Grand Prix Rejects

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/36961899

RIP

Too easy to remember him as the unluckiest F1 driver ever. Enzo Ferrari wrote on him: "Excellent tester, one of the finest and elegant driver ever. He was really close to become a real Champion".

RIP

He was unlucky not to have won even a single world championship Grand Prix, but he was lucky to survive such a dangerous era for motor racing. This news still comes as a shock though.

RIP Chris Amon, the last of New Zealand's F1 greats from the sixties.

I still say the AF101 was one of the prettiest cars ever. RIP Chris.

I can't believe this. Despite only having ever seen footage from him on youtube, I believe Amon not only had the talent to win a race (his bad luck in Grand Prix racing was something comparable to Andretti luck at the Indy 500), but also to win a title. Probably severelly underrated in driver lists, would definetelly appear in my top 30 drivers of all time list.

RIP Chris. We'll miss you.

To honour Amon, I think I'll try my hand at writing a small article relating Amon's career and achievements, rejects-worthy or not. If everyone is okay with it.

Miguel98 wrote:To honour Amon, I think I'll try my hand at writing a small article relating Amon's career and achievements, rejects-worthy or not. If everyone is okay with it.

I... literally had the same idea Then again, I have a Buemi profile to procrastinate over finish.

Miguel98 wrote:(his bad luck in Grand Prix racing was something comparable to Lloyd Ruby's luck at the Indy 500)

Fixed. Mario at least managed to win the thing.

Simtek wrote:

Miguel98 wrote:To honour Amon, I think I'll try my hand at writing a small article relating Amon's career and achievements, rejects-worthy or not. If everyone is okay with it.

I... literally had the same idea Then again, I have a Buemi profile to procrastinate over finish.

Miguel98 wrote:(his bad luck in Grand Prix racing was something comparable to Lloyd Ruby's luck at the Indy 500)

Fixed. Mario at least managed to win the thing.

Cooperation time!

EuroBrun wrote:Too easy to remember him as the unluckiest F1 driver ever. Enzo Ferrari wrote on him: "Excellent tester, one of the finest and elegant driver ever. He was really close to become a real Champion".

RIP

Forghieri also spoke very fondly of Amon as well - he similarly praised Amon's abilities as a test driver, saying that he was one of the most sensitive drivers he ever worked with when it came to assessing how a car handled, not to mention incredibly consistent with his feedback and having a gift for telling what needed to be done to a car to extract it's maximum performance.

He also spoke of how Amon was also a very humane and sensitive character off the track as well, saying that he worked tirelessly to improve the team and was very generous and gracious with everybody else. He'd tried very hard to persuade him not to leave in 1970, believing that he would have had a great chance of taking the title that year and feeling very sorry for the fact that he left and allowed Ickx to profit from Amon's hard work over the previous years. It is a great shame that what could and should have been his success never came to pass.

Chris Amon (1943-2016) has sadly passed away at the age of 73. A reject team owner while by no means a reject driver (though he never won), F1 has lost another legend.

RIP
He was unlucky as heck, but he still was successful...

"If he became an undertaker, people would stop dying" - Mario Andretti

Rest in Peace Chris

This Could Be You wrote:Chris Amon (1943-2016) has sadly passed away at the age of 73. A reject team owner while by no means a reject driver (though he never won a championship GP), F1 has lost another legend.

fixed that for you

RIP Chris Amon. A relentless worker, even starting his own team in the hope of success. Deserved much more and will be sorely missed.

RIP Chris. The equal of anyone of his era when the fates allowed. Holds the lap record at the old 8 mile +, Spa circuit; set in 1970, with the otherwise uncompetitive March 701. Also a Le Mans winner, alongside Bruce McLaren in 1966...the only time he completed the race in 8 attempts. He himself claimed he was in fact one of the fortunate ones...to survive a brutally dangerous era and retire to his farm & family in NZ.

It was recently discovered Amon's real name was Noatak.

Too soon?