@14:42 unfortunately there's a strange cut because about 20s of footage had to be taken out because it was randomly flagged by F1, this was a few days after this video was already uploaded which is annoying, so I've kept the video up but apologies for the cut
Ya I tried F1 2016 career made made no sense it was dumb you never really raced anyone it was like go do this on track now go do this etc… maybe there was racing later but I got bored before I got that far I like games like ACC or AMS2 just jump in and race type games I don’t like having to follow a script on a racing game other games like RPG’s and such that’s different but a racing game shouldn’t have a dedicated story line imo maybe like a side quest type thing like ACC’s championship mode, but if you want you can always dial up a custom race and go have fun or do a Sim Grid or LFM race, dunno about the CP servers heard there carnage, some races on ACC pay 10k euros to the wining team *( 500€ for a amateur team 1000€ for a pro team entry fee )*
Damon is one if the most underrated champions there is, and part of that was his smooth driving style which made him look like he wasn't going as fast as he was (same thing with Button). He had, for some reason, dreadful backing from most of the teams he drove for, and that didn't help matters. Newey's backing should have been a clue to everyone, because he's no mug. He was probably the only one who truly understood how well Damon was driving, because he knew that car better than anyone. His history might shed some light on his need for confidence in the car and team. There's a picture of him as a toddler with his dad and a bunch of top drivers. One was Von Tripps (I can't be sure but I think that at least one other also died on the track. I do stand to be corrected). He personally knew - as a young lad - drivers who died racing. He was actually more interested in motorbike racing, but his mother didn't like it. The family having been left bankrupt after Graham's death when he was 15, not only did Damon become "the man of the house", as soon as he left a very prestigious school (he is a very smart man!) he had to have 2 jobs (a motorcycle courier and a labourer). I can't remember exactly when he and Georgie married and had their first kid, but I'm pretty sure that he was married, or at least seriously courting her, during the time that he'd drive a van to the race meetings with the bike in the back. He did drive in whatever formula he could, including tin tops, but for some reason he couldn't get enough sponsorship to race where he wanted to go. I know that they had at least 2 kids by the time he got into F1, and their oldest, Oliver, has Down's Syndrome, which must have been a particular strain when he was young (there are so many potential medical problems which can arise, especially heart problems, so that must have been a real worry). Betty (his mum) eventually persuaded him to learn how to race cars by remortgaging the family home so he could go to France and a top trainer, and he was considered to be very talented there. This is why he was so much older than his peers - he started late. His first F1 car was supposed to be a Jordan, but not only wouldn't Eddie pay him, he was expected to bring in something like £70k in sponsorship a year. He naturally had to walk away from that. Not enough credit is given to him for holding Williams together after Senna's death. The top brass were fighting a court case for manslaughter (I don't think Ratzenberger's team were charged, despite the Italian authorities saying that it was SOP to charge a team if their driver died on Italian soil. Naturally, Senna was world famous...), and Mansell's coming & going was more disruptive to the team than a help. Damon was expected to be the team leader, _and_ coach the rather wayward Villeneuve when he later came on the scene (just as he'd done for Coulthard in '94). As a die-hard Damon fangirl, I still think he was robbed of his first title. Given his inexperience in car racing, and practically no support from Frank Williams in particular, it was a sign of his ability that it took Schumacher cheating to beat him in Australia (no one will convince me that it wasn't done on purpose, and I have his actions in '97 to back me up). Williams' treatment of him during '96 is something I could never get past. Anyway, thanks for the video. It's a nice change to hear about him :)
@lmaomoofeq I love Frank but he had a huge ego, they’ve never had a repeat champion despite winning as many as they did. That says A LOT. He couldn’t accept a bad season and he couldn’t admit when he was wrong. He was just always chasing that star, rather than trying to foster a star into becoming a champion.
This is only the 2nd half of Damon's batshit motorsport career. He was born into wealth as his father was 2x F1 champion Graham Hill. However, Graham died in a plane crash coming back from testing (he'd retired from racing and is running his own team by now.) This plunged the Hill family into poverty. Damon never had any F1 ambition early in his career but wanted to race motorbikes. He raced club races in the South East of England with various levels of success but had to fight for every penny he could by doing odd jobs and motorcycle courriering. His mother became concerned so got one of their racing connections to pay for him to do formula racing school in the south of France but then again, he still had to struggle financially to pay for his racing (he managed to get a Euro F3 drive off his famous surname, remind you of someone!) He was lucky to get the Williams test driver role as he was being payed to drive rather than vice versa. Plus, back then being a test driver meant you drove the car full time at circuits all over the world, racking up thousands of real life, not simulator, miles. That gives you alot better preparation for the riggors of F1 that spending your time in a simulator. Plus, his eldest kid who was born when he racing in F3 is disabled. Imagine dealing with that as well as as following your dream against all odds. Damon is an enigma who should be revered and not mocked. Yes, 97 and 99 were blots on his career but only blots. If he didn't fancy himself as the next Barry Sheene, things might have turned out differently. I think Damon Hill should be looked as a (not an all time) great, not for achievements, although they were great, but for his perserverance.
I would say fame, not wealth. Compared to modern standards, Hill was a household name, but did not come from the wealthy world of business or aristocracy. Graham was relatively self made, being a naval engineer and mechanic, before eventually landing a job with Colin Chapman building and tuning cars for Lotus. And he was well into his 30s. He eventually tested and drove, leading to how we know him today. But post-death, I don’t think the accrued wealth stuck around. Prior to racing on four wheels, Damon was a motorcycle delivery driver around London, and had to fight to prove his worth on amateur grids before getting noticed. The name only gets someone so far. Though having a godfather like George Harrison to invest in Damon’s career was pretty cool.
'he managed to get a Euro F3 drive off his famous surname, remind you of someone!' I actually don't know who you mean cos this could apply to so many people on the grid or recently on the grid.
@@myka4337 As far as I can think, well he first started out side by side with Aryron senna , and stayed with the McLaren team his entire F1 career. After winning his two championships, the reliability perhaps was still glooming and after the 2002 season and other Finn would join McLaren and I guess Mika never wanted to join another team and retired
How Hill won races: Spain 94: Schumi was stuck in 5th gear, Damon inherited the win. UK 94: Hill won only because Schumi got a lot of penalties and then was DSQ. Spa 94: inherited the win after Schumi, who actually won, was DSQ. Italy 94: Main rival was banned, Hill was almost caught by Coulthard but he ran out of fuel. Portugal 94: main rival still banned. Teammate Coulthard faked running wide to gift Hill the win
People highlight 1995 as evidence of Damon being mentally weak, but Coulthard only won one race in that car and also made a lot of mistakes yet he was regarded as one of the sport's up-and-comers. Sure, Coulthard was only in his second season but discounting his two outings in the Brabham in 1992, Hill was only in his third! I think the fact that his career started so late and that he had success relatively early in it caused problems for him later in his career. He seemed to be percieved as an established driver very quickly so when he made mistakes like those in 1995 people came down on him like a ton of bricks; there was no accounting for the fact that he was only in his third full season having been thrown into a top team and expected to lead it when the previous team leader was killed. I think if he'd been 22 or 23 people would have cut him slack for that but because he was 35 people didn't.
Fact? Yes. However, winning 21 races in 4 years at Williams in the best car on the field or winning the same number of races with inferior cars like the Benettons and Ferraris cannot be compared.
@@ConfiUser3 It certainly can be compared. Benetton won the 1995 Constructor's Championship. Schumacher fans love to paint this myth that he had no competition, but that was simply not the case. You realize by saying Schumacher had no competition, by implying that a driver like Hill was "lucky" or "unworthy," you end up diminishing the achievements of your own "hero"? Both drivers had access to amazing equipment over this time period, and both put it to good use. Respect your rivals. You are nothing without them. What you're really perpetuating is the idea that Schumacher's victories were worthless because he had inferior competition. Is that really what you want us to believe? Facts are facts, Schumacher fan. Let's count up the number of wins Schumacher had when he had a car that was the class of the field. You might not like that comparison, either....
@@byronthebulb8921 So your take is that we can compare a driver running with teams that finished 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st and 2nd in the constructors against Williams who won in 92, 93, 94 and 96 (and if their drivers wouldn't have choked every time that they had the chance to, they would have also easily won it in 95)? Yeah, this is not me being unrealistic, it's your take bring very brave. There is no denying that Hill certainly had the faster equipment for the majority of this time period and yet he walks away with the same number of victories as Schumacher in worse equipment. Again, yeah, fact, but not comparable. It makes Schumacher's wins stand out much more (only Herbert was able to also win with Benetton, but both times it came through Hill punting out Schumacher) while Hill winning looks more like another Williams win (13 more Williams victories through Prost, Mansell, Coulthard and Villeneuve). Hill wasn't a bad driver at all, he wouldn't have been with a top team for four seasons and wouldn't achieve a world title if he wasn't at least half decent. And if you wouldn't compare it, 21 wins in 4 years might sound mighty impressive. But the fact that someone had the same number of victories in weaker cars and also won two titles in that period compared to Hills 1, with Williams winning 5 of the 8 titles in that period, more wins, more poles, and so on... Sorry mate, but it doesn't make Hill look that outstanding. And the way Aldas explained it with Dennis offering him a contract with no payment except if he wins, it seems I'm not the only one who wasn't that impressed with Damon. If he was that good, he would have had contract offers left and right when there was the chance for 97 or 98, yet he basically had no other option than to run for Arrows and Jordan. Sure, his advanced age probably was a factor as well, he had an approaching expiring date, but then again look at Alonso who makes his age look like a simple number. Another comparison: When Hill had dominant material, he still had to fend off Coulthard or Villeneuve and in 1996 he needed to go into the last race to clinch the title. Once Schumacher had as dominant cars as Hill had, there was absolutely no fight in the title run as he would often win double-digit amount of races these years. And when he had second-rated cars, he was still able to take these cars into title deciders and, like in 94 and 95, win them. So where exactly is the comparison that the Schumacher fan would not like?
I'm a Damon fan. He was as worthy a champion as anyone. In 94 he picked up and lead the team after Senna died, I don't think he gets enough credit for this. It mirrored his father who lead Lotus after Jim Clarke died. I have a pre season magazine from 94 which reviews the teams and drivers and it says of Damon that Senna has had more talented team mates but few more determined. Determination is a strength of course but you also need skill which Damon had. I was gutted when he lost the win in Hungary, he deserved it.
Graham was already a World Champion when Clark died, and had 11 years in F1, so the task of leading the team wasn't much of a step up for him. Damon had 23 Grand Prix starts and 3 victories. He'd previously only been a number 2 driver.
Another interesting fact about Damon is that he's the only modern driver I can think of who never raced karts. He dabbled in motorcycle racing as a kid but when he switched to cars he pretty much jumped straight into F3.
Damon Hill is one of the most underrated drivers/champions ever in f1. He always seemed to be a teams backup or fallback option when they needed a driver. Despite this he still won 22 gps and 1 (arguably 2) World title. He never properly had a team built around him, like all the great drivers mentioned around him. The Williams he drove was first built for prost, then for sena. Schumacher had benetton build a car around him, then whole team when he went to ferrari. This is also how Hamilton has won so prolifically. He was groomed by mclaren from the age of 11, had a team built around him in each division of motorsport, before having the full f1 team when he got there. Until eventually moving to Mercedes and again having a team built around him as no1 driver. There can't be many drivers that would even win a gp coming into f1 the route Damon did, let alone become a word champion. In my eyes, a true f1 great, and a worthy world champion 🏆
14:27 whilst Villeneuve was an F1 rookie, it must be remembered that he'd spent 2 seasons in CART and was the reigning CART champion and Indy 500 winner, so he wasn't a complete rookie to top level motorsport.
Yup and back in an era where they were way more similar than they would be again. Plus he knew alot of the tracks, one of the biggest reasons why they swap doesn't often work.
it's funny as watching the 93' season (my second year as an F1 fan) when I was a kid, Damon's age never seemed to be an issue - I thought it was the norm. It's funny how our perceptions have changed in recent years. He was a gentlemen of the sport and I think he deserved his championship. Luck was a factorm but when isn't it?
Age wise, yes, it was the norm to hit f1 about your mid 20-s or later. Looking at the best drivers of the 80s and 90s they were at their peaks in their 30's and raced into their 40's.
Damon is one of my favorite drivers ever. I can only compare him with Carlos Reutemann, entering the circus in his 30s, making absolute miracles, and sometimes being betrayed by his teams, same that happened to him at Williams, happened to Reutemann in 1981 when his contract, although still ongoing, was changed for 1982 to be perhaps a test driver contract's salary while developing the car. The history on Damon and how his life went down after Graham's death, and how he managed to live during those years until he had the chance, makes him a total respectable person, driver and i'm pretty sure he deserves a movie based on his life, no doubts about that. He had, perhaps, an odyssey of a life until his retirement. MEGA MEGA driver.
Adrian Newey praised Hill coz he knows how much Senna's death affected Damon Hill who had already gone through his father's death which was by a crash and how he handled the situation while also fighting for the championship against Micheal Schumi.
Man this was amazing. There’s sort of an annoying thing in F1 of wanting everybody to be a “great”, whatever that means. I feel it really takes the gloss of extremely good drivers who maybe don’t reach that upper echelon of Schumacher, Prost, Senna, Hamilton, Verstappen. Not everybody can be them. And we should appreciate drivers like Damon, Valterri, Carlos and others a lot more.
Damon was and still is severely underrated. He raced against the best and had Prost, Senna, Mansell, Villeneuve, Coulthard, HHF & Ralf as teammates. Literally nobody had better in their career IMO and he only lost to Prost in his first full season and Heinz Harald when he couldn't be bothered anymore. Legit top driver 👌 great person too 👏
Damon can hold his head high for what he achieved in his career , sure there was some ups and downs but the record books show he was an F1 world champion and that will never change…
I always thought Damon was a good driver but under enormous pressure. Granted he made some crazy errors that seemed to happen totally unexpectedly. Frank Williams probably added to the pressure. In today's F1 I feel Mick Schumacher is like a modern day version of Damon. A Dad who was a F1 hero, starting the F1 career in a poor car in a team with uncertain finances. The way Frank went about sacking Damon did indeed totally destroy the trust between Frank & Adrian who is in my opinion the best design guy ever to grace F1. It's been sad to see the tortured slide backwards of Williams.
Damon Hill is one of the most underrated of all time, had he started his career at a normal age I think he would have been at least double world champion.
@@stepladder3257 he got race bans for ignoring black flags… Which is blatant rule breaking, albeit on team orders, but still they gave him a deserved penalty for what he did. Secondly he didn’t get any punishment (not even get a fine) for deliberately causing a collision, hardly the actions of people favouring Hill.
@@mrsomeone846 schumacher didnt ignore anything.the team didnt tell him to come in because they were in talks with the officials for the issue. as for the 2 race ban there wasnt 2 race ban punishment rule at that time for ignoring the flag.it was a punishment special delivery for schumacher. the one who caused the collision was damon hill.he was at the car that it was behind and he was the one who forced the move and tried to pass in a corner that he wasnt his.
Damon Hill... yeah, he is without a doubt one of the most intriguing drivers for me. On his good days, he was on par with Schumacher. There are not many drivers that can say that about themselves. However, his good days were rare and he had to rely on a dominant Williams. Some performances were just utterly shambolic. And when he lacked motivation he was miles off his team mate. He was impressive in 1993 winning 3 races. He was impressive in 1994 for putting up a fight with Schumacher, even though Schumacher and especially Benetton were very stupid in GB and unlucky with the DSQ in Belgium. In 1995, Hill was very underwhelming to say the least. He had a more dominant car than in the year before, but made so many silly mistakes that you really had to ask yourself what he is doing at the top team. In 1996 he has absolutely no competition except his rookie team mate... who still gave him a fight to the season finale. 1997 was in a bad car again with the obvious highlight in Hungary and another point score. In 1998, it was a discrete season until Spa. And 1999... was very weak. I never saw him as a legitimate threat to great drivers like Schumacher or Häkkinen who could walk on this level much more consistently and I even give Villeneuve more credit due to him being a rookie when he competed against Hill. However, due to him already being 31 when he debuted, one needs to ask himself what could have been if he could have started his career earlier than in 1981. He was in constant financial struggles due to his fathers death, the family was in debt for long, and he had to work in the meantime to finance his career. So making it in F1 is already a big achievement, let alone a championship title. So, all in all, Hill achieved quite a lot for the little time he was in F1. Sure, lucky enough to have been under Frank Williams' wing and therefore in dominant cars for years. But he was there when he had the opportunity for the championship and took it. Not an all-time great, surely not the best world champion, but a pretty solid driver.
Hill was very good at setting up a fast car, sticking it on pole, and then winning from the front. If you asked him to do anything else, he was bobbins.
Also worth remembering the '94 Williams was a very difficult car to handle due to active suspension being banned. It was not the same car Prost enjoyed. Even Senna said as much and struggled with it in the few races he had that season. But 95/96 Hill did make a few too many errors and you can't really blame Frank for wanting a safer pair of hands.
Damon Hill, to me, is a particular kind of legend that deserves more respect. Not because he was the greatest driver of his era. He won the F1 title while secretely dealing with depression issues. His entire driving career he was secretly dealing with depression. Imagine waking up everyday by fighting every bit of your body and mind that just wants you stay in bed, that your mind make you think that you are just lost and still somehow find a way to go to the gym, talk to engineers, drive a car to the limits, and winning something as difficult to win as the F1 drivers championship. That this career make no sense now make perfect sense given how depression works, sometime. The inner struggle is real. Is he of the like of Schumacher? No. He is something completely different.
And besides his mental health issues that arose from losing his father at the age of 15, he also had a son with Down syndrome. Michael Schumacher had both his parents living and no children on his own (until 1997) in the era. This actually makes a difference. An apple is not a pear. A pear is not an apple.
6:14 Seeing Senna jump on Mansell's Williams reminds me of the story of how after the 'friendly' drive back to the paddock, Senna immediately went to the McLaren engineers and sketched out everything he saw regarding the cockpit and displays. Senna was an absolute Legend!
So my old man’s claim to fame so to speak, is that in ‘92 while Mansell was being swamped, he ignored the Williams and jumped on Hills nose cone to celebrate him finishing the race as he was a Brabham fan. Although drunk, he recalls the look of “WTF” in Hills eyes… true or not I don’t know but makes me chuckle
Hill was my favourite driver in the mid 90s. It was a better time in F1 as it was on free to air tv BBC then ITV and no toxic f1 fanbase. Whatever anyone thinks about Damon Hill now he was a hero to me as a 10 year old and don't forget he was the last British world champion until Lewis Hamilton in 2008
To have your test driver times compared to Mansell - Hill was often quicker, shows speed and set up understanding. Then to have a race seat in which Prost, Mansell, Senna, Coulthard and Villeneuve are team mates is exceptionally tough - three of them multiple WDC. And then to find Schumacher as his main foe (in a car that was found illegal on repeated occasions) was another challenge. Then to live through the death of Senna and pick the team up (just as Graham Hill did after Jim Clark at Lotus), could have stopped him in his tracks - yet he was close to his first WDC before Schumacher crashed him out. What he achieved is remarkable and he deserves his championship.
I`m about the biggest Damon Hill fan you will find. I will admit he isn`t the best driver of all time but watching him win the championship aged 10 is one of my favorite f1 and sporting moments in general of all time.
@@wibbers01 I must have watched a replay or highlights because I don't remember being up really early in the morning? Long time ago now though and I only have fragments of childhood memories but I remember watching races on a sunday and him lifting the trophy
@@DjDolHaus86 For early morning races they had race replays/extended highlights at the same time the Euro races would have started. My dad and I were big motorsport fans at the time. My earliest memories were watching Mansell in IndyCar on Eurosport on a satalite pointing towards 14 degrees Astra and the F1 with Ben Chilton and Jon Watson and Ben Edwards.
@@wibbers01 Ahh I see, that's what I must have watched, I remember the races being on sunday afternoons and because it was a pre internet time you didn't have to stick your head in the sand to avoid spoilers all day. My dad had a passing interest in sport, the only thing we watched religiously was the BTCC during the super touring era.
Does anyone else feel remember that every crash with Schumacher happened when Damon was overtaking him.... never when MSC was overtaking Damon... racing fairly & giving space was what Damon did... too nice ??!
Yeah as someone who was a following F1 fan even back then, Damon was always known as Mr Nice Guy. A British Valteri Bottas. Schumacher was known as a hard nose. And... I know since his crash this is unpopular but , he was also known as unsportsmanlike, some said even worse. (Not my opinions before I get flamed)
I think it’s interesting to wonder what he might have achieved if he had started younger, and had more backing from his bosses. Average drivers don’t perform moments of magic, let alone a world title. You summed it up well in saying he could be amazing as well as awful, but, isn’t that to be expected in such an inexperienced driver, against the calibre of driver at the time?
And people have to remember that theyre saying dude sucks.....at the highest level of motorsport, which is quite laughable really, just shows how disconnected with reality people can get when you only consume media or facts about life through a screen.
If by rollercoaster, you just mean the starting hill. *1994 IndyCar Rookie of the Year and 1 win *clickity-clack*, 1995 IndyCar Champion, Indy 500 champion, and 3 more wins during the season *clickity-clack*, moves straight to Williams and wins 4 races and nearly the World Driver's Championship in 1996 *clickity-clack*, wins 7 races and the World Drivers Championship in 1997 *clickity-clack*, has one more season with Williams that ends with only two podiums and 5th placed in the standings and *whooooosh** continues straight downhill from there.
@windfall 3 first years of Villeneuve and Hamilton were very similar. Just imagine if Hamilton moved to HRT, Lotus or Virgin for 2010, then It would be so similar
I'm lucky to have met Damon Hill a few times between roughly 93 and 96 if I remember rightly, particularly at Silverstone in 93 for the British GP. I was very young and I barely spoke to him but I remember him being very nice but also very quiet and not at complete ease during the public scrums, but seemed a very nice bloke, he's always been a hero of mine.
What an evocative story. Many don't know this but when Graham Hill crashed, his instrument ratings weren't up to date so the insurance didn't pay out. I remember reading a small item, buried deep in the sports section, that said Graham's widow Bette sold his trophies to partially pay off the many claims against the estate. Damon grew up in genteel poverty and later worked s London motorcycle courior. When, against all odds, Damon won the WDC he did more than restore the Hill family fortune. He restored their honor. "And now, I've got a lump in my throat... "
Worth pointing out Damon was also the test driver for Williams in 92 too. So he was being dominated in a Brabham that was a shitbox, and testing and helping the best team on the grid. Also he had to step up in 94, as well as we F1 fans know
He certainly qualified more then Giovanna Amati (who's sponsorship fell through and got him a seat) and Eric Van Der Pole (who was much more experienced then him and was in theory the team leader). That car was a shitbox that Mansell or Senna would've only qualified 2 or 3 times that year. Got to love it's late season colour scheme though, a stupidly pretty car.
Considering how late Hill got into car racing after a reasonable motorbike career, combined with his lack of money, Damon did spectacularly well. I still think his best ever win was Belgium 93, in his first full season (I’m discounting 92 as that car he drove was a milk float and could barely qualify for a race) he beat, in a straight fight Schumacher, Prost and Senna. I was at that race. I was a big Nige fan and was gutted that he wasn’t racing in 93 but Damon did an admirable job in filling Mansell’s shoes for British fans.
Damon was my man in the mid 90’s. He was a favourite of everyone in our household, because of his grit and sheer will. Whoever mocks him do it out of jealousy.
I think Damon is one of the most underrated & most interesting F1 champions. Adrian Newley said in his autobiography that the engineering feedback from Damon Hill contributed greatly to the development of the FW14b, and Mansell’s championship year in 92. People often disregard Damon for not being as talented & fast as Schumacher etc, but appreciate how important a skill (a) developing & (b) setting up a car is. If you can steer your team in the right direction and make a car a few tenths quicker that way, you don’t need to drive as flat out to win. In his first full F1 season he was teammates with Prost, and did not embarrass himself (had a lot of bad luck that season, should have won many more than 3 races). In his second full F1 season he was teammates with Senna and briefly with Mansell, and again he was pretty damn good against them. Under current rules Schumacher would definitely have been disqualified for cheating at Adelaide, and Damon could (should?) have been champion in 94. Ok, Damon was terrible in 95, but how much better would he have been if he had the confidence of being the reining champion? I feel the 95 annus horribilis was due to a loss of confidence from how 94 ended. The stress of Senna’s death hasn’t exactly disappeared either, because by this point the team was being accused of manslaughter by Italian authorities, which affected Damon massively too. Damon was champion in 96. Newey said in his autobiography that the way Damon was sacked by Patrick Head & Frank Williams was why Newey left the team. Adrian Newey rated & respected Damon’s approach a lot. 97 Budapest & 98 Spa were awesome, it’s then a shame how his career fizzled out, however he achieved a lot despite coming to F1 in his 30s from 2 wheeled racing (instead of karting) and being the last of the F1 drivers who didn’t brake with their left foot.
Damon hill is one of the most underrated and most unlucky at the same time. He was robbed in 1994 by Schumacher dirty tactics. He's 2x world champion in my view.
Senna would crush Hill, as happened in that 1994 season. The difference between the two was colossal, just look at the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix (Senna pole with an advantage of over 1.5 seconds and even went advance to Hill).
Correct. Hill should have two world titles and Schumacher six. Schuey should have been disqualified like he was when he tried the same trick on Villeneuve in '97.
This reminds me of watching "Moneyball." Hill's career feels like he was one of those guys who produced great results but some of the old experts didn"t think he had the subjective "great qualities" they looked for. And maybe some people thought Damon Hill wasn"t a close enoough copy of Graham Hill?
Damon Hill winning the title even knowing he was going to be sacked showed how much he loved racing. He did it for himself and wasn't going to let his future stand in his way. David and Goliath incarnate.
If Hill had converted those retirements from the lead in GB and Germany in 93 he would have lost the title to Prost on count back alone. If Schumacher hadn't crashed into him at Adelaide and his car held together to the finish he would have won in 94. He finished a third of his races entered on the podium. He won in midfield machinery twice (almost.) Had things gone slightly differently we could be looking at a three time world champion having started car racing as an adult and F1 in his thirties. A truly remarkable driver who has never gotten the respect he is due, persevering through personal tragedy after personal tragedy, financial struggle, and a decades late start. He turned himself into a world champion beating the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, David Coulthard, and Ralf Schumacher (two top 10 drivers of the late 90s and early 2000s) and outpacing Jos Verstappen in equal machinery by over a second a lap in testing at the age of 40! Very fast, didn't quite have the race craft or mentality of the greats but given his circumstances you'd hardly expect that. Imagine the driver he'd have been with the finances and his dad alive to guide him through a car racing career from the start. That Damon would have had 3 championships, maybe 4. But alas he is human, he is just a man. He is the Stan Wawrinka, the Andy Murray of F1, not as good as the gladiators but the best of the non-superhumans. Note: Hill outqualified teammate Diniz in Hungary by 2.1 seconds, his teammate was in 19th on the grid. He out qualified Ralf by 8 tenths in Spa '98 (3rd on grid vs 8th) he deserved that win more regardless of the controversy.
Great vid Aldas. You’re becoming one of the best F1 channels. Others are using clickbait and bs content. Your content is good and well thought out. Keep’em coming!
I think one of the reason he was rated lowly was because he have the great Hill name. Being the son of a world champion, we can see how sons/nephews of world champion not really rated highly. Nelson Jr., Nico at the first stints of his career, Bruno Senna, Michael Andretti, and now Mick Schumacher, are some to be example of.
Never forgiven Williams for dropping him in 96, and as you explained in the video eventually lead to their demise. Newey like Damon had too much integrity to stay at the team.
I always enjoy your videos, but this one was next level quality. A very to the point recap of Hills carreer, but still with a great attention to detail. Would love more videos like this!
I remember my first season ever of F1 watched with my dad in full, I remember watching live Sena's death and F1 passing from that thing my dad just keeps talking about with all those old names, Fitipaldi, Fangio, etc and me becoming addict to that thing (and go karting), but most specially I remember that my first ever F1 favorite pilot was D.Hill and I loved his character and how connected I felt as I was one of those alienated (by society itself) kids, being always bullied for being different, he fighting and winning over M.Schumacher, that was as inspiring as it was Kurt Cobain or Rodney Mullen, those were the heroes of my childhood.
Damon doesn't get the level of credit he deserves. Came to the game late, scratched and clawed for opportunities despite his famous last name, played his part in developing Mansell's championship conqueror, beat Schumacher head-to-head in a monsoon, took Jordan's first ever win. Anybody who doubts he had the talent should watch Hungary '97.
What a rollercoaster of a time Frank Williams was known to be ruthless when it comes to drivers. Hill lost his dad he lost his teammate. lost his job and later on was getting death threats from Schumacher fans but he still managed to take the world championship.
Great vid. Looking back on past champions entire careers is def a good idea. We so often forget what becomes of these guys after and hell even before their legendary championship runs that we remember.
Also... "Imagine you fight for your titles against Michael Schumacher himself, and almost winning *twice*" Damon Hill is my favorite F1 driver of all time. While I still enjoy watching F1 immensely, to this very day it just doesn't feel the same as it felt while he was competing. In a sports world that requires perfection at every step along the way, he was always that fallible human being who could make silly, unforced mistakes (Germany 1995) and yet achieve inconceivable results against near-impossible odds (Suzuka 1994, Hungary 1997, Belgium 1998). To this day, I admire this ordrinary man who performed an inordinary feat in F1.
2 роки тому+3
As "Legacy" drivers go, he wasn't by far one slowest. In fact I think he was a pretty good driver in his own right, but always haunted by the "ghost" of his father. Either way, it's always great to see him when he shows up on TV doing interviews. You can immediately tell that the current drivers have massive respect for him.
Yep I agree, also worth noting in the space of two seasons he had Prost (some very close 2nd places helped Mr Prost) Senna and Mansell as teammates who were all past masters at drawing the best resources in the team to them. Throw in the fact he must’ve known he was viewed as second fiddle to anyone else that walked in the door, that’s got to take its toll on you mentally. All of that while fighting the Benetton who had the whole team behind their lead driver. He could’ve coined the phrase “not bad for a number two driver” decades before Mr Webber. I think a big part of why people that like him do so, he’s a good bloke, a bit like Mr Button, Mr Brundle, Mr Herbert etc you’d definitely have a beer with him and be glad you did.
Damon Hill was a fantastic racing driver from the get go, the way he set the cars for racing a GGPP was very much in the same level as Prost. Yes, he was not as quick in the qualification as others, and he had crisis of confidence, but he was a very good value for money. He probably should have driven for Mclaren, because with that machinery, he would have won in '98 no question. His move to Arrows did not make any sense at all.
That whole 1993 pre-season was wild. It should be mentioned, that Mansell leaving Williams F1 to race in the Indy 500, though largely about money, was also because he had a bad experience with Prost as a teammate in '90, and that Williams wasn't willing to guarantee Mansell the no. 1 driver spot, despite being the World Champion. Damon Hill, who technically replaced Riccardo Patrese, had his car labeled #0 instead of #2, as Williams wasn't able to use #1 due to Mansell's departure (as per numbering protocol 1974-1995, the winning driver was always given #1 and teammate #2, but #1 couldn't be given if the Drivers Champion retired from F1, and if team was also Constructors Champion). This meant that Damon Hill would end up having the #0 for two seasons, as Prost would leave Williams in '94. The only other driver to run #0 (albeit pre 1974 no. protocol) was another World Champion with a similarly short career, named Jody Scheckter.
I used to see Damon as just a driver who lucked out (which he was). After 1994, I acquired respect for the man, even though I was supporting Schumacher who had had 4 races less between disqualifications/penalties ending up in a Australian GP matching tally. But indeed that 95 season was extremely disappointing: the FW17 was still a wonder on 4 wheels, like the FW14,B 15C, and 16B before her...Hill was #1 in quali, but Schumacher would just trump him in the race every time, now that the Benetton chassis had the same powerful engine. And the Williams pit-stop times were dreadful: when any other team, including backmarkers would manage 7-8s...Williams was at 9-10s, while overtaking was virtually impossible on track. In typical fashion, Damon was racing ahead until the 1st pit-stop window ahead by 2 to 5s m then the Michael would under/over-cut him, and that was that. And to go against what you said in the video: everyone knew Arrows was pure crap: the 92-95 Footwork/Arrows were decent (the 1994 one was the 5th best car on the grid, but more reliable than 4th: McLaren), the 96-97 ones were basically fighting Minardi and stomping Forti. While Tom Walkinshaw tried to pour new life in the team, nobody believed it would be anything but around 15th AT BEST in its 1st year of ownership. The Judd, Yamaha-branded, engine had a 15% power deficit to the 3 best engines. It could only compete with the _client_ Ford Cosworth engines which at least were reliability paragons. Judd engine not so much. I gained huge respect for D.Hill over the years, after learning the in & outs of 1994 and the Newey departure thanks to internet. It would seem the man held the Williams team up in very trying times. Not the best driver, but a very good one still, and quite the respectable guy.
Although a deserving World Champion, Damon Hill (as mentioned in "The Last Team Mate") was aware that Frank Williams and Patrick Head probably didn't think he had what it took to be a lead driver candidate. It seems ludicrous now to some, but when the combination of Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill was announced in 1994, it was the Brazilian who was considered not just the senior driver, but much more likely to achieve success (Senna had 41 wins and 62 poles at the start of 1994 while Damon Hill had 3 wins). I can't overstate how well he drove in 1994. Controversial collision with Schumacher or not, he proved to be a far better driver than anyone thought, contributing to Williams salvaging the Constructors Championship that year. For me, his best win was Japan 1994. Not only did he beat Michael Schumacher in the wet, but he didn't make any mistakes in the tricky conditions and he put a huge effort into the final lap to go into the finale in Adelaide one point adrift of Schumacher. After a tougher, error strewn season in 1995, he proved the doubters wrong for good in 1996, by scoring 8 wins and was a deserving World Champion :)
Damon and Max got really lucky to get such a car after so little time in F1, but I think Hamilton is the probably the luckiest driver ever because his debut season was immediately in the best car on the grid.
Hill helped develop the 92 car. He was well thought of by Paddy Lowe and Adrian Newey and also Mansell for his work. So the 93 car wasn't exactly an unearned gift. ua-cam.com/video/AG3FIaEUbSg/v-deo.html
I feel like both McLaren and Hill shot themselves in the foot. They could’ve offered him a retainer and dropped the race win bonuses a bit, but Hill almost certainly would’ve achieved some wins and earned himself a few million anyway!
If you look at the footage of the Arrows qualifying at Melbourne in this video you can see the major issue the car had. The rear wheels were not parallel. It made the car absolutely insane to drive. They figured this out eventually and that's when things improved.
The great thing about Damon is that he's an ordinary bloke who hadn't had it easy - and that made him an underdog against the greats and thoroughly worthy of our support. I still remember one of his first F1 interviews with Murray "I was pretty pissed-off" he said. The PR people got hold of him and taught him F1-speak pretty quickly! Schumi knew his weak point - respect from other people - and even when paying apparent compliments he was subtly needling Damon about the way he was treated and trying to get him to focus on his salary. Michael was a master at gamesmanship but notably left Mika alone. Michael said that's because Mika was his only worthy opponent but I think Michael also knew that kicking puppies was not a good look and everyone loved Mika after that crash.
Could have won 3 wdc in a row but thanks to the lack of support from Frank Williams and Patrick Head he got at least one wdc. Always the gentleman both on and off the track. Will go down in history as the greatest test and development driver of all time. Once he and Adrien Newey left Williams have since suffered the consequences of their actions.
Great video Aldas mate, super interesting. Would love to see one like this done on Nigel Mansell, one of my favourite drivers of that era but I don’t know much about his overall career
Honestly it is extraordinary because his life as a whole was a roller coaster and that alone made it amazing that he still made it, with that he probs wasnt as polished as most of the drivers with the proper upbringing but had genuine talent that could equal them
Winning with a Jordan and almost winning with an Arrows were incredible feats! Frentzen on the other hand had an unbelievably solid season with Jordan in '99.
@@andyelliott8027 Why should they? Bottling the 1995 championship pissed off frank Williams 🤣. Thank goodness, the 1996 Williams was so superior and Damon had a rookie teammate 🤣. He should be thanking his lucky stars for his 1 world championship.
My introduction to Damon Hill was that his name was an easter egg in Rollercoaster Tycoon, if you named a guest Damon Hill it would make the guest drive a Go-Kart absurdly fast. I was like 7 then. Now I'm a huge F1 fan and know all about him. Funny in retrospect.
It's always hard to say 🙄 who has more talent. But he did it he won the world championship and many saw him as the last gentleman on the F1 grid. I have to say I would have loved seeing him in a McLaren.
Great video of my childhood hero, having met him a few times including Autosport and a book signing really nice down to earth guy and happy to sign two cars and quite chatty. His book Watching the Wheels is a fascinating read into his life and career. In my mind he should have (and probably would have been if today's rules applied) been a two time champion. A great driver and Spa 1998 with his last win is certainly one of my favourite all time F1 races.
Williams' slump in the late 90's was due to Renault withdrawing as an engine supplier. Hill and Newey leaving didn't hurt them. When BMW entered as an engine supplier Williams was very competitive but they were unfortunate to be in an era of Ferrari domination. BMW leaving Williams is what started the actual downfall and pretty much killed the classic Patrick Head/Frank Williams team.
Interesting that Eddie Irvine said he was disgusted by Hill's swerve on Villeneuve, yet Jaques didn't care. Hill had it done to him many times and finally tried it himself. Irvine always seemed bitter of Hill's seat at Williams.
1996 was the first season I got really into F1, I was like 7 years old and cheering on Damon as he challenged for the championship made me fall in love with the sport, I'd watched races before then with my dad but never really been caught up in the drama of the sport until 96. Because of that Damon will always be one of my favourite drivers, I know he's nowhere near the best champion but without him winning the title in 1996 I may never have gotten as in to F1.
I started watching F1 in the summer of 72, So by the time Damon came along I was a massive fan. Damon was and remains one of my all time favourite drivers, in my book Damon Hill is two times champion.
From what I saw in the video, Williams lost faith very quickly in Damon after how the 1995 season went. He was too good to be a mid -card driver for the entirety of his career, but wasn't a solid 1st driver for a top team either. Wish me luck to sleep trying to figure it all out 🤣🤣🤣🤣
This my favourite video you've done. I would love more retrospective looks at the driver's of this era. Maybe HHF next? His career was pretty unusual as well? Or maybe the other Schumacher (Ralf). Either one's story would overlap nicely with the content in this video.
NICE video about my favorite driver 11:19 to be honest something broke in his car at this moment 11:41 he describe this point to the lowest point of his worst season after that he had a good discussion with F. williams, he took a few day's off and he came back as a new man to win in Adelaide. Even F. Williams was surprised 17:30 1999 he said that something disapear him before the season, he should have ended his carreer at the end of 1998. In Suzuka in 1999 he stopt himself with a healty car because he was scared to die his autobiography is very nice to read "watching the wheels"
@windfall Williams considering their drivers as replaceable was a mentality that could have only worked in the 80s and early 90s, where there was a surplus of top drivers inconstant rotation among the top teams. By the time they realised things wouldn’t work that way anymore, it was too late.
I absolutely agree. Damon Hill was not only a great driver but also a true gentleman who always used fair-play. The way he became a champion is almost poethic. He already could have been champion in 1994. In 1995 he was under a lot of pressure. In 1996, he had a teammate who brought to F1 another storical surname with an exceptional talent. Damon and Jacques deserved to become champions through their own talents and they honored even more their fathers names. And, finally, the eagle eye was Sir Frank Williams who made possible those magic years to have happened.
Absolutely loved this video Aldas! So interesting to have a look back at a drivers career like this. Great work 👏👏👏👏 I was a big fan of of Damon Hill back in the day. I remember being 8 years old when Williams and the 1993 European Grand Prix was sponsored by Sega and seeing Damon and Alain hanging out with Sonic blew my Mega Drive loving mind 😂
He did end up getting podiums in over 1/4 of his career starts. That is impressive no matter the driver. Especially so given he spent half his career in sub-par cars.
@14:42 unfortunately there's a strange cut because about 20s of footage had to be taken out because it was randomly flagged by F1, this was a few days after this video was already uploaded which is annoying, so I've kept the video up but apologies for the cut
Ya I tried F1 2016 career made made no sense it was dumb you never really raced anyone it was like go do this on track now go do this etc… maybe there was racing later but I got bored before I got that far I like games like ACC or AMS2 just jump in and race type games I don’t like having to follow a script on a racing game other games like RPG’s and such that’s different but a racing game shouldn’t have a dedicated story line imo maybe like a side quest type thing like ACC’s championship mode, but if you want you can always dial up a custom race and go have fun or do a Sim Grid or LFM race, dunno about the CP servers heard there carnage, some races on ACC pay 10k euros to the wining team *( 500€ for a amateur team 1000€ for a pro team entry fee )*
Damon is one if the most underrated champions there is, and part of that was his smooth driving style which made him look like he wasn't going as fast as he was (same thing with Button). He had, for some reason, dreadful backing from most of the teams he drove for, and that didn't help matters. Newey's backing should have been a clue to everyone, because he's no mug. He was probably the only one who truly understood how well Damon was driving, because he knew that car better than anyone.
His history might shed some light on his need for confidence in the car and team. There's a picture of him as a toddler with his dad and a bunch of top drivers. One was Von Tripps (I can't be sure but I think that at least one other also died on the track. I do stand to be corrected). He personally knew - as a young lad - drivers who died racing.
He was actually more interested in motorbike racing, but his mother didn't like it. The family having been left bankrupt after Graham's death when he was 15, not only did Damon become "the man of the house", as soon as he left a very prestigious school (he is a very smart man!) he had to have 2 jobs (a motorcycle courier and a labourer).
I can't remember exactly when he and Georgie married and had their first kid, but I'm pretty sure that he was married, or at least seriously courting her, during the time that he'd drive a van to the race meetings with the bike in the back. He did drive in whatever formula he could, including tin tops, but for some reason he couldn't get enough sponsorship to race where he wanted to go. I know that they had at least 2 kids by the time he got into F1, and their oldest, Oliver, has Down's Syndrome, which must have been a particular strain when he was young (there are so many potential medical problems which can arise, especially heart problems, so that must have been a real worry).
Betty (his mum) eventually persuaded him to learn how to race cars by remortgaging the family home so he could go to France and a top trainer, and he was considered to be very talented there. This is why he was so much older than his peers - he started late.
His first F1 car was supposed to be a Jordan, but not only wouldn't Eddie pay him, he was expected to bring in something like £70k in sponsorship a year. He naturally had to walk away from that.
Not enough credit is given to him for holding Williams together after Senna's death. The top brass were fighting a court case for manslaughter (I don't think Ratzenberger's team were charged, despite the Italian authorities saying that it was SOP to charge a team if their driver died on Italian soil. Naturally, Senna was world famous...), and Mansell's coming & going was more disruptive to the team than a help. Damon was expected to be the team leader, _and_ coach the rather wayward Villeneuve when he later came on the scene (just as he'd done for Coulthard in '94).
As a die-hard Damon fangirl, I still think he was robbed of his first title. Given his inexperience in car racing, and practically no support from Frank Williams in particular, it was a sign of his ability that it took Schumacher cheating to beat him in Australia (no one will convince me that it wasn't done on purpose, and I have his actions in '97 to back me up). Williams' treatment of him during '96 is something I could never get past.
Anyway, thanks for the video. It's a nice change to hear about him :)
@@shorty808100 your comments belong in a children's play group
@@shorty808100 Off topic. Shut up.
@@y_fam_goeglyd one of the weaker champions as was button.
Honestly Damon Hill is still one of the most intriguing drivers to me. Not even for his driving but just the sheer situations he landed in.
@lmaomoofeq I love Frank but he had a huge ego, they’ve never had a repeat champion despite winning as many as they did. That says A LOT. He couldn’t accept a bad season and he couldn’t admit when he was wrong. He was just always chasing that star, rather than trying to foster a star into becoming a champion.
@@sondosoft4603 True. And I think Patrick Head said something like racing drivers being easily replaceable like lightbulbs.
@@byronthebulb8921 Yeah shows how they sometimes just completely ignore the human aspects of these drivers that he thinks are only like lightbulbs.
@@byronthebulb8921 or even like broken computers sometimes.
@@motorsportfanboy7769 👍👍
This is only the 2nd half of Damon's batshit motorsport career. He was born into wealth as his father was 2x F1 champion Graham Hill. However, Graham died in a plane crash coming back from testing (he'd retired from racing and is running his own team by now.) This plunged the Hill family into poverty. Damon never had any F1 ambition early in his career but wanted to race motorbikes. He raced club races in the South East of England with various levels of success but had to fight for every penny he could by doing odd jobs and motorcycle courriering. His mother became concerned so got one of their racing connections to pay for him to do formula racing school in the south of France but then again, he still had to struggle financially to pay for his racing (he managed to get a Euro F3 drive off his famous surname, remind you of someone!) He was lucky to get the Williams test driver role as he was being payed to drive rather than vice versa. Plus, back then being a test driver meant you drove the car full time at circuits all over the world, racking up thousands of real life, not simulator, miles. That gives you alot better preparation for the riggors of F1 that spending your time in a simulator. Plus, his eldest kid who was born when he racing in F3 is disabled. Imagine dealing with that as well as as following your dream against all odds. Damon is an enigma who should be revered and not mocked. Yes, 97 and 99 were blots on his career but only blots. If he didn't fancy himself as the next Barry Sheene, things might have turned out differently. I think Damon Hill should be looked as a (not an all time) great, not for achievements, although they were great, but for his perserverance.
I would say fame, not wealth. Compared to modern standards, Hill was a household name, but did not come from the wealthy world of business or aristocracy. Graham was relatively self made, being a naval engineer and mechanic, before eventually landing a job with Colin Chapman building and tuning cars for Lotus. And he was well into his 30s. He eventually tested and drove, leading to how we know him today.
But post-death, I don’t think the accrued wealth stuck around. Prior to racing on four wheels, Damon was a motorcycle delivery driver around London, and had to fight to prove his worth on amateur grids before getting noticed. The name only gets someone so far. Though having a godfather like George Harrison to invest in Damon’s career was pretty cool.
@@TeardropSidemarker Langcheck, have u watched the first episodes of Lycoris Recoil yet? For me i only watched the 1st one.
So true. Damon is propably the last of the true gentleman racers.
'he managed to get a Euro F3 drive off his famous surname, remind you of someone!' I actually don't know who you mean cos this could apply to so many people on the grid or recently on the grid.
He just proves that it’s never to late to follow your dreams
While he isn't an all time great, he still is a deserving champion. You don't win 22 races for no reason, especially in such a short career
reminds me of Mika Hakkinens career, i think he started in 93?? and then retired in 2002 ish, like shumi and many others stayed for much longer
@@adrianbrown6739 What was the reason behind Mika's sabbatical and why did he never return? It's always puzzled me.
Nice AAL profile pic
@@myka4337 As far as I can think, well he first started out side by side with Aryron senna , and stayed with the McLaren team his entire F1 career. After winning his two championships, the reliability perhaps was still glooming and after the 2002 season and other Finn would join McLaren and I guess Mika never wanted to join another team and retired
How Hill won races:
Spain 94: Schumi was stuck in 5th gear, Damon inherited the win.
UK 94: Hill won only because Schumi got a lot of penalties and then was DSQ.
Spa 94: inherited the win after Schumi, who actually won, was DSQ.
Italy 94: Main rival was banned, Hill was almost caught by Coulthard but he ran out of fuel.
Portugal 94: main rival still banned. Teammate Coulthard faked running wide to gift Hill the win
Not a boring video. Damon won the World Championship. Once is enough. He followed in his Father’s Footsteps. His Father would have been proud of him.
I haven’t seen any F1 driver come close to supporting as cool a moustache like Graham Hill.
@@iamwhatiam5091 how about Mr. Nigel?
@@antasena6043 👍
@@iamwhatiam5091 Graham Hill still done better.
People highlight 1995 as evidence of Damon being mentally weak, but Coulthard only won one race in that car and also made a lot of mistakes yet he was regarded as one of the sport's up-and-comers. Sure, Coulthard was only in his second season but discounting his two outings in the Brabham in 1992, Hill was only in his third!
I think the fact that his career started so late and that he had success relatively early in it caused problems for him later in his career. He seemed to be percieved as an established driver very quickly so when he made mistakes like those in 1995 people came down on him like a ton of bricks; there was no accounting for the fact that he was only in his third full season having been thrown into a top team and expected to lead it when the previous team leader was killed. I think if he'd been 22 or 23 people would have cut him slack for that but because he was 35 people didn't.
Between 1992-1996, Damon Hill won 21 races. Michael Schumacher won 22 races. Facts.
Given the 94 final race, it could have been an equal number of wins.
Fact? Yes. However, winning 21 races in 4 years at Williams in the best car on the field or winning the same number of races with inferior cars like the Benettons and Ferraris cannot be compared.
@@ConfiUser3 It certainly can be compared. Benetton won the 1995 Constructor's Championship. Schumacher fans love to paint this myth that he had no competition, but that was simply not the case. You realize by saying Schumacher had no competition, by implying that a driver like Hill was "lucky" or "unworthy," you end up diminishing the achievements of your own "hero"? Both drivers had access to amazing equipment over this time period, and both put it to good use. Respect your rivals. You are nothing without them. What you're really perpetuating is the idea that Schumacher's victories were worthless because he had inferior competition. Is that really what you want us to believe? Facts are facts, Schumacher fan. Let's count up the number of wins Schumacher had when he had a car that was the class of the field. You might not like that comparison, either....
@@byronthebulb8921 oh god, i found a smart answer under this comment? Didnt expect this. Nice
@@byronthebulb8921 So your take is that we can compare a driver running with teams that finished 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 1st and 2nd in the constructors against Williams who won in 92, 93, 94 and 96 (and if their drivers wouldn't have choked every time that they had the chance to, they would have also easily won it in 95)? Yeah, this is not me being unrealistic, it's your take bring very brave.
There is no denying that Hill certainly had the faster equipment for the majority of this time period and yet he walks away with the same number of victories as Schumacher in worse equipment. Again, yeah, fact, but not comparable. It makes Schumacher's wins stand out much more (only Herbert was able to also win with Benetton, but both times it came through Hill punting out Schumacher) while Hill winning looks more like another Williams win (13 more Williams victories through Prost, Mansell, Coulthard and Villeneuve). Hill wasn't a bad driver at all, he wouldn't have been with a top team for four seasons and wouldn't achieve a world title if he wasn't at least half decent. And if you wouldn't compare it, 21 wins in 4 years might sound mighty impressive. But the fact that someone had the same number of victories in weaker cars and also won two titles in that period compared to Hills 1, with Williams winning 5 of the 8 titles in that period, more wins, more poles, and so on... Sorry mate, but it doesn't make Hill look that outstanding.
And the way Aldas explained it with Dennis offering him a contract with no payment except if he wins, it seems I'm not the only one who wasn't that impressed with Damon.
If he was that good, he would have had contract offers left and right when there was the chance for 97 or 98, yet he basically had no other option than to run for Arrows and Jordan. Sure, his advanced age probably was a factor as well, he had an approaching expiring date, but then again look at Alonso who makes his age look like a simple number.
Another comparison: When Hill had dominant material, he still had to fend off Coulthard or Villeneuve and in 1996 he needed to go into the last race to clinch the title. Once Schumacher had as dominant cars as Hill had, there was absolutely no fight in the title run as he would often win double-digit amount of races these years. And when he had second-rated cars, he was still able to take these cars into title deciders and, like in 94 and 95, win them.
So where exactly is the comparison that the Schumacher fan would not like?
I'm a Damon fan. He was as worthy a champion as anyone. In 94 he picked up and lead the team after Senna died, I don't think he gets enough credit for this. It mirrored his father who lead Lotus after Jim Clarke died.
I have a pre season magazine from 94 which reviews the teams and drivers and it says of Damon that Senna has had more talented team mates but few more determined. Determination is a strength of course but you also need skill which Damon had. I was gutted when he lost the win in Hungary, he deserved it.
Graham was already a World Champion when Clark died, and had 11 years in F1, so the task of leading the team wasn't much of a step up for him.
Damon had 23 Grand Prix starts and 3 victories. He'd previously only been a number 2 driver.
Aldas: "This was a masterclass on how to bottle a Championship in a brilliant car"
2022 Ferrari: hold my beer
I actually feel bad for Leclerc this year
Ferrari 2017* and 2008* we’ll see how it goes this year
McLaren 2007 : "are you sure about that?"
@@Pleymo1992 Mclaren 2012 want to know ur location
Another interesting fact about Damon is that he's the only modern driver I can think of who never raced karts. He dabbled in motorcycle racing as a kid but when he switched to cars he pretty much jumped straight into F3.
Well Martin Brundle didn't either
@@terrystevens5261 essentially banger racing
Damon Hill is one of the most underrated drivers/champions ever in f1. He always seemed to be a teams backup or fallback option when they needed a driver. Despite this he still won 22 gps and 1 (arguably 2) World title. He never properly had a team built around him, like all the great drivers mentioned around him. The Williams he drove was first built for prost, then for sena. Schumacher had benetton build a car around him, then whole team when he went to ferrari. This is also how Hamilton has won so prolifically. He was groomed by mclaren from the age of 11, had a team built around him in each division of motorsport, before having the full f1 team when he got there. Until eventually moving to Mercedes and again having a team built around him as no1 driver. There can't be many drivers that would even win a gp coming into f1 the route Damon did, let alone become a word champion. In my eyes, a true f1 great, and a worthy world champion 🏆
14:27 whilst Villeneuve was an F1 rookie, it must be remembered that he'd spent 2 seasons in CART and was the reigning CART champion and Indy 500 winner, so he wasn't a complete rookie to top level motorsport.
Yup and back in an era where they were way more similar than they would be again. Plus he knew alot of the tracks, one of the biggest reasons why they swap doesn't often work.
@@realMaverickBuckley and he had thousands of miles of testing in the FW16 and FW17 during 1995
it's funny as watching the 93' season (my second year as an F1 fan) when I was a kid, Damon's age never seemed to be an issue - I thought it was the norm. It's funny how our perceptions have changed in recent years. He was a gentlemen of the sport and I think he deserved his championship. Luck was a factorm but when isn't it?
Of course it was a deserved champion, no doubt. Schumacher fan for ever.
Yep, good luck has to be accepted just as gracefully as bad luck.
Age wise, yes, it was the norm to hit f1 about your mid 20-s or later. Looking at the best drivers of the 80s and 90s they were at their peaks in their 30's and raced into their 40's.
Damon is one of my favorite drivers ever. I can only compare him with Carlos Reutemann, entering the circus in his 30s, making absolute miracles, and sometimes being betrayed by his teams, same that happened to him at Williams, happened to Reutemann in 1981 when his contract, although still ongoing, was changed for 1982 to be perhaps a test driver contract's salary while developing the car. The history on Damon and how his life went down after Graham's death, and how he managed to live during those years until he had the chance, makes him a total respectable person, driver and i'm pretty sure he deserves a movie based on his life, no doubts about that. He had, perhaps, an odyssey of a life until his retirement. MEGA MEGA driver.
Adrian Newey praised Hill coz he knows how much Senna's death affected Damon Hill who had already gone through his father's death which was by a crash and how he handled the situation while also fighting for the championship against Micheal Schumi.
And Hill is Bri’ish
There's also parallels with how his father had to galvonise Lotus after Jim Clark's death.
@@chuala428 you do know he part red bull who only had 1 British driver ever right
Man this was amazing. There’s sort of an annoying thing in F1 of wanting everybody to be a “great”, whatever that means. I feel it really takes the gloss of extremely good drivers who maybe don’t reach that upper echelon of Schumacher, Prost, Senna, Hamilton, Verstappen. Not everybody can be them. And we should appreciate drivers like Damon, Valterri, Carlos and others a lot more.
Damon was and still is severely underrated. He raced against the best and had Prost, Senna, Mansell, Villeneuve, Coulthard, HHF & Ralf as teammates. Literally nobody had better in their career IMO and he only lost to Prost in his first full season and Heinz Harald when he couldn't be bothered anymore. Legit top driver 👌 great person too 👏
Would love this to be a series about past champions!
vouch
Hell yes! I want him to do Jacques Villeneuve next.
@@motorsportfanboy7769 I’d love a James Hunt vid!
@@motorsportfanboy7769 Josh Revell already did that
@@NicotineRosberg I know but that's from his perspective and what he thinks of Jacques. Now it's time to hear what Aldas thinks of him.
Damon can hold his head high for what he achieved in his career , sure there was some ups and downs but the record books show he was an F1 world champion and that will never change…
I always thought Damon was a good driver but under enormous pressure. Granted he made some crazy errors that seemed to happen totally unexpectedly. Frank Williams probably added to the pressure. In today's F1 I feel Mick Schumacher is like a modern day version of Damon. A Dad who was a F1 hero, starting the F1 career in a poor car in a team with uncertain finances. The way Frank went about sacking Damon did indeed totally destroy the trust between Frank & Adrian who is in my opinion the best design guy ever to grace F1. It's been sad to see the tortured slide backwards of Williams.
he could have also driven for McLaren . after being fired from Williams
@@nathanjansen2695 for free - a typical Ron move there.
Also I think Patrick Head had issues with him
Damon Hill is one of the most underrated of all time, had he started his career at a normal age I think he would have been at least double world champion.
Some say he should’ve been a double world champion after Australia 94 anyway
Yeah he had horrendous luck.
@@mrsomeone846 nah, he was literally helped by the FIA that season by giving Schumi race bans mid season
@@stepladder3257 he got race bans for ignoring black flags…
Which is blatant rule breaking, albeit on team orders, but still they gave him a deserved penalty for what he did.
Secondly he didn’t get any punishment (not even get a fine) for deliberately causing a collision, hardly the actions of people favouring Hill.
@@mrsomeone846 schumacher didnt ignore anything.the team didnt tell him to come in because they were in talks with the officials for the issue.
as for the 2 race ban there wasnt 2 race ban punishment rule at that time for ignoring the flag.it was a punishment special delivery for schumacher.
the one who caused the collision was damon hill.he was at the car that it was behind and he was the one who forced the move and tried to pass in a corner that he wasnt his.
Damon Hill... yeah, he is without a doubt one of the most intriguing drivers for me.
On his good days, he was on par with Schumacher. There are not many drivers that can say that about themselves.
However, his good days were rare and he had to rely on a dominant Williams. Some performances were just utterly shambolic. And when he lacked motivation he was miles off his team mate.
He was impressive in 1993 winning 3 races. He was impressive in 1994 for putting up a fight with Schumacher, even though Schumacher and especially Benetton were very stupid in GB and unlucky with the DSQ in Belgium. In 1995, Hill was very underwhelming to say the least. He had a more dominant car than in the year before, but made so many silly mistakes that you really had to ask yourself what he is doing at the top team. In 1996 he has absolutely no competition except his rookie team mate... who still gave him a fight to the season finale. 1997 was in a bad car again with the obvious highlight in Hungary and another point score. In 1998, it was a discrete season until Spa. And 1999... was very weak.
I never saw him as a legitimate threat to great drivers like Schumacher or Häkkinen who could walk on this level much more consistently and I even give Villeneuve more credit due to him being a rookie when he competed against Hill. However, due to him already being 31 when he debuted, one needs to ask himself what could have been if he could have started his career earlier than in 1981. He was in constant financial struggles due to his fathers death, the family was in debt for long, and he had to work in the meantime to finance his career. So making it in F1 is already a big achievement, let alone a championship title.
So, all in all, Hill achieved quite a lot for the little time he was in F1. Sure, lucky enough to have been under Frank Williams' wing and therefore in dominant cars for years. But he was there when he had the opportunity for the championship and took it. Not an all-time great, surely not the best world champion, but a pretty solid driver.
Hill was very good at setting up a fast car, sticking it on pole, and then winning from the front.
If you asked him to do anything else, he was bobbins.
Someone stated : "a normal driver with the most wonderful destiny"
Should have been 94 champ.
Bennetton and schumacher should have been thrown out never to return.
@@Ahito1984 The description I remember (I think it may have been James Hunt or Martin Brundle) was 'a test driver who got lucky'.
Also worth remembering the '94 Williams was a very difficult car to handle due to active suspension being banned. It was not the same car Prost enjoyed. Even Senna said as much and struggled with it in the few races he had that season.
But 95/96 Hill did make a few too many errors and you can't really blame Frank for wanting a safer pair of hands.
Damon Hill, to me, is a particular kind of legend that deserves more respect. Not because he was the greatest driver of his era.
He won the F1 title while secretely dealing with depression issues. His entire driving career he was secretly dealing with depression.
Imagine waking up everyday by fighting every bit of your body and mind that just wants you stay in bed, that your mind make you think that you are just lost and still somehow find a way to go to the gym, talk to engineers, drive a car to the limits, and winning something as difficult to win as the F1 drivers championship. That this career make no sense now make perfect sense given how depression works, sometime.
The inner struggle is real.
Is he of the like of Schumacher? No. He is something completely different.
Schumacher was the best of his era.
But it doesn't mean tha Hill wasn't an excellent driver and meritorious champion.
Hill World Champion 1996
And besides his mental health issues that arose from losing his father at the age of 15, he also had a son with Down syndrome. Michael Schumacher had both his parents living and no children on his own (until 1997) in the era.
This actually makes a difference.
An apple is not a pear. A pear is not an apple.
6:14 Seeing Senna jump on Mansell's Williams reminds me of the story of how after the 'friendly' drive back to the paddock, Senna immediately went to the McLaren engineers and sketched out everything he saw regarding the cockpit and displays. Senna was an absolute Legend!
you mean a rat. he was not a legend. he is only a legend because he died. Senna today would be more petty than Nelson Piquet ever was.
So my old man’s claim to fame so to speak, is that in ‘92 while Mansell was being swamped, he ignored the Williams and jumped on Hills nose cone to celebrate him finishing the race as he was a Brabham fan.
Although drunk, he recalls the look of “WTF” in Hills eyes… true or not I don’t know but makes me chuckle
That drive in the Arrows in Hungary was pure brilliance !
Hill was my favourite driver in the mid 90s. It was a better time in F1 as it was on free to air tv BBC then ITV and no toxic f1 fanbase. Whatever anyone thinks about Damon Hill now he was a hero to me as a 10 year old and don't forget he was the last British world champion until Lewis Hamilton in 2008
To have your test driver times compared to Mansell - Hill was often quicker, shows speed and set up understanding. Then to have a race seat in which Prost, Mansell, Senna, Coulthard and Villeneuve are team mates is exceptionally tough - three of them multiple WDC. And then to find Schumacher as his main foe (in a car that was found illegal on repeated occasions) was another challenge. Then to live through the death of Senna and pick the team up (just as Graham Hill did after Jim Clark at Lotus), could have stopped him in his tracks - yet he was close to his first WDC before Schumacher crashed him out. What he achieved is remarkable and he deserves his championship.
How many times you'll say "he now also had grand prix experience as well?
Aldas: YES.
I`m about the biggest Damon Hill fan you will find. I will admit he isn`t the best driver of all time but watching him win the championship aged 10 is one of my favorite f1 and sporting moments in general of all time.
I was the same age and he was the first driver I remember watching win the world championship
@@DjDolHaus86 I was 7. I remember my father waking me up at 4 in the morning to watch that race.
@@wibbers01 I must have watched a replay or highlights because I don't remember being up really early in the morning? Long time ago now though and I only have fragments of childhood memories but I remember watching races on a sunday and him lifting the trophy
@@DjDolHaus86 For early morning races they had race replays/extended highlights at the same time the Euro races would have started. My dad and I were big motorsport fans at the time. My earliest memories were watching Mansell in IndyCar on Eurosport on a satalite pointing towards 14 degrees Astra and the F1 with Ben Chilton and Jon Watson and Ben Edwards.
@@wibbers01 Ahh I see, that's what I must have watched, I remember the races being on sunday afternoons and because it was a pre internet time you didn't have to stick your head in the sand to avoid spoilers all day. My dad had a passing interest in sport, the only thing we watched religiously was the BTCC during the super touring era.
@11:20 the spin in Germany that year wasn't Damon's fault, it was later revealed to be a technical issue.
Partial failure/seizure of one of the rear left wheel bearings.
Does anyone else feel remember that every crash with Schumacher happened when Damon was overtaking him.... never when MSC was overtaking Damon... racing fairly & giving space was what Damon did... too nice ??!
Yeah as someone who was a following F1 fan even back then, Damon was always known as Mr Nice Guy. A British Valteri Bottas. Schumacher was known as a hard nose. And... I know since his crash this is unpopular but , he was also known as unsportsmanlike, some said even worse.
(Not my opinions before I get flamed)
Sacking a World Champion and Adrian not getting part ownership are a perfect example of why Frank Williams destroyed his own team.
I think it’s interesting to wonder what he might have achieved if he had started younger, and had more backing from his bosses. Average drivers don’t perform moments of magic, let alone a world title.
You summed it up well in saying he could be amazing as well as awful, but, isn’t that to be expected in such an inexperienced driver, against the calibre of driver at the time?
And people have to remember that theyre saying dude sucks.....at the highest level of motorsport, which is quite laughable really, just shows how disconnected with reality people can get when you only consume media or facts about life through a screen.
Damon was the first driver I was a real fan of - I love the number 0 as a race number also
Jacques Villeneuve’s career is even more of a roller coaster.
If by rollercoaster, you just mean the starting hill. *1994 IndyCar Rookie of the Year and 1 win *clickity-clack*, 1995 IndyCar Champion, Indy 500 champion, and 3 more wins during the season *clickity-clack*, moves straight to Williams and wins 4 races and nearly the World Driver's Championship in 1996 *clickity-clack*, wins 7 races and the World Drivers Championship in 1997 *clickity-clack*, has one more season with Williams that ends with only two podiums and 5th placed in the standings and *whooooosh** continues straight downhill from there.
@windfall 3 first years of Villeneuve and Hamilton were very similar. Just imagine if Hamilton moved to HRT, Lotus or Virgin for 2010, then It would be so similar
I'm lucky to have met Damon Hill a few times between roughly 93 and 96 if I remember rightly, particularly at Silverstone in 93 for the British GP. I was very young and I barely spoke to him but I remember him being very nice but also very quiet and not at complete ease during the public scrums, but seemed a very nice bloke, he's always been a hero of mine.
What an evocative story. Many don't know this but when Graham Hill crashed, his instrument ratings weren't up to date so the insurance didn't pay out. I remember reading a small item, buried deep in the sports section, that said Graham's widow Bette sold his trophies to partially pay off the many claims against the estate. Damon grew up in genteel poverty and later worked s London motorcycle courior.
When, against all odds, Damon won the WDC he did more than restore the Hill family fortune. He restored their honor. "And now, I've got a lump in my throat... "
Worth pointing out Damon was also the test driver for Williams in 92 too. So he was being dominated in a Brabham that was a shitbox, and testing and helping the best team on the grid.
Also he had to step up in 94, as well as we F1 fans know
He certainly qualified more then Giovanna Amati (who's sponsorship fell through and got him a seat) and Eric Van Der Pole (who was much more experienced then him and was in theory the team leader). That car was a shitbox that Mansell or Senna would've only qualified 2 or 3 times that year. Got to love it's late season colour scheme though, a stupidly pretty car.
Considering how late Hill got into car racing after a reasonable motorbike career, combined with his lack of money, Damon did spectacularly well.
I still think his best ever win was Belgium 93, in his first full season (I’m discounting 92 as that car he drove was a milk float and could barely qualify for a race) he beat, in a straight fight Schumacher, Prost and Senna.
I was at that race. I was a big Nige fan and was gutted that he wasn’t racing in 93 but Damon did an admirable job in filling Mansell’s shoes for British fans.
Damon was my man in the mid 90’s. He was a favourite of everyone in our household, because of his grit and sheer will. Whoever mocks him do it out of jealousy.
I think Damon is one of the most underrated & most interesting F1 champions.
Adrian Newley said in his autobiography that the engineering feedback from Damon Hill contributed greatly to the development of the FW14b, and Mansell’s championship year in 92.
People often disregard Damon for not being as talented & fast as Schumacher etc, but appreciate how important a skill (a) developing & (b) setting up a car is. If you can steer your team in the right direction and make a car a few tenths quicker that way, you don’t need to drive as flat out to win.
In his first full F1 season he was teammates with Prost, and did not embarrass himself (had a lot of bad luck that season, should have won many more than 3 races).
In his second full F1 season he was teammates with Senna and briefly with Mansell, and again he was pretty damn good against them. Under current rules Schumacher would definitely have been disqualified for cheating at Adelaide, and Damon could (should?) have been champion in 94.
Ok, Damon was terrible in 95, but how much better would he have been if he had the confidence of being the reining champion? I feel the 95 annus horribilis was due to a loss of confidence from how 94 ended. The stress of Senna’s death hasn’t exactly disappeared either, because by this point the team was being accused of manslaughter by Italian authorities, which affected Damon massively too.
Damon was champion in 96. Newey said in his autobiography that the way Damon was sacked by Patrick Head & Frank Williams was why Newey left the team. Adrian Newey rated & respected Damon’s approach a lot.
97 Budapest & 98 Spa were awesome, it’s then a shame how his career fizzled out, however he achieved a lot despite coming to F1 in his 30s from 2 wheeled racing (instead of karting) and being the last of the F1 drivers who didn’t brake with their left foot.
what do you mean he didn't brake with his left foot ?
@@nicholastaylorson yes, almost certainly amongst the last F1 drivers to still brake using his right foot!
Damon hill is one of the most underrated and most unlucky at the same time. He was robbed in 1994 by Schumacher dirty tactics. He's 2x world champion in my view.
Senna would crush Hill, as happened in that 1994 season. The difference between the two was colossal, just look at the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix (Senna pole with an advantage of over 1.5 seconds and even went advance to Hill).
Correct. Hill should have two world titles and Schumacher six. Schuey should have been disqualified like he was when he tried the same trick on Villeneuve in '97.
*Overrated. Damon should F1 Champ in 94 & 95 but he made a couple of mistakes. Even JV IMO is a better driver.
@@andyelliott8027 Hill is completely at fault for Adelaide 1994.
@@Qsrjeiwjwj 🤣🤣🤣
His career was a messy roller coaster but well, he deffo has been a quality
This reminds me of watching "Moneyball." Hill's career feels like he was one of those guys who produced great results but some of the old experts didn"t think he had the subjective "great qualities" they looked for. And maybe some people thought Damon Hill wasn"t a close enoough copy of Graham Hill?
His fight with Schumi was awesome esp how dignified he was considering the way Schumi won it.
Damon Hill winning the title even knowing he was going to be sacked showed how much he loved racing. He did it for himself and wasn't going to let his future stand in his way. David and Goliath incarnate.
If Hill had converted those retirements from the lead in GB and Germany in 93 he would have lost the title to Prost on count back alone. If Schumacher hadn't crashed into him at Adelaide and his car held together to the finish he would have won in 94. He finished a third of his races entered on the podium. He won in midfield machinery twice (almost.) Had things gone slightly differently we could be looking at a three time world champion having started car racing as an adult and F1 in his thirties. A truly remarkable driver who has never gotten the respect he is due, persevering through personal tragedy after personal tragedy, financial struggle, and a decades late start. He turned himself into a world champion beating the likes of Jacques Villeneuve, David Coulthard, and Ralf Schumacher (two top 10 drivers of the late 90s and early 2000s) and outpacing Jos Verstappen in equal machinery by over a second a lap in testing at the age of 40! Very fast, didn't quite have the race craft or mentality of the greats but given his circumstances you'd hardly expect that. Imagine the driver he'd have been with the finances and his dad alive to guide him through a car racing career from the start. That Damon would have had 3 championships, maybe 4. But alas he is human, he is just a man. He is the Stan Wawrinka, the Andy Murray of F1, not as good as the gladiators but the best of the non-superhumans.
Note: Hill outqualified teammate Diniz in Hungary by 2.1 seconds, his teammate was in 19th on the grid. He out qualified Ralf by 8 tenths in Spa '98 (3rd on grid vs 8th) he deserved that win more regardless of the controversy.
Great vid Aldas. You’re becoming one of the best F1 channels. Others are using clickbait and bs content. Your content is good and well thought out. Keep’em coming!
Damon Hill seems to be one those those guys you may meet down the pub and have no ego. Well done, Damon!
I think one of the reason he was rated lowly was because he have the great Hill name. Being the son of a world champion, we can see how sons/nephews of world champion not really rated highly. Nelson Jr., Nico at the first stints of his career, Bruno Senna, Michael Andretti, and now Mick Schumacher, are some to be example of.
Never forgiven Williams for dropping him in 96, and as you explained in the video eventually lead to their demise. Newey like Damon had too much integrity to stay at the team.
I always enjoy your videos, but this one was next level quality. A very to the point recap of Hills carreer, but still with a great attention to detail. Would love more videos like this!
I remember my first season ever of F1 watched with my dad in full, I remember watching live Sena's death and F1 passing from that thing my dad just keeps talking about with all those old names, Fitipaldi, Fangio, etc and me becoming addict to that thing (and go karting), but most specially I remember that my first ever F1 favorite pilot was D.Hill and I loved his character and how connected I felt as I was one of those alienated (by society itself) kids, being always bullied for being different, he fighting and winning over M.Schumacher, that was as inspiring as it was Kurt Cobain or Rodney Mullen, those were the heroes of my childhood.
Damon doesn't get the level of credit he deserves. Came to the game late, scratched and clawed for opportunities despite his famous last name, played his part in developing Mansell's championship conqueror, beat Schumacher head-to-head in a monsoon, took Jordan's first ever win. Anybody who doubts he had the talent should watch Hungary '97.
What a rollercoaster of a time Frank Williams was known to be ruthless when it comes to drivers. Hill lost his dad he lost his teammate. lost his job and later on was getting death threats from Schumacher fans but he still managed to take the world championship.
Hill and Jenson are two are my all time favourite driver’s
Same here. Lewis is an stuck up fool.
Great vid. Looking back on past champions entire careers is def a good idea. We so often forget what becomes of these guys after and hell even before their legendary championship runs that we remember.
Never the greatest but definitely a decent driver. Wins the prize for one of the nicest F1 drivers
Damon Hill. Just a class act all the way around. Great video, keep up the good work.
Also... "Imagine you fight for your titles against Michael Schumacher himself, and almost winning *twice*"
Damon Hill is my favorite F1 driver of all time. While I still enjoy watching F1 immensely, to this very day it just doesn't feel the same as it felt while he was competing.
In a sports world that requires perfection at every step along the way, he was always that fallible human being who could make silly, unforced mistakes (Germany 1995) and yet achieve inconceivable results against near-impossible odds (Suzuka 1994, Hungary 1997, Belgium 1998). To this day, I admire this ordrinary man who performed an inordinary feat in F1.
As "Legacy" drivers go, he wasn't by far one slowest. In fact I think he was a pretty good driver in his own right, but always haunted by the "ghost" of his father. Either way, it's always great to see him when he shows up on TV doing interviews. You can immediately tell that the current drivers have massive respect for him.
Yep I agree, also worth noting in the space of two seasons he had Prost (some very close 2nd places helped Mr Prost) Senna and Mansell as teammates who were all past masters at drawing the best resources in the team to them. Throw in the fact he must’ve known he was viewed as second fiddle to anyone else that walked in the door, that’s got to take its toll on you mentally. All of that while fighting the Benetton who had the whole team behind their lead driver. He could’ve coined the phrase “not bad for a number two driver” decades before Mr Webber. I think a big part of why people that like him do so, he’s a good bloke, a bit like Mr Button, Mr Brundle, Mr Herbert etc you’d definitely have a beer with him and be glad you did.
31 year old rookie?
Alonso: "hold my beer "
7:36 surely Hamilton starting at McLaren when they were the best car is more similar
There are a lot of driver that are underrated. He is the perfect example of it I think one of the biggest underrated guy in modern F1.
Damon Hill was a fantastic racing driver from the get go, the way he set the cars for racing a GGPP was very much in the same level as Prost. Yes, he was not as quick in the qualification as others, and he had crisis of confidence, but he was a very good value for money. He probably should have driven for Mclaren, because with that machinery, he would have won in '98 no question. His move to Arrows did not make any sense at all.
That whole 1993 pre-season was wild. It should be mentioned, that Mansell leaving Williams F1 to race in the Indy 500, though largely about money, was also because he had a bad experience with Prost as a teammate in '90, and that Williams wasn't willing to guarantee Mansell the no. 1 driver spot, despite being the World Champion.
Damon Hill, who technically replaced Riccardo Patrese, had his car labeled #0 instead of #2, as Williams wasn't able to use #1 due to Mansell's departure (as per numbering protocol 1974-1995, the winning driver was always given #1 and teammate #2, but #1 couldn't be given if the Drivers Champion retired from F1, and if team was also Constructors Champion). This meant that Damon Hill would end up having the #0 for two seasons, as Prost would leave Williams in '94. The only other driver to run #0 (albeit pre 1974 no. protocol) was another World Champion with a similarly short career, named Jody Scheckter.
I used to see Damon as just a driver who lucked out (which he was). After 1994, I acquired respect for the man, even though I was supporting Schumacher who had had 4 races less between disqualifications/penalties ending up in a Australian GP matching tally.
But indeed that 95 season was extremely disappointing: the FW17 was still a wonder on 4 wheels, like the FW14,B 15C, and 16B before her...Hill was #1 in quali, but Schumacher would just trump him in the race every time, now that the Benetton chassis had the same powerful engine. And the Williams pit-stop times were dreadful: when any other team, including backmarkers would manage 7-8s...Williams was at 9-10s, while overtaking was virtually impossible on track. In typical fashion, Damon was racing ahead until the 1st pit-stop window ahead by 2 to 5s m then the Michael would under/over-cut him, and that was that.
And to go against what you said in the video: everyone knew Arrows was pure crap: the 92-95 Footwork/Arrows were decent (the 1994 one was the 5th best car on the grid, but more reliable than 4th: McLaren), the 96-97 ones were basically fighting Minardi and stomping Forti. While Tom Walkinshaw tried to pour new life in the team, nobody believed it would be anything but around 15th AT BEST in its 1st year of ownership. The Judd, Yamaha-branded, engine had a 15% power deficit to the 3 best engines. It could only compete with the _client_ Ford Cosworth engines which at least were reliability paragons. Judd engine not so much.
I gained huge respect for D.Hill over the years, after learning the in & outs of 1994 and the Newey departure thanks to internet. It would seem the man held the Williams team up in very trying times. Not the best driver, but a very good one still, and quite the respectable guy.
Until you meet him in real life and you realise he is extremely rude, (yes talking from experience).
@@terrystevens5261 was a prick to many people at goodwood 😂😂😂
Although a deserving World Champion, Damon Hill (as mentioned in "The Last Team Mate") was aware that Frank Williams and Patrick Head probably didn't think he had what it took to be a lead driver candidate. It seems ludicrous now to some, but when the combination of Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill was announced in 1994, it was the Brazilian who was considered not just the senior driver, but much more likely to achieve success (Senna had 41 wins and 62 poles at the start of 1994 while Damon Hill had 3 wins).
I can't overstate how well he drove in 1994. Controversial collision with Schumacher or not, he proved to be a far better driver than anyone thought, contributing to Williams salvaging the Constructors Championship that year. For me, his best win was Japan 1994. Not only did he beat Michael Schumacher in the wet, but he didn't make any mistakes in the tricky conditions and he put a huge effort into the final lap to go into the finale in Adelaide one point adrift of Schumacher.
After a tougher, error strewn season in 1995, he proved the doubters wrong for good in 1996, by scoring 8 wins and was a deserving World Champion :)
Damon and Max got really lucky to get such a car after so little time in F1, but I think Hamilton is the probably the luckiest driver ever because his debut season was immediately in the best car on the grid.
Hill helped develop the 92 car. He was well thought of by Paddy Lowe and Adrian Newey and also Mansell for his work. So the 93 car wasn't exactly an unearned gift. ua-cam.com/video/AG3FIaEUbSg/v-deo.html
I feel like both McLaren and Hill shot themselves in the foot. They could’ve offered him a retainer and dropped the race win bonuses a bit, but Hill almost certainly would’ve achieved some wins and earned himself a few million anyway!
If you look at the footage of the Arrows qualifying at Melbourne in this video you can see the major issue the car had. The rear wheels were not parallel. It made the car absolutely insane to drive. They figured this out eventually and that's when things improved.
The great thing about Damon is that he's an ordinary bloke who hadn't had it easy - and that made him an underdog against the greats and thoroughly worthy of our support. I still remember one of his first F1 interviews with Murray "I was pretty pissed-off" he said. The PR people got hold of him and taught him F1-speak pretty quickly!
Schumi knew his weak point - respect from other people - and even when paying apparent compliments he was subtly needling Damon about the way he was treated and trying to get him to focus on his salary. Michael was a master at gamesmanship but notably left Mika alone. Michael said that's because Mika was his only worthy opponent but I think Michael also knew that kicking puppies was not a good look and everyone loved Mika after that crash.
Could have won 3 wdc in a row but thanks to the lack of support from Frank Williams and Patrick Head he got at least one wdc. Always the gentleman both on and off the track. Will go down in history as the greatest test and development driver of all time. Once he and Adrien Newey left Williams have since suffered the consequences of their actions.
Great video Aldas mate, super interesting. Would love to see one like this done on Nigel Mansell, one of my favourite drivers of that era but I don’t know much about his overall career
Honestly it is extraordinary because his life as a whole was a roller coaster and that alone made it amazing that he still made it, with that he probs wasnt as polished as most of the drivers with the proper upbringing but had genuine talent that could equal them
Winning with a Jordan and almost winning with an Arrows were incredible feats!
Frentzen on the other hand had an unbelievably solid season with Jordan in '99.
Starts career pretty late, loses championship, wins championship next year, and then gets booted from team
They couldn't pay a champion's salary, or wouldn't.
@@andyelliott8027 Why should they? Bottling the 1995 championship pissed off frank Williams 🤣. Thank goodness, the 1996 Williams was so superior and Damon had a rookie teammate 🤣. He should be thanking his lucky stars for his 1 world championship.
He did an amazing job and is one of my favourite drivers ever.
My introduction to Damon Hill was that his name was an easter egg in Rollercoaster Tycoon, if you named a guest Damon Hill it would make the guest drive a Go-Kart absurdly fast. I was like 7 then. Now I'm a huge F1 fan and know all about him. Funny in retrospect.
It's always hard to say 🙄 who has more talent. But he did it he won the world championship and many saw him as the last gentleman on the F1 grid. I have to say I would have loved seeing him in a McLaren.
I think Button was equally a gentleman
Great video of my childhood hero, having met him a few times including Autosport and a book signing really nice down to earth guy and happy to sign two cars and quite chatty. His book Watching the Wheels is a fascinating read into his life and career. In my mind he should have (and probably would have been if today's rules applied) been a two time champion. A great driver and Spa 1998 with his last win is certainly one of my favourite all time F1 races.
A pleasant chap and reasonable guitarist too, his band was Damon and the Conrods
Williams' slump in the late 90's was due to Renault withdrawing as an engine supplier. Hill and Newey leaving didn't hurt them. When BMW entered as an engine supplier Williams was very competitive but they were unfortunate to be in an era of Ferrari domination. BMW leaving Williams is what started the actual downfall and pretty much killed the classic Patrick Head/Frank Williams team.
I agree it was loss of BMW that did it. Having Nortel sponsorship wasn't a good omen either! 😀
16:20 love to see Jaques V giving Damon respect and love for that amazing drive at Hungary
☮️❤️🎵🌍🤗🏁
Interesting that Eddie Irvine said he was disgusted by Hill's swerve on Villeneuve, yet Jaques didn't care. Hill had it done to him many times and finally tried it himself. Irvine always seemed bitter of Hill's seat at Williams.
Uncle Damon will always be a hero in my life 😇🙏❤
1996 was the first season I got really into F1, I was like 7 years old and cheering on Damon as he challenged for the championship made me fall in love with the sport, I'd watched races before then with my dad but never really been caught up in the drama of the sport until 96. Because of that Damon will always be one of my favourite drivers, I know he's nowhere near the best champion but without him winning the title in 1996 I may never have gotten as in to F1.
I started watching F1 in the summer of 72, So by the time Damon came along I was a massive fan.
Damon was and remains one of my all time favourite drivers, in my book Damon Hill is two times champion.
Great video! Please do more such videos of old Formula One driver. Feeling very nostalgic.
From what I saw in the video, Williams lost faith very quickly in Damon after how the 1995 season went. He was too good to be a mid -card driver for the entirety of his career, but wasn't a solid 1st driver for a top team either. Wish me luck to sleep trying to figure it all out 🤣🤣🤣🤣
This my favourite video you've done. I would love more retrospective looks at the driver's of this era. Maybe HHF next? His career was pretty unusual as well? Or maybe the other Schumacher (Ralf). Either one's story would overlap nicely with the content in this video.
I like him as a commentator very honest and just says what he is thinking.
I started watching F1 as a kid when Damon had his prime and he's always had a place in my heart since then.
He would be a 2 time world champion if Schumacher didn’t do a Schumacher
NICE video about my favorite driver
11:19 to be honest something broke in his car at this moment
11:41 he describe this point to the lowest point of his worst season
after that he had a good discussion with F. williams, he took a few day's off and he came back as a new man to win in Adelaide. Even F. Williams was surprised
17:30 1999 he said that something disapear him before the season, he should have ended his carreer at the end of 1998. In Suzuka in 1999 he stopt himself with a healty car because he was scared to die
his autobiography is very nice to read "watching the wheels"
Damon’s manager asked for more money HHF was signed after that
Williams handling of their star assets may well have been a significant factory in want happened to the team in the new millennium
@windfall Williams considering their drivers as replaceable was a mentality that could have only worked in the 80s and early 90s, where there was a surplus of top drivers inconstant rotation among the top teams. By the time they realised things wouldn’t work that way anymore, it was too late.
Damon Hill also seems like a genuinely good guy...
I absolutely agree. Damon Hill was not only a great driver but also a true gentleman who always used fair-play. The way he became a champion is almost poethic. He already could have been champion in 1994. In 1995 he was under a lot of pressure. In 1996, he had a teammate who brought to F1 another storical surname with an exceptional talent. Damon and Jacques deserved to become champions through their own talents and they honored even more their fathers names. And, finally, the eagle eye was Sir Frank Williams who made possible those magic years to have happened.
Absolutely loved this video Aldas! So interesting to have a look back at a drivers career like this. Great work 👏👏👏👏
I was a big fan of of Damon Hill back in the day. I remember being 8 years old when Williams and the 1993 European Grand Prix was sponsored by Sega and seeing Damon and Alain hanging out with Sonic blew my Mega Drive loving mind 😂
Could You Do A Video on Jenson Buttons Prime In F1? Thanks love the Videos keep it up.
His career looks like a narrow bell curve. Huge highs and huge lows
Maximised all opportunities he was given and for a non karter done extremely well.
The guy was an F1 World Champion. Enough said. No one can say he wasn't good.
In Hockenheim 95 he had a mechanical failure, thats why he spun
He did end up getting podiums in over 1/4 of his career starts. That is impressive no matter the driver. Especially so given he spent half his career in sub-par cars.