Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Damon Hill

Damon Graham Devereux Hill, born in London on 17th September 1960, was the son of twice Formula One World Champion Graham Hill. Damon Hill came late to Formula One after an early career in motorcycle racing, not making his single-seater debut until 1984. He slowly graduated through Formula Three and Formula 3000, showing occasional flashes of speed. In 1992 he broke into Grand Prix racing with the struggling Brabham team, managing to qualify for 2 mid-season Grands Prix. Hill was also the test driver for the dominant Williams-Renault team, and when Nigel Mansell left to drive IndyCars in 1993, Hill was promoted to the race team alongside Alain Prost. After some bad luck, Hill won three successive races in his first full season of F1, in so doing, he became the first second generation member of a Grand Prix winning family.

In 1994 he was team mate to Ayrton Senna, and became their lead driver after Senna's death. Hill was denied the world championship in the last race because of a controversial collision with Michael Schumacher. To be fair though, he was only in a position to win the world championship because Michael Schumacher had been banned from two races and disqualified from two others. Hill was not competitive throughout the season, so it would be stretching it to say he deserved to win. Hill could not beat Schumacher again in 1995, but in 1996 he was in the best car by a country mile with an inexperienced team-mate, becoming the first son of a Formula One champion to win the championship himself. He was dropped by Williams for the following season.

He raced for Arrows, once coming close to a win in a very uncompetitive car, and then for two seasons for Jordan, taking their first win.

Hill was the BBC Sports Personality of the Year twice, in 1994 and 1996, one of only three people to achieve that feat.

He retired from Formula One after a disappointing 1999 season. He is now involved in business, including a BMW dealership.

External link