The funn y thing about Amon's win at Le Mans is that Ford allegedly wanted a "dead race" with both cars cross the line at the same time therefore having both cars on P1. The stewards pulled out the rule book and flatly stated "Well the 2nd car( Mclaren /Amon) has managed more mileage in 24 hours (they started behind their sister car) so therefore they are the offical winners" That is probably that one time amon was really lucky. And on the other hand he had very poor team choices. Left Ferrari right before they were challenging for a title (1970) and then left March for Matra only to have March end up in 2nd place despite no wins.
You should probably look up Chris Amon's you tube interview about the Le Mans win where he recounts his ,(and Bruce McLarens) version of that win, also if you look at the photo of the 24 hour finish the McLaren /Amon car is shown clearly crossing the finish line meters ahead of the Miles/ Hulme car.
@@johnstirling6597 According to the data both cars had the exact same mileage for that race but the stewards decided that Mclaren / Amon were the winners because the started behind Miles / Hulme and therefore had the longer race distance. After all the original goal of Le Mans is who can race the most mileage within 24 hours. In the end it came down to 25 yards that Amon and Mclaren traveled more then Miles and Hulme (they were 40 yards behind Miles and Hulme on the starting grid)
Chris Amon was a racer of the purest kind - a true Great. Even in his last season, 1976, he was brillant, i saw him there at the Nürburgring...the Ensign was poor, but Chris still shining bright. Mo Nunn: "We changed the position of the rear wing only some millimeters...and he realised it. Chris was a very closed friend to the Greatest Ever - Jim Clark. At Hockenheim, 7th April 1968, he stood beside Jim on the grid oft his horrible F 2 race....RIP Chris Amon.
I read an interview with Sir Jackie Stewart who said that Amon was as talented as Jochen Rindt but was often the architect of his own misfortune. He would routinely show up to GP weekends late, disorganised, and not knowing which hotel he was meant to be staying in. Missing passports, not having the right paperwork when he wanted to hire a car and even on one occasion not knowing where his team were headquartered at a race weekend were all part of Amon's sloppy life outside of the car cockpit. Stewart said that not attending to details weighed on Amon's mind too much so he couldn't focus properly on the race itself. Mauro Forghieri said that Amon was the best test driver Ferrari ever had and that the work he did in testing in 68-69 led to those Ferrari wins in 70 and 71. But it was typical of Amon that he could have lost a race due to interference from a volcano.
@nedzosf1gridbox From all accounts other drivers liked Amon, it's just that he lived chaotically. He really needed a PA to sort those humdrum chores for him.
i'm not sure if anyone has come close to matching Amon's dubious record.....everyone I could think of was either a mediocre or just bad driver, was late to success, but got it, or is still young: Nico Hulkenberg is obviously the current version of Chris Amon, not even a podium, I hope he doesn't retire with that record. - It took Jenson Button forever to get it all together, lots of close calls, then a lucky win in 7th season, 2 seasons in a dud car, then 2009 happened. - Martin Brundle always seemed to be "almost there", no wins but 9 podiums. - Hakkinen was heading this direction in the late 90's....In 1997 he would get in the lead and then either crash or have an engine blow late in the race, until he was gifted a win at the last race, then gifted another at the first race of 1998...then BOOM, 2 World Championships! -Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost had no problems winning races, but had a skill for ALMOST winning Championships for years, but of course they were both successful in the end. -Sergio Perez, 1st win on 190th start, but now he's on Red Bull and has 5 more. -Stirling Moss, 16 wins, no Championship... driver to never win a Championship -Lando Norris is still young, but he has 15 podiums and no wins....I'm hoping this goes out of date soon....
I have a book by Mark Hughes, where, among other things, there is a list of GP drivers up until 2006 and Amon is one of the few drivers without a win that are included; he was a great qualifier, if there ever was a qualifying championship awarded, he'd be champion in 1968, it just shows his potential that was never fully realised
Amon was before my time but the stories about him reminds me of Jean Alesi. Talent and speed were there but bad luck and choices are what they are remembered for. Amon had a good attitude later in life though claiming he wasn’t unlucky as he survived that deadly era were many died. Having witnessed so much tragedy then walking away must feel lucky
When Alesi finally won his first and only Grand Prix in Canada 1995 the entire grid was celebrating with him because they all felt that he deserved to win at least one Grand Prix. Before that he was often compared to Chris Amon (heck his choice of teams was just as unlucky as that of Amon like going to Ferrari in 1991 instead of Williams). Though in today's time that title has fallen to Nick Heidfeld I suppose.
An aspect in the 1968 F1 season which didn't bode well for Amon was that his Ferrari teammate, Jacky Ickx, scored his first F1 victory, in his rookie season, at the French GP. But then, the French GP was held in rainy conditions, which played well for Ickx as he was very talented driving in the wet.
One of my all time favourite drivers, have his autograph on a photo of him opposite locking his '68 Ferrari. That '68 car was powerful & handled well, but overly thirsty. He could have easily won a couple of F1 races that year but his perennial bad luck intervened.
Plenty of distraction for F1 drivers back then, Tasman Series, Can-Am, F2, F5000, Sportscar Championship, not to mention saloon car racing. 19:53 Some Guy via Pinterest lol.
The drivers of that era doing cross-overs to other race series/genres is what kept me very captivated with motorsports at the time . . . Indy Car drivers in NASCAR and sports cars; F1 drivers in sports cars; sports car drivers subbing in F1; and second-tiered drivers given a shot at the big-time, such as Peter Gethin's win at the Italian Grand Prix for BRM; yet, prior to that race, Gethin was associated with McLaren.
Amon never won a GP (but he did win an F1 race -- the 1970 International Trophy at SIlverstone -- I was there to see it). He was in the lead of a GP many times when some mishap prevented him converting it to a win. The 1968 Spanish GP was the first, as far as I know. Miles in the lead when the fuel pump failed.
He also won the 1971 Argentine Grand Prix but , as befits his history the race that year was to evaluate the track . It returned to the championship in 1972 .
I recall that 1968 F1 season, as McLaren really came into his own with a competitive car, the M7A. Bruce was also a skilled tactician, too. He purposely shedded wings on his F1 car for the Italian GP to give him better top-end speed, and enlarging the the fuel tank, as he was the _rabbit_ in that race to possibly push the pace to put his competitors into submission. Bruce's teammate, Denis Hulme, won the race. Then in the 1968 Canadian GP at the Mt. Tremblant circuit, notorious for its rough surface, Bruce McLaren beefed-up his cars with heavier components, which made it just a bit slower, giving a slight advantage to Chris Amon, whom built up a commanding lead prior to dropping out of the race at lap 72. But the heavier components gave the McLaren GP cars a reliability edge, which saw only six cars finishing out of a field of 17, that resulted with teammate Hulme winning again, with Bruce finishing second . . . a 1-2 finish for Team McLaren.
"Deserve a race win" is such a weird phrase. You either win or you don't and most of the time you don't. Though I would like to contrast Amon with Button, who became a champion through the sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time.
Tbh, I'm thinking Fernando Alonso might be the unluckiest driver ever. 11 points away from like 5 championships but I guess at least he has 2 and is a slam dunk Hall of Famer. Amon, Hulkenburg and I guess Mansell are other contenders for this.
i bought his biography "Forza Amon" about 15 years ago. First couple of chapters were very interesting, then life got in the way and never returned to it. I really should pick the book back up and finish it.
Chris Amon really doesn’t get the credit he deserves for pulling the Ferrari team back up by the bootstraps after the death of Bandini and Mike Parkes bad crash in ‘67
Though WINNING for Ford the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1966 in a GT40 with Bruce McLaren (how they won and not came second to another GT40 was not unlucky), plus a victory in a Ferrari P4 in the Daytona 24 Hours, though not F1, is pretty damn good! For drivers in those days it wasn't all about F1. After all, Amons contemporary, Jacky Ickx left Ferrari because his contract was restricted to F1. Drivers did it all back then. This needs to be understood.
I attended Gp Races since 1960 with my father and I had the opportunities to see Chris racing several times in Monza and Montecarlo. His driving was very natural and effortless compared to others. I 1979 I attended Dijon Grand Prix and did the trip in train in the same wagon with Mauro Forghieri and Nestore Morosini. Mauro told me that Amon had a driving sensibility that nobody else had, in particular on tires and set up. He was really disappointed when Amon left Ferrari, keeping in mind that Reutemann just left Ferrari the year before……
Yea well when you’re covering a topic from the 60s and 70s they’re few and far between especially if you don’t want your videos taken down for copyright infringement by using ones you’re supposed to pay for
@@nedzosf1gridbox I learned years ago that 'still-images' are vigorously copyright protected on TH-cam, more so than posting audio songs. The aspect I give you credit for, and appreciate, is that you go to the trouble to put captions to those images to inform the viewers what they are seeing. I say that because there are plenty of TH-camrs out there with videos on _very specific_ topics that will insert images that are *way-off-the-mark* to the presented topic, and there's no disclaimer caption to explain about the presented image. One in particular was a TH-camr doing a topic about the dominance of the Porsche 917 in the early 1970s sports car endurance racing. The producer of that video spoke about the Ferrari 512, but showed an image of a Lola T70 Mk 3B coupe, _with no disclaimer caption to indicate that what was shown was a not a Ferrari, but a Lola._ I've seen other TH-cam posts when it came to trivia about specific Hollywood movies or TV series, with images being shown of actors that had absolutely no connection to the movie or TV production. Those TH-camrs I won't click-on future posts.
@@bloqk16 I always make an effort to get images as close as possible, and it’s not the end of the world if I get, for example a 1963 BRM instead of a 1964 as long as I make it clear what’s what, in case people don’t know
He was asked in an interview about being unlucky, he replied I"I survived"
And Enzo Ferrari described him as the best test driver he ever had
The funn y thing about Amon's win at Le Mans is that Ford allegedly wanted a "dead race" with both cars cross the line at the same time therefore having both cars on P1. The stewards pulled out the rule book and flatly stated "Well the 2nd car( Mclaren /Amon) has managed more mileage in 24 hours (they started behind their sister car) so therefore they are the offical winners" That is probably that one time amon was really lucky. And on the other hand he had very poor team choices. Left Ferrari right before they were challenging for a title (1970) and then left March for Matra only to have March end up in 2nd place despite no wins.
Haha, that’s a great story
You should probably look up Chris Amon's you tube interview about the Le Mans win where he recounts his ,(and Bruce McLarens) version of that win, also if you look at the photo of the 24 hour finish the McLaren /Amon car is shown clearly crossing the finish line meters ahead of the Miles/ Hulme car.
@@johnstirling6597 According to the data both cars had the exact same mileage for that race but the stewards decided that Mclaren / Amon were the winners because the started behind Miles / Hulme and therefore had the longer race distance. After all the original goal of Le Mans is who can race the most mileage within 24 hours. In the end it came down to 25 yards that Amon and Mclaren traveled more then Miles and Hulme (they were 40 yards behind Miles and Hulme on the starting grid)
Chris Amon was a racer of the purest kind - a true Great. Even in his last season, 1976, he was brillant, i saw him there at the Nürburgring...the Ensign was poor, but Chris still shining bright. Mo Nunn: "We changed the position of the rear wing only some millimeters...and he realised it.
Chris was a very closed friend to the Greatest Ever - Jim Clark. At Hockenheim, 7th April 1968, he stood beside Jim on the grid oft his horrible F 2 race....RIP Chris Amon.
I read an interview with Sir Jackie Stewart who said that Amon was as talented as Jochen Rindt but was often the architect of his own misfortune. He would routinely show up to GP weekends late, disorganised, and not knowing which hotel he was meant to be staying in. Missing passports, not having the right paperwork when he wanted to hire a car and even on one occasion not knowing where his team were headquartered at a race weekend were all part of Amon's sloppy life outside of the car cockpit. Stewart said that not attending to details weighed on Amon's mind too much so he couldn't focus properly on the race itself. Mauro Forghieri said that Amon was the best test driver Ferrari ever had and that the work he did in testing in 68-69 led to those Ferrari wins in 70 and 71. But it was typical of Amon that he could have lost a race due to interference from a volcano.
Yea, it’s obvious it wasn’t ALL bad luck for Amon but a mix of luck and bad attitude
@nedzosf1gridbox From all accounts other drivers liked Amon, it's just that he lived chaotically. He really needed a PA to sort those humdrum chores for him.
i'm not sure if anyone has come close to matching Amon's dubious record.....everyone I could think of was either a mediocre or just bad driver, was late to success, but got it, or is still young:
Nico Hulkenberg is obviously the current version of Chris Amon, not even a podium, I hope he doesn't retire with that record.
- It took Jenson Button forever to get it all together, lots of close calls, then a lucky win in 7th season, 2 seasons in a dud car, then 2009 happened.
- Martin Brundle always seemed to be "almost there", no wins but 9 podiums.
- Hakkinen was heading this direction in the late 90's....In 1997 he would get in the lead and then either crash or have an engine blow late in the race, until he was gifted a win at the last race, then gifted another at the first race of 1998...then BOOM, 2 World Championships!
-Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost had no problems winning races, but had a skill for ALMOST winning Championships for years, but of course they were both successful in the end.
-Sergio Perez, 1st win on 190th start, but now he's on Red Bull and has 5 more.
-Stirling Moss, 16 wins, no Championship... driver to never win a Championship
-Lando Norris is still young, but he has 15 podiums and no wins....I'm hoping this goes out of date soon....
I have a book by Mark Hughes, where, among other things, there is a list of GP drivers up until 2006 and Amon is one of the few drivers without a win that are included; he was a great qualifier, if there ever was a qualifying championship awarded, he'd be champion in 1968, it just shows his potential that was never fully realised
Amon was before my time but the stories about him reminds me of Jean Alesi. Talent and speed were there but bad luck and choices are what they are remembered for. Amon had a good attitude later in life though claiming he wasn’t unlucky as he survived that deadly era were many died. Having witnessed so much tragedy then walking away must feel lucky
When Alesi finally won his first and only Grand Prix in Canada 1995 the entire grid was celebrating with him because they all felt that he deserved to win at least one Grand Prix. Before that he was often compared to Chris Amon (heck his choice of teams was just as unlucky as that of Amon like going to Ferrari in 1991 instead of Williams). Though in today's time that title has fallen to Nick Heidfeld I suppose.
An aspect in the 1968 F1 season which didn't bode well for Amon was that his Ferrari teammate, Jacky Ickx, scored his first F1 victory, in his rookie season, at the French GP.
But then, the French GP was held in rainy conditions, which played well for Ickx as he was very talented driving in the wet.
One of my all time favourite drivers, have his autograph on a photo of him opposite locking his '68 Ferrari. That '68 car was powerful & handled well, but overly thirsty. He could have easily won a couple of F1 races that year but his perennial bad luck intervened.
Plenty of distraction for F1 drivers back then, Tasman Series, Can-Am, F2, F5000, Sportscar Championship, not to mention saloon car racing.
19:53 Some Guy via Pinterest lol.
The drivers of that era doing cross-overs to other race series/genres is what kept me very captivated with motorsports at the time . . . Indy Car drivers in NASCAR and sports cars; F1 drivers in sports cars; sports car drivers subbing in F1; and second-tiered drivers given a shot at the big-time, such as Peter Gethin's win at the Italian Grand Prix for BRM; yet, prior to that race, Gethin was associated with McLaren.
Amon never won a GP (but he did win an F1 race -- the 1970 International Trophy at SIlverstone -- I was there to see it). He was in the lead of a GP many times when some mishap prevented him converting it to a win. The 1968 Spanish GP was the first, as far as I know. Miles in the lead when the fuel pump failed.
He also won the 1971 Argentine Grand Prix but , as befits his history the race that year was to evaluate the track . It returned to the championship in 1972 .
Amon, Heidfeld and presently Hulk. The Unlucky Trinity.
I recall that 1968 F1 season, as McLaren really came into his own with a competitive car, the M7A.
Bruce was also a skilled tactician, too. He purposely shedded wings on his F1 car for the Italian GP to give him better top-end speed, and enlarging the the fuel tank, as he was the _rabbit_ in that race to possibly push the pace to put his competitors into submission.
Bruce's teammate, Denis Hulme, won the race.
Then in the 1968 Canadian GP at the Mt. Tremblant circuit, notorious for its rough surface, Bruce McLaren beefed-up his cars with heavier components, which made it just a bit slower, giving a slight advantage to Chris Amon, whom built up a commanding lead prior to dropping out of the race at lap 72. But the heavier components gave the McLaren GP cars a reliability edge, which saw only six cars finishing out of a field of 17, that resulted with teammate Hulme winning again, with Bruce finishing second . . . a 1-2 finish for Team McLaren.
Was lucky enough to Cris Amon race in the Tasman series as a wee lad ; still my favorite : Forza Amon !
"Deserve a race win" is such a weird phrase. You either win or you don't and most of the time you don't. Though I would like to contrast Amon with Button, who became a champion through the sheer luck of being in the right place at the right time.
To be fair to Button, he at Hungary in 06 and provided more than fair competition to Lewis at McLaren
Chris Amon won in Australia during the 1969 Tasman series . Driving a Formula 2 Ferrari with V6 engine at Lakeside in Queensland Australia.
Tbh, I'm thinking Fernando Alonso might be the unluckiest driver ever. 11 points away from like 5 championships but I guess at least he has 2 and is a slam dunk Hall of Famer. Amon, Hulkenburg and I guess Mansell are other contenders for this.
Fernando is unlucky but most of his downfalls came from him burning bridges
i bought his biography "Forza Amon" about 15 years ago. First couple of chapters were very interesting, then life got in the way and never returned to it. I really should pick the book back up and finish it.
Saw him once, driving a third Tyrell in 1973. Precise, not flashy behind the wheel.
Chris Amon really doesn’t get the credit he deserves for pulling the Ferrari team back up by the bootstraps after the death of Bandini and Mike Parkes bad crash in ‘67
As you mentioned. He DID win in Formula 1. But only in non championship F1 races.
Though WINNING for Ford the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1966 in a GT40 with Bruce McLaren (how they won and not came second to another GT40 was not unlucky), plus a victory in a Ferrari P4 in the Daytona 24 Hours, though not F1, is pretty damn good! For drivers in those days it wasn't all about F1. After all, Amons contemporary, Jacky Ickx left Ferrari because his contract was restricted to F1. Drivers did it all back then. This needs to be understood.
He retired just before my time, but I do know of him, famous as the "best driver to never win"
Simply one of the best driver since ever
I attended Gp Races since 1960 with my father and I had the opportunities to see Chris racing several times in Monza and Montecarlo. His driving was very natural and effortless compared to others. I 1979 I attended Dijon Grand Prix and did the trip in train in the same wagon with Mauro Forghieri and Nestore Morosini. Mauro told me that Amon had a driving sensibility that nobody else had, in particular on tires and set up. He was really disappointed when Amon left Ferrari, keeping in mind that Reutemann just left Ferrari the year before……
Kein Tyrrell wanted Amon as Co-Driver to Cevert after Stewart resigned, but ELF wanted french drivers.
Ah
Amon had a chance to drive the 2024 Alpine car before anybody else
my name rolls off ur tongue now love it😎
Hallo, nice to see you on YT
Hey mate
he was world champion caliber
He was
Crap images😊
Yea well when you’re covering a topic from the 60s and 70s they’re few and far between especially if you don’t want your videos taken down for copyright infringement by using ones you’re supposed to pay for
@@nedzosf1gridbox I learned years ago that 'still-images' are vigorously copyright protected on TH-cam, more so than posting audio songs.
The aspect I give you credit for, and appreciate, is that you go to the trouble to put captions to those images to inform the viewers what they are seeing.
I say that because there are plenty of TH-camrs out there with videos on _very specific_ topics that will insert images that are *way-off-the-mark* to the presented topic, and there's no disclaimer caption to explain about the presented image.
One in particular was a TH-camr doing a topic about the dominance of the Porsche 917 in the early 1970s sports car endurance racing. The producer of that video spoke about the Ferrari 512, but showed an image of a Lola T70 Mk 3B coupe, _with no disclaimer caption to indicate that what was shown was a not a Ferrari, but a Lola._
I've seen other TH-cam posts when it came to trivia about specific Hollywood movies or TV series, with images being shown of actors that had absolutely no connection to the movie or TV production.
Those TH-camrs I won't click-on future posts.
@@bloqk16 I always make an effort to get images as close as possible, and it’s not the end of the world if I get, for example a 1963 BRM instead of a 1964 as long as I make it clear what’s what, in case people don’t know