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Australian Formula 1 world champion Alan Jones drove against some of the fastest drivers in the sport’s history.
Alan Jones made his F1 debut in 1975, when Niki Lauda won the first of his three championships.
By the time he retired in 1986, Jones had won a title of his own in 1980, and also raced against the likes of James Hunt, Mario Andretti and Nelson Piquet.
The likes of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna were about to reach their peaks when Jones left Team Haas, but there were plenty of drivers who never reached their potential during that era.
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There was a far bigger spread between teams 50 years ago, meaning that even drivers in midfield cars could easily finish one or two laps down on the leaders.
Jones is still Australia’s most recent F1 champion, with Daniel Ricciardo, Mark Webber and Oscar Piastri all coming close in the last few years.
However, it’s another driver from that part of the world, New Zealander Chris Amon, who Jones once called the most ‘underrated driver of all time’.
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Alan Jones believes Chris Amon is the most ‘underrated’ driver in Formula 1 history
Jones was interviewed for the Drivers on Drivers book, speaking about some of the drivers he looked up to and some of those he raced against. He said: “I always admired Jimmy Clark. I always admired Stirling Moss.
“And I had a great deal of respect and admiration for Chris Amon, who I think even to this day is probably the most underrated driver of all time.
“The guy was incredibly quick, and I find it extraordinary that he never won a World Championship, let alone a bloody Grand Prix.
“Clay Regazzoni, my first teammate at Williams, was a good guy. He wasn’t political.
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“He kept things pretty much to himself, and he was a nice, easy sort of a bloke. I don’t think we ever had a cross word.
“I never used to go to lunch with him or socialise with him, but at the circuit, I didn’t have a problem with him at all.
“And I didn’t have a problem with Carlos Reutemann either. It’s not like we used to growl at each other or have verbal fights behind the caravan.
“This just didn’t happen. It all got blown out of proportion, mainly because of the bloody press.”
Who was New Zealand Formula 1 driver Chris Amon?
Amon made his F1 debut back in 1963 and drove for an incredible 13 teams during his 14 seasons in the sport.
As well as competing for the likes of Ferrari, Tyrrell, McLaren and Wolf-Williams, he also turned out for smaller outfits like Tecno, Parnell and Ensign, as well as his self-named Amon team.
He really made waves in Formula 1 during the 1967 season with Ferrari, where he finished fifth in the championship and secured four podiums.
Peter Windsor described Amon as F1’s unluckiest driver, as he was never able to convert his three P2 finishes or the eight other podiums he secured into a Grand Prix win.
Amon raced against the likes of Bruce McLaren, Howden Ganley and Denny Hulme, who all represented New Zealand in F1 at that time.
He was unable to convert any of his five pole positions into wins, and while he may not be as well remembered as he should be, Jones was extremely complimentary about his fellow Antipodean.
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