Damon
Hill

Damon Hill was born in Hampstead, London, on 17 September 1960. His father, Graham Hill, was Formula One World Champion in 1962 and 1968. Damon started out on motorcycles in 1981 and won a 350 cc clubman championship at Brands Hatch. He attended a racing school in France in 1983. In 1985 he won six races in British Formula Ford with a Van Diemen. He then raced in British Formula Three and finished third in the 1988 championship. In Formula 3000 he took three pole positions for Middlebridge in 1990 but never won a race.

He made his Formula One debut with Brabham in 1992, qualifying for only two races, the British and Hungarian Grands Prix. In 1993 he was promoted to the Williams race team alongside Alain Prost. He took his first pole position in France and his first win in Hungary, becoming the first son of a Grand Prix winner to win one himself. Victories in Belgium and Italy followed, and he ended the year third in the championship.

Ayrton Senna joined Williams in 1994. After his fatal accident at the San Marino Grand Prix, Hill led the team and went on to win races including those in Spain, Britain and Japan. The title was settled at the final round in Adelaide, where he and Michael Schumacher collided and both retired, giving Schumacher the championship by a single point. Hill was runner-up again in 1995 and won the season finale in Australia. In 1996 he won eight races and took the title ahead of his team-mate Jacques Villeneuve. He was the first son of a world champion to win the championship himself. Williams did not keep him for 1997.

He drove for Arrows in 1997 and finished second in Hungary. At Jordan in 1998 he won the Belgian Grand Prix, the team's first victory. He retired after the 1999 season. In Formula One he started 115 races, won 22, reached the podium 42 times and took 20 pole positions.

In 2006 he succeeded Jackie Stewart as president of the British Racing Drivers' Club, a post he held until 2011. From 2012 to 2024 he worked as an analyst for Sky Sports F1.

Source: Wikipedia, “Damon Hill”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.