Damon Hill

Damon Hill

Nation:	Great Britain
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	Great Britain Grand Prix 1992
Last start:	1999 Japanese Grand Prix
Constructors
1992  Brabham  • 1993–1996  Williams  • 1997  Arrows  • 1998–1999  Jordan
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Champion ( 1996 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 115 22nd 20th 19th
World Cup points :	360
Podiums :	42
Leadership laps :	1388 over 6409.1 km

Damon Graham Devereux Hill , OBE (born September 17, 1960 in London , England ) is a former British automobile racing driver and now a motorsport official. Between 1992 and 1999 he competed in the top motorsport class, Formula 1, and became world champion there in 1996 . As the son of two-time Formula 1 world champion Graham Hill , he is the first driver to win this title like his father. From 2006 to 2011 Hill was President of the British Racing Drivers' Club , the owner of the traditional Silverstone circuit .

Hill became known to the general public in the mid-1990s mainly through the ongoing rivalry with his German rival Michael Schumacher , against whom he lost two title fights. In addition to his achievements on the route, Hill gained recognition primarily from the British public - through his simple manner and his clear interviews, conducted with dry humor and wit.

Athletic career

Despite his famous family name, Hill had to fight hard for his promotion to Formula 1. After his father was killed in a plane crash in his private plane in 1975 and left the family in debt - the plane was uninsured because of a lawyer’s mistake and Hill’s family had to pay for the victims - Damon Hill's path to the top of motorsport was anything but mapped out. Hill's mother took a job as a secretary, and the family even had to sell the father's trophies. Hill himself worked as a motorcycle courier.

Beginnings in motorsport

So Hill started his motorsport career on two wheels. From 1979 to 1984 he took part in motorcycle, off-road and road races and achieved 40 victories during this time. In the middle of 1984 Hill got into the Formula Ford 1600 and achieved his first victory at Brands Hatch in England . In 1986 he switched to the British Formula 3 championship . He got a place on the Murray Taylor Racing team and was ninth overall. From 1989 to 1991 Hill drove in Formula 3000 and from 1991 got a contract as a test driver with the Formula 1 team Williams .

Hill is the last F1 world champion who did not start his career in karting . Well-known multiple world champions with similar careers are Niki Lauda and Emerson Fittipaldi .

formula 1

Brabham (1992)

In 1992 he got a regular place in the British team Brabham, which had been very successful in Formula 1 until the mid-1980s, but in the early 1990s increasingly slipped to the end of the starting grid. Due to the lack of sporting success, the team found hardly any sponsors, was consequently chronically underfunded and could no longer pursue any noteworthy development. Hill was registered to eight races before the team had to file for final bankruptcy. Because of the non-competitive material, he was only able to qualify for two races (one of which was his home Grand Prix in Silverstone , England ), while his team-mate Eric van de Poele only took part in one race in ten attempts. After the Brabham team ended, Hill concentrated on his test driver work at Williams.

Williams (1993-1996)

Hill in Williams, 1995

In 1993 , after the resignation of world champion Nigel Mansell, which was somewhat surprising for Williams, he became a regular driver and thus had the great opportunity to prove his skills in the Formula 1 team that was dominant at the time. Right off the bat, Hill finished third overall with three wins behind his teammate Alain Prost , who won the World Cup and ended his career.

In 1994 Hill went into the season at the side of Ayrton Senna , who, however, was tragically killed in the third race. Hill now had to lead the Williams team and after initial difficulties and a chase to catch up in the second half of the season, he finished second overall with a total of six wins - only just beaten by his rival Michael Schumacher on Benetton - Ford . Still, Hill was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year , UK Sportsman of the Year.

In 1995 Hill started a season together with Schumacher for the first time as a favorite for the title, but was again runner-up behind his German competitor, who this time also had Renault units in his Benetton. In 1996 the Briton finally managed to win the world championship with constant performance and a total of eight wins this season. He was again named Great Britain's Sportsman of the Year in the same year. Despite the successes, his contract with the Williams team was not extended, which met with great incomprehension among the British public - especially since he was replaced by the German driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen , who had not yet had any Formula 1 victories.

Reigning World Champion Hill in the Arrows-Yamaha, 1997

Arrows (1997)

For the 1997 season he then moved to the previous backbench team Arrows after team boss Tom Walkinshaw had lured him with a million dollar contract. In Hungary, Hill managed the feat of leading the field for laps with the actually inferior Arrows- Yamaha - also helped by the Bridgestone tires, which were better in the heat - until a hydraulic system seal burst two laps before the end. He still saved second place; only Jacques Villeneuve , who won the World Championship for Williams after Hill's departure, overtook Hill on the last lap. Otherwise he only scored one more point in the season and finished 12th in the drivers' championship.

Jordan (1998-1999)

Last Formula 1 stop: Hill in Jordan 199

In 1998 he moved to Eddie Jordan's team after a move to McLaren-Mercedes had previously failed. The car was marginally better to drive at the beginning of the season than the Arrows of the previous year. But again Hill managed the unexpected: After a few further developments, he won the rainy Belgian Grand Prix in the second half of the season after the dominant Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari was eliminated after a collision. This was the first victory for the Jordan team, which even became a double triumph thanks to the second place of his team mate Ralf Schumacher . Hill finished the year in sixth overall. In 1999 he got Heinz-Harald Frentzen from Williams (who was once his successor there) as a teammate. Jordan built the best car in team history. But only Frentzen capitalized on it with two wins and third place in the world championship. Hill lost his motivation noticeably, collected a total of only seven points (compared to 54 of his teammates) and consequently ended his active Formula 1 career at the end of the season.

Trivia

Damon Hill held the record for the fastest race lap ever driven for ten years (set up in Monza in 1993 with 249.835 km / h) and qualified for the front row of the grid in all races of the season in 1996, which apart from him only Ayrton Senna (1989 on McLaren Honda ) and Alain Prost (1993 in Williams-Renault) succeeded.

Duels with Michael Schumacher

Williams driver and Vice World Champion Damon Hill 1995

After Ayrton Senna died in an accident at the beginning of 1994 , Hill and Schumacher emerged as the legitimate successors who should fight for the world championship. The unequal pilots, separated by an age difference of eight and a half years, regularly clashed on the track and fought various duels. Here is a selection of the most famous scenes:

• GP Japan 1994 : After Schumacher had led the first part of the race unchallenged, there was an interruption due to the heavy rain. At the restart, however, Hill took the lead and did not give it up to the finish line with a strong performance. After adding up the two races, the surprised Hill was declared the winner, keeping all World Championship chances open for the subsequent final race in Australia.
• GP Australia 1994 : Schumacher left the track in the lead after a driving error and hit a wall. He steered his car back on the track at a slower pace, where Hill tried to overtake him immediately. The two vehicles collided, Hill and Schumacher retired. The German's point lead was enough to win the world championship.
• GP England 1995 : Hill started his home race at Silverstone, eleven points behind his rival Schumacher in the world championship. Eleven laps before the end of the race, Hill attacked Schumacher in front of the Priory corner. The two vehicles collided again and landed in the gravel bed.
• GP Belgium 1995 : After an accident in training, Schumacher only started from 16th position, Hill from eighth. Already on lap 17 of the race, the German was ahead of Hill in drizzle and poor visibility. The Briton had the better cards with rain tires and looked for a way past Schumacher, who blocked him repeatedly and finally won the race.
• Italian GP 1995 : On lap 24 of the Monza race, Hill and Schumacher collided while tryingto overtakethe Japanese Taki Inoue . While the angry German Hill assumed intent, he countered with the accusation that Schumacher had braked much too early and therefore unpredictably for him.
• GP Europe 1995 : At Schumacher's home race at the Nürburgring Hill tried to overtake the German on lap 18, but was blocked and pushed away by him. During the subsequent emergency braking, the wheels on Hills Williams blocked and the Brit touched the rear of Schumacher's Benetton, but this had no consequences.
• Hungarian GP 1997 : After Hill surprisingly qualified for third place in the otherwise hardly competitive Arrows thanks to the Bridgestone tires, which were better in the heat, he overtook the leading Schumacher in the Ferrari (on Goodyear tires) with a clean at the beginning of the eleventh lap of the race Maneuver and pulled away.
• Canadian GP 1998 : Schumacher accused Hill of driving in a dangerous manner after the race. The Briton had snaked in front of him in the fight for position two. Hill countered the accusation by referring to Schumacher's own driving style in the same race with which hehad pushedthe German Heinz-Harald Frentzen onto the green strip beyond the track.

official

After the end of his active career, Hill began to get involved in British motorsport and in 2006 rose to replace Martin Brundle as President of the influential British Racing Drivers Club (BRDC), which, among other things, hosts the British Formula 1 Grand Prix .

Personal

Damon Hill was born in the late summer of 1960 in the London borough of Hampstead as the son of racing driver and future F1 world champion Graham Hill and his wife Bette. Hill has two sisters, Samantha and Brigitte.

At the age of 15, Damon Hill lost his father in a tragic accident. The family's previously comfortable living conditions changed drastically, and Hill financed his training with temporary jobs (including as a motorcycle courier for a London pizza delivery service).

The helmet design is based heavily on his father's helmet.

Hill adopted his helmet design from his famous father, using dark blue instead of black. The helmet pattern with the white oar blades on a dark background corresponds to the coat of arms of the London Rowing Club , of which Graham Hill was a member.

Hill has been married to Georgie (* 1961) since 1988 and they have four children together. Their first son was born with Down syndrome . The couple is therefore involved in this area, for example by providing financial support to the relevant foundations. In 2003, Damon Hill commented on the Special Olympics Summer World Games in Dublin for British television. Hill described his personal situation in 2002 as follows:

“My first son, Oliver, who is now 13, was born with Down syndrome, so it's something that affects me very much. I want to bring this fact closer to people. Oliver enjoys a great life, he is an important part of our family and I want to support the foundation. "

In the late 1990s, Hill appeared together with the English reporter legend Murray Walker as an advertising character for the fast food chain Pizza Hut . In the funny spots, Hills Image was caricatured as eternal runner-up, as was Walker's urge to comment on every step of a British racing driver.

Hill takes part in the Gumball 3000 race, which is illegal and highly controversial in Germany . This is a rally across Europe with exclusive sports cars and prominent participants.

In addition to his sporting ambitions, Hill also has a musical streak. As a passionate guitarist , for example, he often performed at Formula 1 events with former colleagues or team members. The English hard rock group Def Leppard invited Hill in 1998 to record their album Euphoria , on which the racing driver recorded a guitar solo ( Demolition Man ).

In order to cope with the grief for his father and the anger over the no fault of his family, Hill founded the punk band "Sex, Hitler and the Hormones" with a few school friends during his school days. Between 1999 and 2003 he had a band called "The Conrods". In their repertoire were mainly cover versions of well-known bands such as The Rolling Stones , The Beatles and The Kinks . With her he appeared at the 2002 Austrian Grand Prix on the A1-Ring . He has given up playing the guitar since he was BRDC president.

statistics

Statistics in the Formula 1 World Championship

Grand Prix victories

1993 Hungary ( Mogyoród )  1993 Belgium ( Spa-Francorchamps )  1993 Italy ( Monza )  1994 Spain ( Barcelona )  1994 Great Britain ( Silverstone )  1994 Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)  1994 Italy (Monza)  1994 Portugal ( Estoril )

1994 Japan ( Suzuka )  1995 Argentina ( Buenos Aires )  1995 San Marino ( Imola )  1995 Hungary (Mogyoród)  1995 Australia ( Adelaide )  1996 Australia ( Melbourne )  1996 Brazil ( Interlagos )  1996 Argentina (Buenos Aires)

1996 San Marino (Imola)  1996 Canada ( Montréal )  1996 France ( Magny-Cours )  1996 Germany ( Hockenheim )  1996 Japan ( Suzuka )  1998 Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Round	Points	WM-Pos.
1992	Motor Racing Developments	Brabham BT60B	Judd GV 3.5 V10	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	30th
1993	Canon Williams team	Williams FW15C	Renault 3.5 V10	16	3	4th	3	2	4th	69	3.
1994	Rothmans Williams Renault	Williams FW16  / FW16B	Renault 3.5 V10	16	6th	5	-	2	6th	91	2.
1995	Rothmans Williams Renault	Williams FW17  / FW17B	Renault 3.0 V10	17th	4th	3	2	7th	4th	69	2.
1996	Rothmans Williams Renault	Williams FW18	Renault 3.0 V10	16	8th	2	-	9	5	97	1.
1997	Danka Arrows Yamaha	Arrows FA18	Yamaha 3.0 V10	16	-	1	-	-	-	7th	12.
1998	Benson & Hedges Jordan	Jordan 198	Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10	16	1	-	-	-	-	20th	6th
1999	Benson & Hedges Jordan	Jordan 199	Mugen-Honda 3.0 V10	16	-	-	-	-	-	7th	12.
total				115	22nd	15th	5	20th	19th	360

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th
1992
				DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	16	DNQ	11
1993
	DNF	2	2	DNF	DNF	2	3	2	DNF	15th	1	1	1	3	4th	3
1994
	2	DNF	6th	DNF	1	2	2	1	8th	2	1	1	1	2	1	DNF
1995
	DNF	1	1	4th	2	DNF	2	DNF	DNF	1	2	DNF	3	DNF	3	DNF	1
1996
	1	1	1	4th	1	DNF	DNF	1	1	DNF	1	2	5	DNF	2	1
1997
	DNS	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	9	12	6th	8th	2	13	DNF	7th	8th	11	DNF
1998
	8th	DSQ	8th	10	DNF	8th	DNF	DNF	DNF	7th	4th	4th	1	6th	9	4th
1999
	DNF	DNF	4th	DNF	7th	DNF	DNF	5	8th	DNF	6th	6th	10	DNF	DNF	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1989	Richard Lloyd Racing	Porsche 962C GTI	David Hobbs	Steven Andskar	failure	Engine failure

Web links

Commons : Damon Hill  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Damon Hill in the catalog of the German National Library
• Damon Hill in theInternet Movie Database(English)
• Fanpage with biography, photos, news from / about Damon Hill
• Detailed statistics on Hill's F1 career
• Damon Hill biography on the official FIA Formula 1 website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Derek Warwick elected as president , BRDC homepage August 30, 2011, accessed December 6, 2011.
2. ^ "Reflections on a Racing Rivalry" (Altasf1.com, 1999)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Damon Hill: Sex, Hitler and the hormones - Formula 1 at Motorsport-Total.com
4. ↑ Damon Hill at research-racing.de
5. ^ "Mclaren Rejected Me, Says Hill" (crash.net on December 2, 1998)
6. ↑ Damon Hill, 2002
7. ↑ "Damon Hill and Murray Walker Pizza Hut" (commercial on youtube.com)
8. ^ Austrian Grand Prix 2002
9. ↑ Damon Hill back on the track - this time as a rock guitarist
10. ↑ One of the last appearances of Damon Hill & The Conrods so far, Youtube video clip