‘Schumi could’ve won more if he hadn’t joined Ferrari’

Yes, insight is a marvelous thing, I agree.

To me, Amon made the mistake of joining Ferrari, and then leaving too soon.
Having joined McLaren' s new outfit, as was the plan, he would have end up driving for a top team and have a long career there.
Instead Bruce recruited Dennis Hulme who went on winning GPs, CanAm, etc ...
When Amon left Ferrari in 69, out of frustration I guess, he had to accept racing for mostly second-tier teams from then on.

I didn't know that Ferrari offered Amon a second bite of the cherry 4 years after he left. Rather out of character for the Commendatore!
Mind you, even Surtees was called back to drive P4s at Monza and Brands Hatch only a few years after he slammed the door...

 

It's a bit early in the year for "would have", "could have" articles isn't it?

All they're intended to do is start flame wars so naturally it ends up here.

The bit about Schumacher's drinking abilities, perhaps this is a good place to start explaining how Schumacher
was a winner and Eddie Irvine was nothing more than a third rate bit player in F-1. The same guy who kept
Tom Kristensen out of Ferrari when Schumacher broke his leg at Silverstone simply due to the fact that as
team mates for Toyota in Japan, Kristensen was always faster than Irvine and Villeneuve. Always.

Winners like Schumacher and Kristensen upped their fitness to incredible levels while guys like Irvine were
out drinking and chasing skirts. Colorful perhaps but hardly effective.

BHW

 

Amon and Enzo Ferrari parted amicably in 1969, Enzo even bet Chris Amon that Ferrari would win a Grand Prix before Chris at March (a bet he won...). Enzo had a real fondness for Chris Amon, and accepted Chris arguments for leaving, telling him that he was wrong, and if he ever had second thoughts, that the door would always be open. They remained on speaking terms during the years after Chris left Ferrari, and met from time to time in Modena/Maranello.

1973 was a very difficult year for Ferrari, as it is well known, and Jacky Ickx throwed the towel and left in the middle of the season, because he felt he was made a scapegoat for the lack of technical direction of the car. When Mauro Forghieri was informed that he would be himself re-instated as a technical director, having the highest regards for Amon's abilities as a development driver, he suggested to Enzo that they should approach him with an offer for 1974 in mind.
At the time, Chris was driving for Tecno, and that car was a disaster; he was open to Ferrari's approach, but felt he had a moral obligation towards the people he already had contacted for starting his own team in 1974; but the main obstacle was that a sponsor, Martini if my memory serves me well (which was the main sponsor of Tecno) vetoed any deal between Amon and Ferrari.

Rgds

 

Further to my above post, there are numerous articles and books that mention Ferrari's offer to Amon in 1973, for instance here:

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/december-1996/10/unlucky-star

“Yet why during this period did he spurn an offer to return to Ferrari in favour of Tecno? Amon says it would have upset a sponsor”.

Rgds

 

Maybe Amon wasn't ruthless enough to look after his own interests ?

 

You're so right. Image Unavailable, Please Login

However, I have to say, william and I were having a wonderfully cordial conversation. 'Shoulda' taken it to PM.....errr....."conversation " here on FC.....
Live and learn (and, sometimes not....)

 

william , nerofer....

Thank you for the additions; some "plaster" (facts) in the "holes" (gaps) in my memory/knowledge, so to speak.

'Truly appreciated. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Here as a bonus for you, some "not-so-well-known" pictures: a glimpse of what 1970 might have been if Chris had not left Ferrari:
Summer of 1969: Chris Amon testing the 312B prototype with the new "Flat-12" engine at the Aerotodroma di Monza, where the Scuderia used to test before Fiorano was inaugurated in 1972.

https://primotipo.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/modena-amon-mirrors.png

https://primotipo.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/image438.jpg

https://primotipo.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/image444.jpg

https://primotipo.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/image442.jpg

https://primotipo.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/modena-tailpiece.png

Rgds

 

Very nice. Thank you.

As much as I would have liked to see Amon do better, I was a youngster and a Jim and Lotus (Colin) fan (no one else since they left us...). So, at the time, I was rooting for Jochen.

As far as I'm concerned, it was a much better time..... (see my signature....)

 

I was a great admirer of Jim Clark too; I met him and spoke to him once in the paddock at Brands Hatch.
He was my hero, and his death was a huge blow for the teenager I was then.
Beside his natural skill, I liked his persona, his shyness and how modest and understated he was.
I never heard anyone saying a bad word about Jim.

I wasn't a great fan of Chapman though, maybe because I learnt too much negative stories about him.
At the time of his death, the Inland Revenue were gathering evidence against him in the De Lorean case.
His passing saved him from an embarassing £ multi-million fraud trial, but his accountant at Lotus did a jail term for it..
Also, Chapman wasn't adverse to take credit for other people's hard work it was also found out, hence why he fell out with many of his engineers.

 

Agreed.
At the time, I knew not of Colin's negative side (not much info on this side of the pond). I just enjoyed his cars (the '49 and '56 especially). Later as I did learn more (the DeLorean debacle clinched it), my admiration lessened greatly but I still think of him as "Lotus".