From until , Amon drove for Ferrari, March and Matra, winning several non-championship F1 races while developing a reputation for bad luck in World Championship events. He then struggled in with the small Italian Tecno team. But encouraged by the potential of the underdeveloped Gordon Fowell chassis, Amon tried running his own Formula One car in . Financial backing came from John Dalton, and the car, designed by Fowell, followed the Lotus 72 in some areas of construction, with sophisticated torsion-bar suspension and side radiators.