Having been a fan of F1 for 50 years, I just started to think about those drivers that appeared to have the talent yet never managed to obtain a single victory in their Formula One career. The two main ones I can think of were:
Chris Amon whom I remain amazed wasn't a WDC, never managed to obtain a single race win. Time after time he would be in the lead, and his car, usually a Ferrari, would break or have something go awry which would cost him the win (worn tyres, fuel feed problems etc). His luck seemed atrocious (but he did get out of the sport alive, which is more than a lot of drivers of that time could say). He couldn't have been hard on the machinery because his record in endurance races (including winning Le Mans with Bruce McLaren in the Ford GT Mk II) was actually rather good. So his lack of success remains baffling to me.
Jean-Pierre Jarier was lightning-fast and was the man that teams usually called upon first to substitute for a driver that had been injured or killed, which shows that the teams of that time knew he had speed. Yet he never got a permanent drive at a top team and wound up with the same number of victories that we all have: zero.
What drivers would you add to this list, and can you provide a better explanation for their shut-out than I can for my two choices: primarily a matter of luck?
Chris Amon whom I remain amazed wasn't a WDC, never managed to obtain a single race win. Time after time he would be in the lead, and his car, usually a Ferrari, would break or have something go awry which would cost him the win (worn tyres, fuel feed problems etc). His luck seemed atrocious (but he did get out of the sport alive, which is more than a lot of drivers of that time could say). He couldn't have been hard on the machinery because his record in endurance races (including winning Le Mans with Bruce McLaren in the Ford GT Mk II) was actually rather good. So his lack of success remains baffling to me.
Jean-Pierre Jarier was lightning-fast and was the man that teams usually called upon first to substitute for a driver that had been injured or killed, which shows that the teams of that time knew he had speed. Yet he never got a permanent drive at a top team and wound up with the same number of victories that we all have: zero.
What drivers would you add to this list, and can you provide a better explanation for their shut-out than I can for my two choices: primarily a matter of luck?