Who is Formula 1's unluckiest driver?

Chris Amon is often cited as the unluckiest driver in Formula 1 history, specifically because of his failure to win a world championship grand prix.

But is this judgement, inevitably a subjective one, supported by the statistics? Or is there another, less-heralded, driver who had an even harder time?

Excluding those who started the anomalous points-paying Indianapolis 500s of 1950-60, a total of 563 drivers have started a world championship race without winning.

To eliminate those who never really had the opportunity, reducing it to a pool of drivers who have taken podium finishes cuts that number to 86. Of those, if you limit it to those who actually led races, the pool reduces to 36.

For the sake of completeness, this list comprises (in order of number of starts): Andrea de Cesaris, Nick Heidfeld, Derek Warwick, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Mika Salo, Sergio Perez, Amon, Romain Grosjean, Ivan Capelli, Timo Glock, Takuma Sato, Stefan Johansson, Hans-Joachim Stuck, Bruno Giacomelli, Valtteri Bottas, Harry Schell, Rolf Stommelen, Jean Behra, Mike Hailwood, Jackie Oliver, Tom Pryce, Masten Gregory, Luigi Villoresi, Nelson Piquet Jr, Piers Courage, Trevor Taylor, Felice Bonetto, Eugenio Castellotti, Stuart Lewis-Evans, Olivier Gendebien, Willy Mairesse, Karl Kling, Johnny Servoz-Gavin, Carlos Menditeguy, John Love and Mike Parkes.

Having rationalised the list down to a more manageable number, it's time to dig a little deeper. There are many statistics that can be considered when evaluating this claim about Amon, the most obvious being simply to look at the number of grands prix he led. Interestingly, he doesn't lead this list.

Instead, it's a more recent name - Nick Heidfeld - who is on top, having led eight grands prix to Amon's seven.

RACES LED
1 Heidfeld 8
2 Amon 7
= Behra 7
= Grosjean 7
3 Perez 4
4 Kling 3
= Schell 3
= Castellotti 3
= Oliver 3
= Jarier 3
= Hulkenberg 3
= Bottas 3

Number of races led is one thing, but what about the number of laps led? Heidfeld struggles on this score.

LAPS LED
1 Amon 183
2 Behra 107
3 Jarier 79
4 Capelli 46
5 Hulkenberg 43
6 Grosjean 40
7 Mediteguy 39
8 Oliver 36
9 De Cesaris 32
10 Giacomelli 31
11 Heidfeld 25
12 Perez 23

The other obvious metric is number of podiums without a victory. This is where Heidfeld comes back into the picture, although it's important to note that he started 87 more races than Amon for just two more podiums.

What's more, Amon raced at a time of greater unreliability, posting a classified finish on only 53.1% of his starts compared to Heidfeld's 75.4%. So if you consider a race finish to be a 'podium opportunity', Amon only had 51 chances, whereas Heidfeld had 138.

PODIUMS WITHOUT A WIN
1 Heidfeld 13
2 Johansson 12
3 Amon 11
4 Grosjean 10
5 Behra 9
= Eddie Cheever 9
= Martin Brundle 9
= Bottas 9
9 Villoresi 8
10 Perez 7

Heidfeld's record is particularly remarkable given that eight of his 13 podiums were second places. This makes him comfortably the winless driver with most second places.

It's a statistical oddity, because if in just one of those cases the leader had made a mistake or had a mechanical problem, Heidfeld would be disqualified from this discussion.

But while Amon had only three runner-up spots, that doesn't make him less deserving of a win. In the case of Heidfeld, you can only really argue that one of those podium finishes could have or should have been a win - in Canada 2008 when, on a one-stop strategy, he was ordered to let two-stopping team-mate Robert Kubica past.

Had he stayed ahead, which he could easily have done, it would have disrupted the BMW Sauber team's one-two finish, but if it had been any other driver behind him the odds are that Heidfeld would have won that race.

The other driver who shows strongly in all three of the above lists is Behra. The Frenchman had the misfortune to spend all of his 52-start grand prix career not in the best car. His best results came with the factory Maserati team from 1955-57, with team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio winning the drivers' title in the last of those years.

He stands second in both races and laps led, with his nine podiums putting him fifth in the podium list. His 48.1% finishing rate means his podium-finish opportunity was limited to just 25 races. That makes him a more credible rival to Amon than Heidfeld.

Qualifying performances must also be factored in. Only 11 drivers have registered world championship pole positions, but no wins.

POLES WITHOUT A WIN
1 Amon 5
2 Teo Fabi 3
3 Jarier 3
4 Lewis-Evans 2
6 Castellotti 1
= De Cesaris 1
= Giacomelli 1
= Heidfeld 1
= Hulkenberg 1
= Parkes 1
= Pryce 1

Amon figures very well, here - ahead of the very unfortunate Fabi, who not only managed to fail to turn any of his three pole positions into a win, but never actually led a lap. He's also one of only nine drivers to have a pole, as well as podiums, but no win.

One key statistic, which demands a degree of subjectivity, is races that drivers arguably should have won. To assist with compiling this list, a glance at those who retired from races while holding the lead is a useful signpost - albeit with the caveat that this comprises only drivers who were leading at the start of the lap on which they retired, rather than those who hit trouble and faded.

Only 11 drivers who never won a world championship race have retired in those circumstances. Of those, only Amon and Jarier have suffered that fate more than once.

RETIRED WHILE LEADING

1 Amon 3
2 Jarier 2
3 Menditeguy 1
= Behra 1
= Gregory 1
= Servoz-Gavin 1
= Oliver 1
= Pryce 1
= Stommelen 1
= Stuck 1
= Giacomelli 1

There are plenty of drivers who can talk of the one that got away. For example, Behra should have won the 1957 British GP (pictured above) for Maserati without his clutch issue, Derek Warwick had Brazil '84 in the bag for Renault before a wishbone problem, Ivan Capelli would have won the '90 French GP had he not suffered a brief drop in oil pressure on the approach to Signes corner, and Bruno Giacomelli should have won at Watkins Glen in '80 but for an electrical problem.

Factoring in races that, subjectively, he should have won, Amon's position gets even stronger. On top of the three occasions on which he retired from the lead, there are another four that got away.

AMON'S NEAR-MISSES

United States 1967
Lack of oil led to engine bearing problems while very likely to pass Clark to win

Spain 1968
Fuel pump failure while leading (pictured above)

Canada 1968
Fuel pump failure while leading

Belgium 1968
Holed radiator after taking pole by 3.7s

Spain 1969
Engine failure while leading

Italy 1971
Pulled off his own visor while on course to win, finished sixth

France 1972
Puncture, recovered to third

Sometimes a look at the statistics shoots down conventional wisdom. If anything, the above numbers suggest Amon's oft-quoted status as the driver who was unluckiest never to win a race holds true.

Inevitably the numbers do not factor in the quality of the machinery, for Amon would not have led so many races had he not had a quick car. Most likely, trying to factor that in - which would be a more complex undertaking - would strengthen Behra's case significantly.

The statistics also can't compensate for drivers whose careers were cut short; drivers such as Tom Pryce, who retired from the lead of the 1975 British GP.

But, regardless of those caveats, nobody in grand prix history can so justifiably be said to have been unfortunate to be denied at least one victory as Amon.

Statistics compiled by Joao Paulo Cunha of FORIX