutch failure. Amon’s first race debut was at the following race in Belgium. He qualified for 15th on the grid once again, but only lasted 10 laps before an oil leak forced him to quit the race. It was a similar story in the Netherlands, as a water pump failure ended his race prematurely. It wasn’t until the 1963 French Grand Prix that Amon would finish a race, as he finished just outside of the points in seventh position. An accident during practice for the Italian Grand Prix left him sidelined for the race and the United States Grand Prix. He made his return at the Mexican Grand Prix, but retired due to a gearbox failure early in the race.
After failing to qualify for Monaco the following year, Amon earned his first career points in the Dutch Grand Prix with a fifth place finish. Those were the only points that he would score that year, as mechanical issues plagued the remainder of his season. He only finished one other race that season.
The 1965 and 1966 seasons didn’t see much of Amon, as he was signed with Bruce McLaren for some appearances in sports car racing. It was during this period that he won 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours. Amon tried to launch his own privateer F1 team in 1966, but failed to qualify for the Italian Grand Prix.
Amon’s success in sports car racing saw Enzo Ferrari offer the New Zealander a drive in Formula One. He scored his first podium with Ferrari during the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix, although it was largely overshadowed by the death of his teammate, Lorenzo Bandini, during a fiery accident near the end of that race. The rest of 1967 went quite well for Amon, as he gathered another three podiums and a total of 20 points to get fourth position in the World Championship.
The same could not be said for the 1968 season, as mechanical issues prevent him from completing most of the races. He was not able to convert any of races in victories due to the issues, despite qualifying for pole position in three of the races. He had some success is the Tasman Series, using a Ferrari Formula Two chassis and engine, although he lost the championship title to Jim Clark by a narrow margin.
The 1969 season was equally as bad for Amon, as more mechanical issues with the Ferrari engine left him sidelined part way through five or his six races. Despite the team’s plan to introduce a new engine part way through the season, Amon had lost faith in Ferrari and had no reason to believe that the new engine would be any better, given all of the mechanical issues that it had suffered during testing. He left the team ahead of the German Grand Prix.
During a brief stint at March in 1970 and Matra in 1971 and 1972 saw some more podium finishes, but no race victories and still a lot of unfortunate mechanical issues followed his career. He spent the remainder of his F1 career shuffling around various teams including Martini Racing, Tyrrell, Motul BRM and even his own team.
In 1976, he found himself on the Ensign team. He was able to convert the Spanish Grand Prix into two career points, but serious accidents in Belgium and Sweden nearly injured him. Amon was one of the many retirements during the 1976 British Grand Prix, as a water leak ended his day. At the German Grand Prix, Amon refused to restart the race after it was red flagged for Niki Lauda’s nearly fatal accident. Amon was promptly fired by the team, putting an end to his Formula One career. Although he did make one final appearance for Wolf during the Canadian Grand Prix that same year, he didn’t start the race after a heavy collision during qualifying.
In 1977, Amon declined an offer for a full-time racing seat with Wolf, but later entered the CanAm season with Wolf. However, he quit after the first race after saying that he no longer enjoyed racing.
After retiring, Amon returned home to run his family farm. During the 1980s he made various guest appearances on motoring television shows in which he test drove cars. He also served as a consultant for Toyota’s New Zealand distributer and made various appearances in television commercials for the company. He also helped to redesign New Zealand’s Taupo Motorsport Park circuit. After a battle with cancer, Chris Amon passed away in hospital at the age of 73.
