1960s 1963 For the
1963 Formula One season, the Parnell team were using the year old
Lola Mk4A, powered by 1962 specification
Climax V8 engines. Amon was teamed with the very experienced
Maurice Trintignant for the first race of the season at
Monaco and his Grand Prix career started with what was to become typical bad luck: Trintignant's Climax developed a misfire, so he took over Amon's car. At the
1963 Belgian Grand Prix, Amon was partnered by
Lucien Bianchi and started ahead of him from 15th position. After nine laps, however, an oil fire ended his race. He continued to experience mechanical problems at the
Dutch,
Mexican and
German Grands Prix; and after an accident in practice for the
Italian Grand Prix left him hanging out of his car's cockpit with three broken ribs, he missed both the Italian and
United States rounds. Amon usually qualified in the midfield and generally outpaced his teammates, who included his good friend
Mike Hailwood. His best results of the year were seventh at the
French and
British Grands Prix. During this time, however, Amon's social life was attracting as much attention as his driving. He was a member of the Ditton Road Flyers, the social set named after the road in London where Amon shared an apartment with his
Formula One colleagues
Peter Revson, Hailwood and
Tony Maggs. Parnell was nonetheless impressed with Amon's results in what was regarded as less-than-competitive machinery and promoted him to team leader. Parnell died from
peritonitis in January 1964 and his son
Tim took over the team.
1964 In a series of four pre-season races in Britain and Italy, Amon recorded three fifth places at
Snetterton,
Silverstone and
Syracuse. He failed to qualify for the first F1 race of the season, the
Monaco GP, but at the next race, the
Dutch GP, he scored his first World Championship points. The rest of his season, however, was blighted by mechanical problems.
1965 Parnell was offered
BRM engines for 1965, but only if it ran
Richard Attwood as its regular driver. Reluctantly, Parnell agreed and Attwood took Amon's place. Spotting an opportunity, Bruce McLaren quickly signed Amon for his new
McLaren team, but when no second McLaren F1 car materialised, Amon could only drive in sports car races. At the
French GP, Amon rejoined Parnell to stand in for an injured Attwood. Amon also competed in a Formula Two race in Stuttgart and won. He returned to Germany for the
German GP as second Parnell driver, but mechanical failure again forced an early retirement. His last drive before Attwood's return, a non-championship race in
Enna,
Sicily, also ended in retirement.
1966 During 1966, Amon continued to race for McLaren in
Can-Am. He was intended to drive the second McLaren M2B but difficulties with engine supply meant that the team never made the intended expansion to two cars. (
James Garner's character Pete Aron's helmet and car livery in the film
Grand Prix were modelled on Amon driving a McLaren, which caused the movie makers to have to encourage other cars to be painted in the 'Yamura' colours and other drivers (Bruce McLaren included) to wear Amon-style helmets.) However, an opportunity arose to drive for the
Cooper F1 team after
Richie Ginther left them for
Honda. Amon drove for Cooper at the
French GP and was scheduled to drive for them for the rest of the season, until the more successful
John Surtees left
Scuderia Ferrari to join Cooper and Amon found himself dropped. Amon made one other F1 appearance during the year, driving a Brabham BT11 powered by an old 2-litre BRM engine at the
Italian GP under the banner of "Chris Amon Racing". He failed to qualify. Amon did however, score his biggest success to date when he partnered Bruce McLaren in a 7-litre
Ford GT40 Mark II and
Ken Miles to Ford's dead-heat "photo-finish" after Miles was instructed to slow down despite leading at the
Le Mans 24-hour race, spearheading a formation finish. and
1000km Monza events with Bandini in the 4-litre
Ferrari 330-P4. In January 1968, Amon had returned home to New Zealand and Australia to compete in the
1968 Tasman Series which was used by many of the top Formula One drivers as a warm up series to the World Championship. For the 1968 series Ferrari decided to use the 2.4 engines with a new
Dino 166 F2 chassis rather than a downsized 3-litre V12. Using the 246T Amon won the first two rounds of the Tasman Series, including the
1968 New Zealand Grand Prix, before narrowly losing the series to the
Lotus-
Ford of
Jim Clark. The
Dino 246 Tasmania was better handling than Clark's Lotus 49T which was still wingless and a difficult proposition. Impressed by Amon's driving in the NZ rounds, Ferrari dispatched a new four-valve version of the 2.4 V6 for the Australian rounds and this gave another 15 hp, but with lesser reliability which, combined with the fact Clark was the best driver in the world at the time, cost Amon the series, although in the final round at Sandown Park he duelled wheel to wheel with Clark before being pipped at the line. After the first race of the F1 season in
South Africa, Amon achieved
pole positions in three of the following four races (at the
Spanish,
Belgian and
Dutch Grands Prix) but ever-present mechanical problems meant he secured only a single Championship point from them. Throughout the rest of the season he never qualified lower than fifth place and nearly scored victories at the
British and
Canadian rounds and he suffered a 100 mph crash in
Italy which demolished his car. In Britain, he duelled to the line with
Jo Siffert's
Lotus 49B and in Canada he dominated the race despite a malfunctioning
clutch. Seventeen laps from the finish, however, his car's
transmission failed and a distraught Amon had to be consoled by
Jacky Ickx. From at least ten promising starts that season he was only able to finish five races and score ten Championship points. His best finish was second place to Siffert's Lotus-Cosworth at the
British Grand Prix. Outside F1, Amon was runner-up in the
Formula Two race at
Zolder, Belgium, testing the
Dino 166 F2. He also came third in that year's
BRDC International Trophy.
1969 Amon began 1969 with success driving the Dino engined
246 Tasmania in the
Tasman Series that included winning both the
New Zealand and
Australian Grands Prix. In straight fights, he beat new Gold Leaf Lotus team leader, Jochen Rindt, into second in the races at Pukekohe and Sandown. He would ultimately win the seven race Tasman Series, probably the best of the seven-year 2.5-litre international formula series in this country and the nearest to World Championship level racing in New Zealand, with ferocious competition between Rindt, Graham Hill, Amon and Williams driver
Piers Courage. It was actually much more serious racing than the McLaren dominated Can-Am series in the US in which the big sports cars required few gear changes and were essentially cruised to victory with little real competition, where the Tasman cars were essentially marginally lower power F1 cars, as difficult to drive as GP cars on unforgiving very dangerous narrow tracks. Amon finished with four wins, two-thirds and one retirement, but in Formula One his poor luck continued. Despite six starts from top-six positions, he was only able to achieve a third-place at the
Dutch GP. The ageing 312 was still quick at the start of the season and after the Lotus 49Bs of Rindt and Graham Hill crashed spectacularly after high wing failure in the opening laps at Barcelona, Amon dominated the Spanish GP until the almost inevitable engine breakage on lap 56, 40 seconds ahead of Stewart's Matra. At Monaco Amon ran second to Stewart for the first 17 laps losing a second a lap to Stewart, but still gaining a second a lap on the third placed G. Hill who survived the race of attrition to win. Ferrari's F1
V12 engine was too unreliable and although its replacement had proven very fast in testing, it had suffered many mechanical breakages. Amon had no reason to believe it would be any more dependable than the V12, so although the new engine was clearly more powerful, he decided to leave Ferrari for a
Cosworth DFV powered team. He was more influenced by views of Jackie Stewart and Jochen Rindt, who believed it was essential to be Ford DFV-powered to be competitive. In addition to Formula One, Amon also drove for Ferrari in the
1969 International Championship for Makes, partnering
Pedro Rodriguez to a fourth place in the BOAC 500 at Brands Hatch and coming second at the
12 Hours of Sebring, but retiring from the
1000km Nürburgring and
1000km Monza races, all in the
Ferrari 312P sportscar. He also drove in a few Can-Am races. His last race for Ferrari would be the 1970 1000 km Monza, where he finished as runner-up.
1970s 1970 For the
1970 Formula One season, Amon made what was to be the first of several moves to smaller, newer teams.
March Engineering had been formed the previous year to build custom
chassis for Formulas 2 and
3, but quickly moved into F1, designing and building the March 701. Amon and Siffert were signed as drivers, However, after qualifying fourth for the next race, the
Dutch Grand Prix, his car's clutch broke after just one lap. Amon duplicated his Belgian result at the
1970 French Grand Prix. After a disappointing performance in the
British GP at
Brands Hatch where Amon finished fifth after being outqualified by tyro Ronnie Peterson in a private 701 on the same tyres, conflict with team boss Max Mosley over the non-delivery of three-quarters of Amon's expected pay for the season saw him provided with inferior DFVs and two backmarker 7th places in
Austria and
Italy, Amon finished the season strongly with strong drives to third at
Mosport, fifth at
Watkins Glen and fourth in
Mexico. At Watkins Glen in the USGP he was robbed of a probably certain victory, in the opinion of March designer Robin Herd, by a puncture. By the end of the year, disagreements with March co-founders Mosley and
Robin Herd meant that Amon had decided to move to another relatively new team,
Matra.
1971 racing car, used in the
1971 Argentine Grand Prix In 1971, Amon, now driving for the Matra factory team, once again scored a pre-season victory, this time at the
Argentine Grand Prix. Once the Formula One season had begun, he managed to convert a third-place start at the
Spanish GP into a third-place podium finish and scored a couple of fifth places in the
South African and
French GPs. Apart from these results, however, his run of poor F1 returns continued. He had a major accident at the Nürburgring and it sidelined him for the next race at the
Österreichring. At the
Italian GP he qualified in pole position and despite a poor start to the race looked as if he would capitalise on it – until the
visor on his
helmet became detached. Amon had to slow to avoid risking a major accident, thereby allowing other drivers to catch and overtake him. He finished the race in sixth place, scoring just one Championship point. During the year, Amon also competed in the non-championship
Questor Grand Prix at the new
Ontario Motor Speedway, where he qualified second and, despite suffering a puncture during the race, managed to finish fourth. In the Tasman Series Amon started from fourth at the Levin Circuit and in the race, he battled with
David Oxton and
John Cannon but managed to finish third. Amon's third race at Wigram Airfield starting fifth and spun at the start to drop him to the back of the field but managed to climb up to fifth.
1972 In the
1972 Formula One season, Amon, again driving for Matra achieved a handful of points-scoring finishes, but only one podium appearance, at the
French GP. Here he achieved the fifth and final pole position of his career and was leading the race until a puncture forced him to
pit. However, he climbed back through the field, breaking
the circuit's lap record to finish third. With the money he had made from motorsport, Amon decided to set up a racing engine firm with former BRM engineer Aubrey Woods. Amon Racing Engines supplied Formula 2 engines to a few drivers, but the company quickly became too expensive to run and was sold to March for a loss. Matra decided to end their participation in Formula One at the end of 1972, so Amon found himself looking to return to March as a driver. The place, however, was given to
Jean-Pierre Jarier, purportedly for financial reasons. Amon therefore signed for another recently formed F1 team,
Tecno.
1973 Tecno had entered Formula One the previous year, with their own
flat-twelve engine. Their first year had been dismal, so they jumped at the chance to sign Amon for the new season. The testing of a new chassis, the PA123-006, designed by former Lotus and McLaren mechanic Allan McCall, proved to be time-consuming. After its non-appearance for the Spanish GP, Amon and Tecno team manager David Yorke met with Enzo Ferrari to see if Amon could be released from his contract to develop the new Ferrari B3 for Ickx and Mezarrio, in a supposedly one off GP drive at Monaco. Yorke rejected the release, and Amon admitted he would not have left Ferrari if offered the drive for a season. Tecno were not able to field the PA123-006 until the fifth race of the season, the
Belgian Grand Prix. Amon qualified 15th and finished sixth, three laps behind race winner Jackie Stewart, but scoring what would turn out to be the team's only point in F1. The chassis felt good but Amon was unhappy with the car. He decided to concentrate on a still in-development Tecno chassis built by unproven designer Gordon Fowell. This was against the view of the Tecno team and sponsors Martini Rossi who required the car and driver to appear at races While Amon commented at the time that it was "the best chassis I've ever sat in", it too proved virtually undriveable. Amon refused to drive the McCall designed Tecno in the Swedish or German Gps and withdrew from the Austrian GP after qualifying. By the time of the
Austrian GP, four races from the end of the season, Amon's patience had run out and he left the team. He would later claim that the months he spent with the team "felt like ten [seasons]". Tyrrell offered Amon a third car – the 005 – in which to drive the last two races of the season. In
Canada, he finished tenth, three laps behind Peter Revson's victorious McLaren. Amon then withdrew, along with Stewart, from the final race of the year, in the
United States, following the death of their teammate
François Cevert during qualifying.
1974 at the NZ Festival of Motor Racing 2011 For the
1974 F1 season, Amon revived
Chris Amon Racing. Gordon Fowell designed the car, the
AF101, which featured a single central fuel tank, titanium
torsion bars and a forward driving position. Structurally, however, it proved to be weak and was not ready for an F1 appearance until the fourth race of the season, the
Spanish GP. Amon was only able to qualify 23rd, thanks to
brake-disc vibration that only became worse with the tyres for the wet race that followed. Despite cautious driving, a
brake shaft finally broke and Amon was forced to retire after 22 laps. Following further work and testing, Amon returned for the
Monaco GP and qualified twentieth, but, thanks to mechanical problems, he was unable to start the race. Further problems and illness meant Amon was not able to reappear with the F101 until the
Italian GP, three races from the end of the season, but this time he was unable to qualify. That sealed the fate of both the car and Chris Amon Racing, leaving Amon to drive the season's last two races with the faltering BRM team. He would later reveal that he had turned down a chance to join the Brabham team earlier in the season.
1975 Amon contested the
1975 F5000 Tasman series against only Australasian drivers. He qualified on the front row of three of the four New Zealand rounds and scored a victory at
Teretonga in January 1975 in rainy conditions by 24.2 seconds. In the Australian rounds, the competition was always harder with more good cars and the locals on their own tracks. Amon had a frustrating series of races unable to pass, South Australian
Johnnie Walker, in a superior
Lola T332 chassis with
Repco-engineered V8. At
Surfers Paradise, running from the back of the grid he managed to eventually pass Walker by widening the braking zone in the only corner where overtaking was usually possible. Amon brushed the edge of the track on repeated laps, got extra grip and passed Walker to take the lead. He had been forced to miss most of the practice session, when Customs seized his car's gearbox. In the race, the brilliant effort went for nothing as the Chev engine blew. At
Oran Park and
Adelaide he followed Walker the whole way to 4th and 3rd unable to pass. In the final deciding race for the Tasman Series with Brown, Walker and Lawrence still in contention, Walker lost his T332 on the first lap and it demolished on wooden barriers surrounding
Sandown's car and horse racing tracks. Amon was never in contention and finished 4th. Amon intended to compete in F5000 in both Europe and the US in 1975 but started in only one round of both series, managing a pole in one Shellsport round in the UK and a 4th place overall at the Long Beach GP in a two heat race. He used different Talon F5000 cars for both races. Apart from these successes, Amon's racing career seemed once again to have stalled. Yet the speed he showed in qualifying for a couple of UK F5000 races encouraged Mo Nunn of the small Ensign team to give him a race driving the Ensign N175. Amon managed seventh in the non-championship
Swiss GP at
Dijon, which led to two more drives for the team, finishing 12th in both the Austrian and Italian GPs. At Monza after a long pit stop he finally ran at competitive pace, running four laps down but keeping pace with the leading
Ferrari 312T of
Niki Lauda for a number of laps. Progressive evaluation of the possibilities of what was slowing the N175 led Amon to change the airbox alignment on the day of the Italian GP and this resulted in a two-second gain (much like the change in air cooler position that lost and gained two seconds on Hunt's
McLaren M23 resolved by the 1976 French GP). Ironically Amon never raced the N175 again and the high airboxes had been banned by the time
N176 ran at Jarama the following year, but the flash of testing and driving genius was enough to give Amon another chance. Although the results were unremarkable, he and Nunn worked well together, so Amon joined Ensign for the
1976 F1 season.
1976 at the
1976 British Grand Prix. Ensign's first race of the season was the
South African GP where Amon qualified 18th and showed a revival of form, climbing to seventh place, in the old Ensign N174 and contesting sixth with Mario Andretti in the Parnelli Ford, in the last laps before a last minute refueling stop left him 14th. Thereafter results began to improve, with Amon qualifying 17th and finishing eighth in the
USA West GP; qualifying tenth and finishing fifth in the
Spanish GP; and then qualifying eighth for the
Belgian GP. More points then seemed likely from the race until his car lost a wheel 19 laps from the finish and Amon was lucky to escape unhurt from the ensuing accident. He then achieved a third-place grid position start for the
Swedish GP using a Nicholson rebuilt Cosworth for the first time and in the race looked as if he would join Tyrrell drivers
Jody Scheckter and
Patrick Depailler on the podium, until
suspension failure threw him from the track after 38 laps. Amon had again been lucky to escape serious injury and decided to miss the next race, the
French GP. He returned for the
British GP, qualifying in sixth and running fourth in the race when his Ford-Cosworth DFV engine developed a water leak. Rather than risk losing an engine, his team called him in to retire. At the
German GP problems dogged his attempts to qualify well, but it was
Niki Lauda's crash during the second lap of the race that had a far greater impact. Amon refused to restart the race and Nunn fired him from the team. Amon declared his retirement from the sport and returned to New Zealand. "''I'd seen too many people fried in racing cars at that stage. When you've driven past
Bandini,
Schlesser,
Courage and
Williamson, another shunt like that was simply too much. It was a personal decision...''" (Amon, on his retirement in 1976)However,
Walter Wolf contacted Amon and persuaded him to drive for his
Wolf–Williams team in the
North American races near the end of the season. After recording some promising times in preparation for the
Canadian GP, however, Amon was involved in a heavy collision with another car during qualifying and once again was lucky to walk away unharmed. He then did not take part in either the Canadian or
United States Grands Prix.
1977 Amon turned down an offer of a full-time F1 drive for 1977, but did attempt a return to Can-Am racing in 1977 with a Wolf-Dallara WD1. However, after only one race he quit, saying "I'm just not enjoying this anymore". His place was taken by the young and then unknown Canadian
Gilles Villeneuve, whom Amon would, later that year, recommend to Enzo Ferrari. In the meantime, Amon returned once again to New Zealand, this time to retire from F1 motor racing for good.
2000s ;2003 Amon came out of retirement for a one-off appearance in the 2003
Dunlop Targa New Zealand with motorsport commentator
Murray Walker as his navigator. The pair completed the week-long Auckland to Wellington Tarmac Rally in a
Toyota Camry Sportivo, the same car previously used by Walker and
Colin Bond in Australia's
Targa Tasmania. == Retirement ==