Peter Windsor says 96-race F1 driver was the unluckiest person to race in Formula 1

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Peter Windsor has been raving about former New Zealand Formula 1 driver Chris Amon and couldn’t believe he never won a Grand Prix.

There have been hundreds of drivers who have graced the F1 grid and never stood on the top step of the podium, with Lando Norris currently holding the joint record for most podiums without a victory.

However, speaking on the Short Corners Podcast, Windsor has shared his admiration for the Kiwi.

Windsor suggests Amon is F1’s unluckiest driver

Peter Windsor has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Formula 1 and his claim that Amon deserved a lot more in the sport is well-founded.

He spent his first few seasons with Reg Parnell’s private team, narrowly missing out on points in his first year in the Lola before securing a fifth-place finish in 1964 in a Lotus.

Amon really broke onto the scene in 1967 with Ferrari, finishing on the podium on four occasions as fellow countryman Denny Hulme went on to win the championship.

The New Zealander ended up finishing on the podium on 11 occasions in 96 Grand Prix races but never stood on the top step of the podium.

Windsor shares the moments when Amon should have won and why he considers him to be a driver who deserved an awful lot more from his career.

He ended up racing under his own name in 1974 but couldn’t qualify and his final Grand Prix was in Germany in 1976 when he retired racing for Team Ensign.

Amon’s close calls as he narrowly missed out on F1 race win

Asked about drivers who deserve more credit, Windsor said: “I would still say Chris Amon, I mean he didn’t even win a Grand Prix, he won some non-championship F1 races, but he never won a Grand Prix and I still think he is one of the fastest, most polished Grand Prix drivers I’ve ever seen.

“It astonishes me how unlucky he was. It can only be luck, I mean 1971 Italian Grand Prix, he finally breaks free of the slipstreaming group and he’s now leading by four or five seconds and they can’t get a tow from him.

“There are about 10 laps to go so in relief he goes to pull off the strip-off visor of his helmet and the whole visor comes off the helmet and he doesn’t win the race as a result!

“I mean things like that happen to Chris. I mean 1968 Canadian Grand Prix, he was just walking away with the race in the Ferrari.

“Chris’s driving was something I’ll never, ever forget and to me not only did he not win a race but he didn’t win a championship and he deserved to win both.”

Amon did win eight non-championship F1 races – two as a March driver – as Windsor alludes to, but it’s no wonder he’s considered one of the unluckiest and most underrated drivers in F1 history.

He did go on to win the Daytona 24 Hours, 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Bruce McLaren and the Silverstone International Trophy.

The Kiwi is also the only Antipodean to have ever driven for Scuderia Ferrari in F1 and unless Oscar Piastri or Daniel Ricciardo suddenly make a surprise move, that’s unlikely to change for a while.