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Series 2011 - Episode 47 - Damon Hill, OBE

Aired - 30 November 2011

Episode summary:

With the 2011 F1 season finally at an end, we talk live in the studio with the 1996 World Champion, Damon Hill. The son of Graham Hill, OBE, the double World Champion who also won the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours, Damon began his motor racing career relatively late and far from Prevailing Wisdom. Eschewing karts, Damon excelled on motor bikes before switching to Formula Ford and then Formula 3. It took a while for the establishment to recognize Damon as a great talent in his own right but the chance came with Sir Frank Williams in 1993, when Damon parlayed a Williams test contract into a full-time race drive. He was instantly on the pace of his esteemed team-mate, Alain Prost, and that year not only won his first Grand Prix but also the two that followed, giving him an amazing, opening hat-trick. Damon helped to steer the Rothmans Williams Renault team through the loss of Ayrton Senna in 1994 and thereafter fought closely with Michael Schumacher's Benetton, culminating in the infamy of Adelaide, 1994, when Schumacher drove into Hill when the World Championship was at stake. Damon received full payback in 1996, when he not only started every race from the front row but also won eight Grands Prix and the World Championship. Damon should have won in Hungary for Arrows in 1997 but did score one final victory for Jordan - in the wet at Spa, 1998, giving him a total of 22 wins, 20 poles and 19 fastest laps. Now recently retired as President of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC), and from playing a pivotal role in the status of Silverstone as the British GP venue, Damon is now actively behind the career of the third generation of Racing Hills - his son, Josh. Fast in Formula Ford and Formula Renault, Josh, like Damon in the late 1980s, is at that time in his career when nothing is certain but everything seems there for the taking.

+ Series 2011