“He did not get the success he deserved” – Enzo Ferrari about Chris Amon. He was a Ferrari driver from 1967 to 1969.

Born in Bulls, New Zealand, Christopher Arthur Amon was a Scuderia Ferrari driver from 1967 to 1969, taking part in 29 championship Grands Prix, finishing six times on the podium and starting from pole three times. He was much more successful in sports car racing and the stand-out results were victory in the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours, teamed with Lorenzo Bandini at the wheel of the 330 P4. The three Ferraris crossing the line in formation has become one of the symbolic images of the Prancing Horse’s motor sport history and it also inspired the name of a road car, the 365 GTB/4, forever known as the Daytona.

That same year, Amon also won the Monza 1000 Kms, again with Bandini, making a major contribution to Ferrari’s success in the World Championship for Sports Prototype cars. In 1969, the New Zealander took the Tasman Cup in a series that ran at various circuits in Australia and New Zealand, at the wheel of a Dino 246 Tasmania, with four victories to his name.

“In his three years racing for Ferrari, he did not get the success he deserved,” wrote Enzo Ferrari on the subject of Amon in his book “Piloti, che gente,” “A good test driver, in fact, a great one, a clean driver with finesse, he needed to be bolder in the races, but that was not one of his strengths. On his fortieth birthday, I sent him a photograph with a dedication that read, ‘to the best driver and the unluckiest.’ Who knows if that would be believed when he tells his children how close he came to being one of the greatest aces behind the wheel?

Former Ferrari Technical Director Mauro Forghieri stated that Amon was “by far the best test driver I have ever worked with. He had all the qualities to be a World Champion but bad luck just wouldn’t let him be”.

Still, Amon never considered himself unlucky. “I’m luckier than Jimmy [Clark] and Jochen [Rindt], and Bruce [McLaren], and Piers [Courage],” he told Motor Sport magazine in 2008. “Luckier than my team mates [Lorenzo] Bandini, [Ludovico] Scarfiotti, [Jo] Siffert and [Francois] Cevert.

“I had several big accidents that could have killed me; I broke ribs, but I was never badly hurt.”

After retiring from motor racing he returned to his native New Zealand and helped run the family farm for many years.