Caption correction: Photo of Graham Hill is GP Library Limited/Alamy Stock Photo. Blame the people who used to live here. They were visiting next door and dropped by to say hello
Damon feeling he needed to put the Hill name back on the map, plus all he witnessed up to that point, REALLY nails in the context of Murray Walker having a lump in his throat! 🥹
Stop blaming others and own your mistakes already! 👹 I've read Hill's book, a recommendation for every fan of the sport indeed... if you're worried about the mold, it's also available as ones and zeroes. (save the trees!). ;)
Betty, his mum, actually remortgaged her house to pay for his car racing lessons in France. Given the bankruptcy, that was a brave thing to do. He's got a fantastic family; his sisters and mum, and his wife and kids, and he took over the responsibility for his mum & sisters after his dad died. He's a way better racer than many give him credit for. He's a real gent. His sense of honour and duty is comparable to any mediaeval knight: maybe greater because he had a better understanding of the world around him. I'm still a Damon fangirl and proud of it!
Damon holds a special place in the history of F1 because of his story. Incredibly likable ( not that I've ever met him) going against the arch enemy, recovering from 94. Recovering from losing his dad. A good man.
I met him at the Silverstone GP in 93 and again during testing in 94 and he was very humble and nice but a little shy, though I was only in my teens and quite shy myself! He seemed a lovely bloke overall to be honest 😊
Hungary 1997 was up there with Japan 1994 as Damon's best race. He might not have been on the level of a Schumacher, Senna or Prost but he is a lot better than people give him credit for. I'd argue Damon leaving was the beginning of the end for Williams. The brutal reality is they replaced a World Champion with someone who was nowhere near and getting rid of Damon hacked Adrian Newey off because he wasn't consulted.
I wasn’t a Hill fan at all but the 97 Hungarian GP was probably one of the best drives I had seen. As a kid, I couldn’t be bothered with the commentary team gushing over him while The Micheal was the bad guy and the young Scottish guy was ignored… so Mika was my hero! 🤷♂️😂 As I grew up, I started to appreciate the situation going on behind the scenes with Hill, it’s a miracle he even bothered. Losing AN ruined Williams, looking back it was such a stupid situation for Williams to get themselves into considering all the options they had. It was so out of character the way they treated Hill and Newey and they’ve paid for it ever since
@BW_87 it was the first race for 12 year old me. I 'knew' Damon from playing Grand Prix 2 on my computer. I was gutted. Had Damon won that day, Schumacher could've finished 2nd in Jerez and still win the WDC.
On the Williams thing, I'd say sort of but not really. In my opinion at least, Williams' demise was out of their heartless attitude towards EVERYONE that ever set foot into any of their cars, which eventually caught up with them. Even at their peak, their biggest problem was that there was never any stability with drivers in that team to develop the car and team relationship, just a constant hire-n-fire and treating drivers like inanimate objects. Mansell was the only driver that stayed with Williams for a consistent period of time. I dare even suggest that Williams would only ever have been known as another garagista midfielder if Mansell hadn't stuck with them for years. Williams should have committed to SOMEBODY after Mansell left. They should've told Senna and Prost respectively at the end of 1992 that unless they're going to be committed for at least 3 seasons and not entertain the idea of retirement, then they can gtfo and make way for new talent that will. If not Senna or Prost 1993-1996+, then Hill or Barrichello or Alesi or Hakkinen or any of the HEAPS of promising new talent of the early/mid 90s, take your pick. On that note as well, they shouldn't have taken the piss with that Alesi contract keeping him in the dark for months until he signed with Ferrari out of frustration. I think essentially being the 'Renault factory team' in the 90s masked their mismanagement, exactly how being the 'BMW factory team' in the 00s masked their mismanagement. I know I sound like I'm slagging off Williams here, but I say all this out of frustration towards their stubbornness and the resulting decades of flying backwards that could have been prevented with team management that wasn't deluded with granduer. I've always been a Williams fan, but with time and being in this era of endless extended podcasts of drivers and team members looking back retrospectively and opening up about what went on behind the scenes, I just feel embarrassed for the mentality Frank Williams and Patrick Head have. Even the Martini/Massa-resurgance era had potential if handled better, and now they are somehow worse than Minardi ever was!
@@solitaryclusterofneurons598 This is an interesting and well considered point. Franks Williams and Patrick Head were very much men of their time - and their inability/refusal to change is ultimately what did for them. They were very much a 'pull yourself together and get a backbone' sort of a motivator, whereas modern thinking accepts that the human mind is somewhat more nuanced than that. The trouble is they never moved with the times, and managed to suck the spirit out of Hill, and alienated the best designer they were ever going to have because they simply could not bring themselves to work in a way that wasn't how they had always done it. Rather than pondering 'what ifs' about single decisions like the sacking of Damon, I think we need to accept that this was probably always going to happen, simply because the management had been out-evolved, and we never going to be the sort to catch up. It was inevitable
Damon’s exit from Williams is one of the biggest what-ifs of F1 for me. His exit was one of the biggest things that prompted Adrian Newey to walk away from Williams and eventually contribute to their back marker status of today. If Hill had stayed, I think Newey would’ve stayed into the 2000s, and that would’ve completely changed the outcome of those years. Imagine what the grid would’ve looked like in the 21st century if The Michael had to go up against a Williams team that had BMW engines, in Adrian Newey designed chassis’s, with the likes of Jenson Button and Juan Pablo Montoya driving them.
I think Michael would have not had so easy time winning titles, more than likely would not have the 7 titles, maybe 6 or 5, depends on how things would change
Adrian leaving wasn't *because* Damon left it was the manner in which it happened. If Frank and Patrick involved Adrian in the process it may not have stung so much. I believe Adrian had itchy feet and had been talking to others since the end of 95 regardless so Damon departing was a good excuse regardless of what his novel says.
@@MattMoran66 spot on. I didn’t really express it properly in my original comment, but you’re right. Hill’s departure, or more specifically, the way he was booted from the team, wasn’t THE reason Newey left, but it was definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back. If Williams and Head had swallowed their pride and given Newey a proper seat at the table, then things would have turned out much differently for them.
@@nickyjames1985 What if they _hadn't_ signed Senna, even. Would Prost have been there for another three years, and where would Senna have ended up? Might Prost have ended up with another 2-3 championships?
To be fair to him he was very honest about his emotions and his feelings. It's not something that's talked about a lot in men in general, let alone racing drivers. Keeping that motivation and confidence for so so long. Nico burnt himself out fighting Lewis, Seb realised enough was enough. They both have families and kids.
The red light comment was really eye-opening and the whole situation is very interesting. It's one of the rare occasions that a (world class) racing driver just... stops being a racing driver in an instant with his mind saying ''I cannot do it anymore''. Not in the ''I'm fed up'' sense, but in the ''I cannot cope with driving at that speed'' one. It's like he never was a racing driver. I don't know if I'm making mych sense here, it just hit me in a strange way.
Damon is my personal all time favourite F1 Driver, he may not have the records of Schumacher, Hamilton, Senna, Verstappen etc. But he was The guy at the time when I was growing up and staying up to see him win the 1996 Title will always stick with me. I would also see him regularly at BTCC Meetings when his son was racing in Ginetta Jrs.
Can we just appreciate how often Mr Millward posts? Absolutely amazing, massive respect for the dedication to the craft. High quality content and truly fast output, really rare!
I must admit that I was really puzzled when Damon went to Arrows, but then Hungary 1997 came along and I almost cried when he didn't take the win, he deserved to win that race, he really did. I always liked him and after what I've seen and read about him I even more respect for him for what he accomplished. Excellent video!
Interesting fact: Alan Jones (1980-1981), Keke Rosberg (1982-1983) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997-1998) were the only Williams drivers to defend their titles in a Williams. Nelson Piquet defended his 1987 title at Lotus in 1988. Nigel Mansell didn't defend his 1992 title, defecting to America and CART. Alain Prost didn't defend his 1993 title after retiring at the end of that year. Damon Hill defended his 1996 title with Arrows in 1997.
Actual fact: Frankie Bastard never gave a sh*t about his drivers. He always thought his cars had no stink and any half trained hominid could win because....
@@jordanclark4635 ... It shows the year they won the title and the following year in which they defended it. e.g. Alan Jones won in 1980, defended it in 1981 Its not hard to understand.
I love his quote on his first Williams test, he took some laps and when Patrick asked what he thought he just said "is brilliant, best car I've ever driven". That wasn't what Patrick Head wanted to hear haha
No matter who he drove for, they never were really confident in his abilities and he accomplished a whole lot more in a short span than a lot of drivers have in 20 years
at the time damon wasn't rated all that highly in the f1 circle. but looking back and in context, the guy is amazing. starting racing cars so late and winning in the way he did. fantastic talent and person.
That year at Arrows and the first season at Jordan, Damon showed how good he really was, Hungary '97 remains one of the best drives I've ever seen. He admits that he mentally checked out before the '99 season started and in this game, that's obviously going to drastically affect performance.
My red light came on on a fire in Nothern California in August 2014. I had been hanging my ass out for almost 40 years and it was getting worse, not better. I got back to the hanger, turned in my cards, hung up my spurs (I had actually bought a pair years before for just this situation), and drove home. Haven't missed it one day since.
I was crestfallen when he signed for Arrows. I knew he would be lucky to score a point. The opening race was horrendous. Hungary was heroic! With hindsight Williams really didn’t do well by him by leaving him in the dark re ‘97 until it was too late to get another drive. 1999 was disappointing and with hindsight he maybe should have retired at the end of ‘98… but easy for me to say, it wasn’t my contract.
Hill’s time at Brabham is interesting. He technically drove for the last single car team, and also drove in the last pre-qualifying session to date. I wonder how it must have been going from the FW14B to the BT60B. He did allow Brabham to go out on a high, qualifying for their last race in Hungary.
He was already putting in a lot of hours at Williams by then, so it must have been odd to go from the most technically advanced car on the grid to a manual gearbox back marker. Still, a drive's a drive, and he probably enjoyed himself.
I feel like Damon Hill is the Dave grohl of racing. You can't hate the guy you have to almost feel a little bad for him. And his achievements seemed that much more impressive because you know what he's been through
There was a time, I believe, Frank Williams liked to discard drivers because in his mind whomever drove his car would win. Then he made a massive blunder by "discarding" Adrien Newey (the goose that laid the golden eggs for him) by not treating him as he should have been treated, so he chose to leave, marking the beginning of the end for Williams, with a mild revival under Pat Symonds. Regardless, I feel Damon Hill got the short end of the stick with FW, and he deserved a lot more respect from him, as Newey did as well. Sadly, the end for Frank Williams and his team was very melancholic and depressing, with back of the grid cars and pay drivers that were just awful. What a sad contrast from the early 1990s, when drivers were treated like secondary items from his cars. Talk about "complicated career end..."
My dad loved F1, but I was a bit young to get it. I really took notice when Ayrton died. That weekend is etched into my soul. Damon Hill quickly became my first hero in F1. Thanks for this great video. I read bits of these stories before, but there was also a lot I didn't know before. ❤
What you said towards the end about watching your dad's friends and himself die really makes sense. I grew up surrounded by bike racing and my dad died racing in the TT at the Isle Of Man and when I say the fact that I can't count on two hands how many dead racers I know lives rent free in my head, I mean it. I love motorbikes and racing more than anything, and I was genuinely keen and working up the courage to start until a couple years ago when I crashed my first little learners bike on my way to work. It was not a bad crash at all, I just slid along the road and tore my ACL, but lying on the tarmac I was genuinely frozen with fear with all the thoughts of my dad. It might have meant nothing to someone else, and it definitely hasn't put me off owning and riding motorbikes, but it really just made me think, do I want to feel that terrified every time I crash? It takes a lot of courage to get on a bike and race it but I definitely have a huge respect for anyone who calls it quits because they're just not feeling it anymore.
Hill is difficult to place. Sometimes he was absolutely brilliant, like in Hungary 1997, but he could be mediocre as well. Like Frentzen, his mood and motivation played a big role in how well he performed.
Covering Damon's F3000 stint could be an interesting video. You say his junior career was checkered but in F3000, and in particular when at the Middlebridge team, Damon was one of the fastest drivers in the series but also suffered some of the worst luck in the series too, whether it was unreliability, getting involved in someone else's accident etc etc
Awesome video, thank you Aidan! Damon was my favorite driver of the era and he proved he was an amazing driver in Hungary '97 when he nearly won in an absolutely horrible car! Thanks again mate, awesome stuff 👍🏻❤
Yeah the age thing is highly underrated. If Graham lives Damon gets the same entry point as say Nico does and he probably has a vastly different career.
I was thinking this Just after the video finished, what could have been if he was able to race in single seaters some years earlier, the many hours more of practice specially without restricted testing would do wonders, he might have left early over the trauma of seeing many drivers his father raced with dying but would still be completely different
The first F1 race i attended was the last race his dad won in an F1 car. Daily Express International at Silverstone in 1971. probably the reason i have been a Hill fan ever since.
He forgot to mention Mario andretti as someone who won 2 of the three for the triple crown by winning the 69 Indy 500 and the 78 world championship. And like JV, he also finished second at lemans in 1995 by finishing first in class which is somewhat of a win, but second overall.
Mika didn't hit the wall of champions. He won that race. Which was the first time a grand prix had finished behind the safety car after Frentzens accident. Ps love your videos, always watch
The book is fascinating to read. I admired Damon before as I knew some of his background but the book really does explain a lot of his thinking. His trials and tribulations as a courier rider whilst trying to stringing together a racing career is inspirational. He was not the best racer of his time but he was smart and seemed to know a thing or two from test driving cars
2:07 speaking of triple crown, did anyone see the q3 laps between Alonso and Max? Alonso had triple crown in his hands for majority of lap and max slipped ahead .00something seemingly against the laws of physics. So close. Breaks my heart
Why oh why are there not multiple videos by this guy? They are always hugely interesting and chock full of seriously important content. Whoaa . . .hold the phone. . .that isn't a sufficiently world beating accolade, his videos are brilliant!
Other examples I can think of are Alan Jones in 1981 and Jenson Button in 2011. Both were excellent seasons despite their respective title winning campaigns being behind them.
@reichsfuhrermonika6469 Oh I disagree, it's inconceivable how he failed to win the 2005 championship in the rapid MP4-20 and his incredible Japan victory the same year as well makes '05 for me Kimi's best.
Honestly this video puts into a whole new perspective in his career because for me as a fan in the early 2000s it was always weird that one of the first men to beat Schumacher had completely abandoned the F1 sphere
Always a pleasure when Damon pops up on the Sky broadcast. A nice complement to the younger former drivers (Ant, Karun) and eloquent on the long arc of F1. But it’s never about him, despite the ways he could make it so. My F1 dream would be to sit in a pub with him and Jenson, wind them up, and just listen.
Damon was pretty fickle, and Williams with the likes of Frank and Head most certainly wasn't the place for him. Which firing him two years in advance and not letting him know about it proved, a ghoulish move.
@@mets137781a team that deserves zero sympathy from anyone the way they used to treat drivers then ran the team into the ground ( while the family managed to pocket a tidy sum for their own safe keeping).
@@jamsstar2010 except it WASN'T him it was Newey that made the difference. Newey leaving had alot to do with how frank treated Damon. So he decided to turn mclaren into winners again, basically turning Williams into the backmarker team they are today. Karma 😂
I got the book the moment it was released. Along with Brundle's Working the Wheel it's one of the best autobiographies in racing. Crazy that, but for Michael being Michael, Damon could've been double WC and still shipped off to Arrows. I don't think he got enough credit at all. He was fast, but not tippity-top tier, and was successful through hard work and diligence. It's not like Villeneuve or HHF were better options either. Hey ho. Racing is not a meritocracy.
Greta video, I am also a Damon Hill fan. Agree about the how it seemed odd him going to Arrows at the time. I have the book and i need to read it, i would be particuarly interested in how one of his sons having Downs Syndrome worked with being and F1 driver, and laterly BDRC heaveyweight and pundit as when he wa not racing and not doing the new things he was and perhaps still is a carer
on "Life at the Limit": I read the Sid Watkins book when I was about 10 (an aunt was treated by him after a fall, and got a signed copy). Kind of extraordinary with hindsight; it sort of alternates between graphic descriptions of medical interventions trackside and the party stuff. I should revisit that. "If (possibly?) Nigel needs to go, will you put out a brown flag?" sticks in the memory.
I'm not a Damon fan at all, but him knowing when to walk away will always have my respect. Unless you're absolutely committed you can hurt not just yourself but other people. Being able to accept The End and move on takes a lot of emotional awareness. I will similarly always respect the hell out of Rosberg's retirement. Being able to understand that winning & beating Lewis took absolutely everything he had, and that it was something he didn't need to do again, again shows great self-awareness.
Damon really bares his soul in his book. I doubt you could get much emotionally deeper into his head if you were his therapist. He lets us all the way in.
The Arrows contract will no doubt have had bells and whistles on it… it was Tom Walkinshaw after all. It probably also made him the Head of Catering for a V8 Supercar team with addition payments to soften the blow of driving a shtbox 😂
It's a pity that moment of Damon lobbing it up the inside of Frentzen at the final corner in Japan was not captured on broadcast. The funny thing is he didn't actually have to do that to secure 4th in the championship as the team would have still beaten Benetton on countback anyway. Probably the last time that Hill really showed determination and still had "the muse"
I think people who say he was a coward for quitting like he did really do not understand what it must take to be an F1 driver. Also, why was Damon quitting any worse than Hakkinen, Vettel, Schumacher or whoever else quitting? If they come out with the "he parked a perfectly good car" as their answer, well so did Niki Lauda when he thought his life was at risk. Damon knew he was no longer the driver he was because his heart was no longer in it. He did not want to put himself or others at risk. Eddie Jordan has to take a lot of responsibility for the way it all ended. Yes Damon had a contract, but any team owner with any ounce of decency or just common sense would realise it is better to end the contract, instead of forcing their driver to stay or threaten legal action. Firstly because he should realise if a drivers heart isnt in it their is now risk, and also because it will affect that drivers performance. If Eddie had let Damon go and replaced him with another driver, ,maybe they could have taken second in the constructors championship which would mean more money.
I was talking to someone at a Star Trek convention of all places a few years ago and the subject of Damon came up. He said that the Jordan mechanics (he was a B&H rep) didn't like working with DH and felt he was there to get the money. i thought that was a bit unfair, esp if you read Damon's book and he was fighting depression at the time.
Damon did hold together the Williams in '94, when most drivers would have crumbled, and nearly won that championship, even though Schumacher had a huge headstart. Then in '97 he nearly won in an Arrows, which would be the same as Magnussen or Hulk winning in a Haas, and not in rain. Everyone was still on the track. He got into F1 at 32, not 17 or 18, or even 23. Some people retire from motorsport at 32.
Damon was a great racer. I was a Williams fan back in the days, and when they didn’t sign him up after his world title, I told myself Williams was going to go down, because, we all due respect to Sir Franck Williams, it was a sign of his inability to effectively balance the risks versus the rewards of any opportunity. He may have had it in the 70s and 80s, but by the early to mid 90s, he no longer had it. By choosing Frentzen over Hill, and as good as Frentzen was, he chose a maybe over a sure thing. You just never do that, especially when the stakes are that high. Williams had a good year with Villeneuve, but a year later or two after sacking Hill, Sir Franck chose to confirm his buddy Pat Head as technical director over giving the job to Newey, who then went on to McLaren, and we all know what happened next: The next great F1 battle could have been Williams vs Ferrari, but instead it was McLaren versus Ferrari. And Williams went down hill (no pun intended) from there. But the sacking of Hill was the first sign of the major mismanagement by Sir Franck Williams himself.
6:21 - That would have been a decent deal as it happened indeed ;) - Ron was one who really wanted you to buy into his vision without question. Remember he wanted something similar from Adrian Newey - when Adrian pointed out he wasn't going to wait forever for him to retire , they fell out also (hence matrix management). I remember very well Damon's1999 as a nine year old watching his first full season of F1 and I felt he was a waste of a perfectly good seat especially later in the season (imagine if they still had Rubens Barrichello or Jean Alesi instead...). But reading his book years later , and with the stuff he's had to deal with it's quite bad that something wasn't sorted to let him go and put someone else in that Jordan. Another incident - not mentioned in this video but I remember in Hockenheim (when Salo was leading for a while) he retired a healthy car because he couldn't get on with the feel of the brakes and was scared of them failing on an extremely high speed track (more so than Monza).
I'm stunned that he didn't go into sportscars after F1. Much safer cars, and I think it would have suited his driving style a lot more. Or even Touring Cars if he didn't want the 200mph speeds anymore.
I would love to see you cover Piquet. Given that he is a 3 time WC, he feels very overlooked among his peers. Yes, he is a dick, but from the little I know he had an interesting career and was clearly very talanted
Early/mid 80es Piquet was a menance and from all the 3 times champions, he and Brabham are probably the ones talked about least. He got overshadowed by the Prost Senna rivalery and the laters death in the end, and being an absolute ass about everything certainly doesn't help.
@@Edelweiss1102 People don't remember that Piquet was regularly mentioned among the all-time greats (with Fangio and Clark) after his second championship win.
Mate, paying 17% on your mortgage in the late 70s and early 80s wwas a breeze compared to today. 17% of a small number is much less than 5% of a big number. 3:27
As a life long Williams fan - at least in their original guise - there has always been a certain level of criticism of how Frank and Patrick with 'driver selection'. Much I believe stems back to Alan Jones. For many Jones' was Williams and in Mid 1981, Jones was having thoughts of retiring, but eventually told the team and the factory that he would be staying... He didn't. Throwing Carlos' eventual retirement in the mix, I think Williams wanted to be in control and not be caught out again. Frank was generally the guy in charge of drivers and money, with Head in charge of the technical side. The brilliant Keke Rosberg may be lauded upon now, but Frank tried to trade him to another team mid way through his Championship Year in 1982, though Frank never told him. Keke found out from a team member 18 months later and felt betrayed. That is the main reason why Keke left in '85 at the end of his contract. The team and driver has never been made public, other than Keke stating it would not do his reputation to say who this was. Moving forward to Hill, Damon's massive underperformance was understandably a concern and where Frank went wrong is if they wanted to go with Heinz, he should have brought in for '96, not '97. Obviously the biggest mistake of all was losing Newey. Frank and Patrick had previously breached an agreement with Adrian regarding being consulted on drivers and engines. Mansell's contract had been torn up in favour of Coulthard - Newey said Nigel would have won the WDC in '95 - Jacques had also been signed without notifying him and then they did it again with Damon. It was the final straw for him and one the team never recovered from.
So i am working a little project, and i have had to do research on Cevert, Clark, Collins... It has been an utterly depressing few weeks... I love motorsport but when you get hit by - well just how many young people lose their lives in it.. it does leave you a little numb and sick.
How is what Damon doing considered chickening out?! Look back at history! Many drivers, world champions in fact, chickens out or have the thought to. Lauda got back for the fight with Hunt after his massive death stare at the Nurburgring and when the final race was at Fuji in Japan where he's just one podium away from the whole title against Hunt, he felt that it was just too stupid to relive all the pain he had received in the same conditions as before in Germany thus he bailed and let Hunt win, knowing for a fact that he can get it back next year and also, he gets to live another day. Senna prior to his death also had that situation and Senna one was much worse. Senna saw Barrichello nearly losing his life before him during the qualifying session of that unfateful event during the San Marino GP in 1994 and then actually saw Roland Ratzenberger being killed the following next qualifying shook Senna alot as he was reported to have been crying uncontrollably by the chief medic of F1 at that time, Sid Watkins who then told Senna to leave the sport but Senna replied that he had that thought but he can't stop racing as he loved it too much despite the sheer danger it has. If he was to follow what Sid had proposed, he might not have died and the irony of it was he even got back on good terms with his rival, Alain Prost who at this point had retired, to talk about setting up a new safety organization to push for a more safer environment and equipment for drivers in the sport towards the FIA. This proved he too was sacred as he was known to be ballsy as fuck and having no qualms at all at taking others and himself out just to retain points and if he has to set a group up like that, you know he's suddenly turning weak after watching one near death and an actual death right infront of him. What Damon did was justified. Not all drivers are fearless and if you're not ahead, time to get out and not kill yourself and anyone else.
I saw Damon at Magny Cours in 199?, at the hairpin he had a haze off his tyres, no locking, no letting it open up and get wide. I just when "that is skill"
There is a problem in that "fear theory" because i remember few times when Damon Hill was really fast, aggressive and didn't hesitate to take risks. More like sometimes the other drivers feard him.
I wonder if Hill has ever talked to Kevin Harvick in any detail - Harvick being the one who had to take over Dale Earnhardt's car after he died. Nascar and F1 are very different, but I bet they could relate to each other in some ways.
Damon Hill's most famous scene in Hungary was when Laci Palik exclaimed in his iconic voice: "Where did Damon Hill go?" Of course he said that in Hungarian. What happened is that the cameras didn't watch Damon when he finished at 2nd place.
Caption correction: Photo of Graham Hill is GP Library Limited/Alamy Stock Photo.
Blame the people who used to live here. They were visiting next door and dropped by to say hello
Damon feeling he needed to put the Hill name back on the map, plus all he witnessed up to that point, REALLY nails in the context of Murray Walker having a lump in his throat! 🥹
Stop blaming others and own your mistakes already! 👹
I've read Hill's book, a recommendation for every fan of the sport indeed... if you're worried about the mold, it's also available as ones and zeroes. (save the trees!). ;)
“I just wanna talk to him”
@@aoife1122then that’s plastic and silicone…
Betty, his mum, actually remortgaged her house to pay for his car racing lessons in France. Given the bankruptcy, that was a brave thing to do. He's got a fantastic family; his sisters and mum, and his wife and kids, and he took over the responsibility for his mum & sisters after his dad died.
He's a way better racer than many give him credit for. He's a real gent. His sense of honour and duty is comparable to any mediaeval knight: maybe greater because he had a better understanding of the world around him. I'm still a Damon fangirl and proud of it!
If I remember rightly George Harrison had a hand in it as well.
@@AidanMillwardGeorge Harrison has proved to be a financial angel, first Monty Python then the Hill's.
@@AidanMillward😮😮😮wow❤
His mum died seven years ago.
Damon holds a special place in the history of F1 because of his story. Incredibly likable ( not that I've ever met him) going against the arch enemy, recovering from 94. Recovering from losing his dad. A good man.
I met him at the Silverstone GP in 93 and again during testing in 94 and he was very humble and nice but a little shy, though I was only in my teens and quite shy myself! He seemed a lovely bloke overall to be honest 😊
Hungary 1997 was up there with Japan 1994 as Damon's best race. He might not have been on the level of a Schumacher, Senna or Prost but he is a lot better than people give him credit for. I'd argue Damon leaving was the beginning of the end for Williams. The brutal reality is they replaced a World Champion with someone who was nowhere near and getting rid of Damon hacked Adrian Newey off because he wasn't consulted.
Hungary 97 was the first race I really remember watching live, was so upset as a 10 year old when Damon lost the lead right before the end 😢
I wasn’t a Hill fan at all but the 97 Hungarian GP was probably one of the best drives I had seen. As a kid, I couldn’t be bothered with the commentary team gushing over him while The Micheal was the bad guy and the young Scottish guy was ignored… so Mika was my hero! 🤷♂️😂
As I grew up, I started to appreciate the situation going on behind the scenes with Hill, it’s a miracle he even bothered. Losing AN ruined Williams, looking back it was such a stupid situation for Williams to get themselves into considering all the options they had. It was so out of character the way they treated Hill and Newey and they’ve paid for it ever since
@BW_87 it was the first race for 12 year old me. I 'knew' Damon from playing Grand Prix 2 on my computer. I was gutted. Had Damon won that day, Schumacher could've finished 2nd in Jerez and still win the WDC.
On the Williams thing, I'd say sort of but not really. In my opinion at least, Williams' demise was out of their heartless attitude towards EVERYONE that ever set foot into any of their cars, which eventually caught up with them. Even at their peak, their biggest problem was that there was never any stability with drivers in that team to develop the car and team relationship, just a constant hire-n-fire and treating drivers like inanimate objects. Mansell was the only driver that stayed with Williams for a consistent period of time. I dare even suggest that Williams would only ever have been known as another garagista midfielder if Mansell hadn't stuck with them for years.
Williams should have committed to SOMEBODY after Mansell left. They should've told Senna and Prost respectively at the end of 1992 that unless they're going to be committed for at least 3 seasons and not entertain the idea of retirement, then they can gtfo and make way for new talent that will. If not Senna or Prost 1993-1996+, then Hill or Barrichello or Alesi or Hakkinen or any of the HEAPS of promising new talent of the early/mid 90s, take your pick. On that note as well, they shouldn't have taken the piss with that Alesi contract keeping him in the dark for months until he signed with Ferrari out of frustration. I think essentially being the 'Renault factory team' in the 90s masked their mismanagement, exactly how being the 'BMW factory team' in the 00s masked their mismanagement.
I know I sound like I'm slagging off Williams here, but I say all this out of frustration towards their stubbornness and the resulting decades of flying backwards that could have been prevented with team management that wasn't deluded with granduer. I've always been a Williams fan, but with time and being in this era of endless extended podcasts of drivers and team members looking back retrospectively and opening up about what went on behind the scenes, I just feel embarrassed for the mentality Frank Williams and Patrick Head have. Even the Martini/Massa-resurgance era had potential if handled better, and now they are somehow worse than Minardi ever was!
@@solitaryclusterofneurons598 This is an interesting and well considered point. Franks Williams and Patrick Head were very much men of their time - and their inability/refusal to change is ultimately what did for them. They were very much a 'pull yourself together and get a backbone' sort of a motivator, whereas modern thinking accepts that the human mind is somewhat more nuanced than that. The trouble is they never moved with the times, and managed to suck the spirit out of Hill, and alienated the best designer they were ever going to have because they simply could not bring themselves to work in a way that wasn't how they had always done it.
Rather than pondering 'what ifs' about single decisions like the sacking of Damon, I think we need to accept that this was probably always going to happen, simply because the management had been out-evolved, and we never going to be the sort to catch up. It was inevitable
Damon’s exit from Williams is one of the biggest what-ifs of F1 for me.
His exit was one of the biggest things that prompted Adrian Newey to walk away from Williams and eventually contribute to their back marker status of today.
If Hill had stayed, I think Newey would’ve stayed into the 2000s, and that would’ve completely changed the outcome of those years.
Imagine what the grid would’ve looked like in the 21st century if The Michael had to go up against a Williams team that had BMW engines, in Adrian Newey designed chassis’s, with the likes of Jenson Button and Juan Pablo Montoya driving them.
I think Michael would have not had so easy time winning titles, more than likely would not have the 7 titles, maybe 6 or 5, depends on how things would change
Adrian leaving wasn't *because* Damon left it was the manner in which it happened. If Frank and Patrick involved Adrian in the process it may not have stung so much. I believe Adrian had itchy feet and had been talking to others since the end of 95 regardless so Damon departing was a good excuse regardless of what his novel says.
@@MattMoran66 spot on. I didn’t really express it properly in my original comment, but you’re right. Hill’s departure, or more specifically, the way he was booted from the team, wasn’t THE reason Newey left, but it was definitely the straw that broke the camel’s back.
If Williams and Head had swallowed their pride and given Newey a proper seat at the table, then things would have turned out much differently for them.
Williams have all the What ifs in F1
What if Alesi, what if Senna and so forth
@@nickyjames1985 What if they _hadn't_ signed Senna, even. Would Prost have been there for another three years, and where would Senna have ended up? Might Prost have ended up with another 2-3 championships?
To be fair to him he was very honest about his emotions and his feelings. It's not something that's talked about a lot in men in general, let alone racing drivers. Keeping that motivation and confidence for so so long. Nico burnt himself out fighting Lewis, Seb realised enough was enough. They both have families and kids.
You want real (brutal) honesty? check out Brian Redman's 'Daring Drivers,Deadly Tracks'
If DH had won in the Arrows his career would be next level. Winning in 3 different cars is special
The red light comment was really eye-opening and the whole situation is very interesting. It's one of the rare occasions that a (world class) racing driver just... stops being a racing driver in an instant with his mind saying ''I cannot do it anymore''. Not in the ''I'm fed up'' sense, but in the ''I cannot cope with driving at that speed'' one. It's like he never was a racing driver.
I don't know if I'm making mych sense here, it just hit me in a strange way.
Urm not really?😅
Damon's intelligence and sensitivity were on show at the end.
Damon is my personal all time favourite F1 Driver, he may not have the records of Schumacher, Hamilton, Senna, Verstappen etc. But he was The guy at the time when I was growing up and staying up to see him win the 1996 Title will always stick with me. I would also see him regularly at BTCC Meetings when his son was racing in Ginetta Jrs.
I remember staying up for Suzuka 96 too, a memorable race!!
Can we just appreciate how often Mr Millward posts? Absolutely amazing, massive respect for the dedication to the craft. High quality content and truly fast output, really rare!
Yeah he’s really on it all the time, and his videos are well researched and thoughtful.
The last race at Suzuka really touched me. Takes an incredibly brave person to see beyond their own fears…
Finally some Damon hill Content. He's the only driver who gives me hopes of becoming a racing driver as after all 🌝
I must admit that I was really puzzled when Damon went to Arrows, but then Hungary 1997 came along and I almost cried when he didn't take the win, he deserved to win that race, he really did. I always liked him and after what I've seen and read about him I even more respect for him for what he accomplished. Excellent video!
Interesting fact:
Alan Jones (1980-1981), Keke Rosberg (1982-1983) and Jacques Villeneuve (1997-1998) were the only Williams drivers to defend their titles in a Williams.
Nelson Piquet defended his 1987 title at Lotus in 1988.
Nigel Mansell didn't defend his 1992 title, defecting to America and CART.
Alain Prost didn't defend his 1993 title after retiring at the end of that year.
Damon Hill defended his 1996 title with Arrows in 1997.
Jacques is a single world champion, Hakkinen won 98, 99
edit: was your post a troll?
Actual fact: Frankie Bastard never gave a sh*t about his drivers. He always thought his cars had no stink and any half trained hominid could win because....
@@jordanclark4635 It shows in which year they defended the title.
@@jordanclark4635 ... It shows the year they won the title and the following year in which they defended it.
e.g. Alan Jones won in 1980, defended it in 1981
Its not hard to understand.
@@Holden308 yeah Williams had a habit of letting champions go
I love his quote on his first Williams test, he took some laps and when Patrick asked what he thought he just said "is brilliant, best car I've ever driven". That wasn't what Patrick Head wanted to hear haha
When DC did his, he asked Patrick which way he had to turn to get out the pits 😅
No matter who he drove for, they never were really confident in his abilities and he accomplished a whole lot more in a short span than a lot of drivers have in 20 years
thanks to him being a Hill
at the time damon wasn't rated all that highly in the f1 circle. but looking back and in context, the guy is amazing. starting racing cars so late and winning in the way he did. fantastic talent and person.
That year at Arrows and the first season at Jordan, Damon showed how good he really was, Hungary '97 remains one of the best drives I've ever seen. He admits that he mentally checked out before the '99 season started and in this game, that's obviously going to drastically affect performance.
My red light came on on a fire in Nothern California in August 2014. I had been hanging my ass out for almost 40 years and it was getting worse, not better. I got back to the hanger, turned in my cards, hung up my spurs (I had actually bought a pair years before for just this situation), and drove home. Haven't missed it one day since.
what an absolute legend.. the fact that he witnessed his dad's career and still decide to drive, I don't think anyone can tell him to grow a pair.
I was crestfallen when he signed for Arrows. I knew he would be lucky to score a point. The opening race was horrendous. Hungary was heroic! With hindsight Williams really didn’t do well by him by leaving him in the dark re ‘97 until it was too late to get another drive.
1999 was disappointing and with hindsight he maybe should have retired at the end of ‘98… but easy for me to say, it wasn’t my contract.
Hill’s time at Brabham is interesting. He technically drove for the last single car team, and also drove in the last pre-qualifying session to date. I wonder how it must have been going from the FW14B to the BT60B.
He did allow Brabham to go out on a high, qualifying for their last race in Hungary.
He was already putting in a lot of hours at Williams by then, so it must have been odd to go from the most technically advanced car on the grid to a manual gearbox back marker. Still, a drive's a drive, and he probably enjoyed himself.
I feel like Damon Hill is the Dave grohl of racing. You can't hate the guy you have to almost feel a little bad for him. And his achievements seemed that much more impressive because you know what he's been through
Good analogy
There was a time, I believe, Frank Williams liked to discard drivers because in his mind whomever drove his car would win. Then he made a massive blunder by "discarding" Adrien Newey (the goose that laid the golden eggs for him) by not treating him as he should have been treated, so he chose to leave, marking the beginning of the end for Williams, with a mild revival under Pat Symonds. Regardless, I feel Damon Hill got the short end of the stick with FW, and he deserved a lot more respect from him, as Newey did as well. Sadly, the end for Frank Williams and his team was very melancholic and depressing, with back of the grid cars and pay drivers that were just awful.
What a sad contrast from the early 1990s, when drivers were treated like secondary items from his cars. Talk about "complicated career end..."
My dad loved F1, but I was a bit young to get it. I really took notice when Ayrton died. That weekend is etched into my soul. Damon Hill quickly became my first hero in F1.
Thanks for this great video. I read bits of these stories before, but there was also a lot I didn't know before. ❤
From a motorsport history perspective, there must be some moments in Damon's old family photo albums that are absolutely epic!
What you said towards the end about watching your dad's friends and himself die really makes sense. I grew up surrounded by bike racing and my dad died racing in the TT at the Isle Of Man and when I say the fact that I can't count on two hands how many dead racers I know lives rent free in my head, I mean it. I love motorbikes and racing more than anything, and I was genuinely keen and working up the courage to start until a couple years ago when I crashed my first little learners bike on my way to work. It was not a bad crash at all, I just slid along the road and tore my ACL, but lying on the tarmac I was genuinely frozen with fear with all the thoughts of my dad.
It might have meant nothing to someone else, and it definitely hasn't put me off owning and riding motorbikes, but it really just made me think, do I want to feel that terrified every time I crash? It takes a lot of courage to get on a bike and race it but I definitely have a huge respect for anyone who calls it quits because they're just not feeling it anymore.
Hill is difficult to place. Sometimes he was absolutely brilliant, like in Hungary 1997, but he could be mediocre as well. Like Frentzen, his mood and motivation played a big role in how well he performed.
Covering Damon's F3000 stint could be an interesting video. You say his junior career was checkered but in F3000, and in particular when at the Middlebridge team, Damon was one of the fastest drivers in the series but also suffered some of the worst luck in the series too, whether it was unreliability, getting involved in someone else's accident etc etc
yeah his name took him places - from racing motorbikes to landing a test role with williams in 2 seconds
To be honest, international F3000 was hardly ever an accurate barometer of how good/not good an F1 driver would be. Really bizarre results there.
Your video helped me to understand and respect a driver I did not understand and respect. 👍🏽🙌🏽👏🏽
Awesome video, thank you Aidan! Damon was my favorite driver of the era and he proved he was an amazing driver in Hungary '97 when he nearly won in an absolutely horrible car! Thanks again mate, awesome stuff 👍🏻❤
Yeah the age thing is highly underrated. If Graham lives Damon gets the same entry point as say Nico does and he probably has a vastly different career.
I was thinking this Just after the video finished, what could have been if he was able to race in single seaters some years earlier, the many hours more of practice specially without restricted testing would do wonders, he might have left early over the trauma of seeing many drivers his father raced with dying but would still be completely different
That photo at 2:50 could be an early prototype of the 94 Rothmans livery.
The first F1 race i attended was the last race his dad won in an F1 car.
Daily Express International at Silverstone in 1971.
probably the reason i have been a Hill fan ever since.
Villeneuve came close to the Triple Crown finishing runner up in LeMans with Peugeot in 2008.
and now he's back, though that Vanwall is way behind the factory-backed Hypercars.
@@MinusMOD98 I thought Vanwall fired him?
He forgot to mention Mario andretti as someone who won 2 of the three for the triple crown by winning the 69 Indy 500 and the 78 world championship. And like JV, he also finished second at lemans in 1995 by finishing first in class which is somewhat of a win, but second overall.
Mika didn't hit the wall of champions.
He won that race. Which was the first time a grand prix had finished behind the safety car after Frentzens accident.
Ps love your videos, always watch
Not only a great driver, a superb human being too.
The book is fascinating to read. I admired Damon before as I knew some of his background but the book really does explain a lot of his thinking. His trials and tribulations as a courier rider whilst trying to stringing together a racing career is inspirational. He was not the best racer of his time but he was smart and seemed to know a thing or two from test driving cars
Brilliant commentary 👏👍🏻 How refreshing to hear Damon’s ego free honest account of himself. Nice bloke.
Great guy... always a Fan will always a fan.. na sayers can do one..
2:07 speaking of triple crown, did anyone see the q3 laps between Alonso and Max? Alonso had triple crown in his hands for majority of lap and max slipped ahead .00something seemingly against the laws of physics. So close. Breaks my heart
Well done, Aidan!! I've always been a Damon Hill fan. He's a decent bloke without much pretention.
the addiction of adulation is a hard thing to let go of.
Damon is one of the most humble and chilled out people ive ever met.
Hello Aidan: This was excellent. I am old enough to remember when Graham was racing. Thank you.
Damon, was and is massively underrated. World champ, unlucky not to have done it twice.
Why oh why are there not multiple videos by this guy?
They are always hugely interesting and chock full of seriously important content.
Whoaa . . .hold the phone. . .that isn't a sufficiently world beating accolade, his videos are brilliant!
Great video. Growing up I was a fan, he was the one fighting Schumacher when I was growing up. One of the underated drivers.
I have always respected Damon Hill when hearing his story and this video made me respect him even more.
To be fair, I think Hunt drove as well if not better in 1977 compared to 1976. By 1978 he seemed to have given up though
Other examples I can think of are Alan Jones in 1981 and Jenson Button in 2011. Both were excellent seasons despite their respective title winning campaigns being behind them.
@reichsfuhrermonika6469 Oh I disagree, it's inconceivable how he failed to win the 2005 championship in the rapid MP4-20 and his incredible Japan victory the same year as well makes '05 for me Kimi's best.
Was never a fan of his. But calling him chicken forgetting out while he achieved what he did no way. Thinking of his family first full respect to him.
Hungary 1997 still heart-breaking to watch, 11 year old super fan of Damon i was gutted
Honestly this video puts into a whole new perspective in his career because for me as a fan in the early 2000s it was always weird that one of the first men to beat Schumacher had completely abandoned the F1 sphere
Great video. Love these.
Always a pleasure when Damon pops up on the Sky broadcast. A nice complement to the younger former drivers (Ant, Karun) and eloquent on the long arc of F1. But it’s never about him, despite the ways he could make it so. My F1 dream would be to sit in a pub with him and Jenson, wind them up, and just listen.
I see the product value has increased and you have tamed the window light and added what looks like two lights now. It's looking good!
Alway had two lights.
Damon was pretty fickle, and Williams with the likes of Frank and Head most certainly wasn't the place for him. Which firing him two years in advance and not letting him know about it proved, a ghoulish move.
Yeah make you feel quite a bit less sympathy for Williams...
Frank was a bit erm different
It wasn't the driver it was him that won
@@mets137781a team that deserves zero sympathy from anyone the way they used to treat drivers then ran the team into the ground ( while the family managed to pocket a tidy sum for their own safe keeping).
@@jamsstar2010
except it WASN'T him it was Newey that made the difference. Newey leaving had alot to do with how frank treated Damon.
So he decided to turn mclaren into winners again, basically turning Williams into the backmarker team they are today. Karma 😂
I got the book the moment it was released. Along with Brundle's Working the Wheel it's one of the best autobiographies in racing. Crazy that, but for Michael being Michael, Damon could've been double WC and still shipped off to Arrows. I don't think he got enough credit at all. He was fast, but not tippity-top tier, and was successful through hard work and diligence. It's not like Villeneuve or HHF were better options either. Hey ho. Racing is not a meritocracy.
Very well researched
Greta video, I am also a Damon Hill fan. Agree about the how it seemed odd him going to Arrows at the time. I have the book and i need to read it, i would be particuarly interested in how one of his sons having Downs Syndrome worked with being and F1 driver, and laterly BDRC heaveyweight and pundit as when he wa not racing and not doing the new things he was and perhaps still is a carer
Interesting and thoughtful video. Thanks
on "Life at the Limit": I read the Sid Watkins book when I was about 10 (an aunt was treated by him after a fall, and got a signed copy). Kind of extraordinary with hindsight; it sort of alternates between graphic descriptions of medical interventions trackside and the party stuff. I should revisit that. "If (possibly?) Nigel needs to go, will you put out a brown flag?" sticks in the memory.
I'm not a Damon fan at all, but him knowing when to walk away will always have my respect. Unless you're absolutely committed you can hurt not just yourself but other people. Being able to accept The End and move on takes a lot of emotional awareness.
I will similarly always respect the hell out of Rosberg's retirement. Being able to understand that winning & beating Lewis took absolutely everything he had, and that it was something he didn't need to do again, again shows great self-awareness.
As a man of a certain age, approaching 40 myself, I could not imagine subjecting myself to the pressures and risks.
Damon really bares his soul in his book. I doubt you could get much emotionally deeper into his head if you were his therapist. He lets us all the way in.
The Arrows contract will no doubt have had bells and whistles on it… it was Tom Walkinshaw after all.
It probably also made him the Head of Catering for a V8 Supercar team with addition payments to soften the blow of driving a shtbox 😂
It's a pity that moment of Damon lobbing it up the inside of Frentzen at the final corner in Japan was not captured on broadcast. The funny thing is he didn't actually have to do that to secure 4th in the championship as the team would have still beaten Benetton on countback anyway. Probably the last time that Hill really showed determination and still had "the muse"
He was on one that whole race. First with him and JV holding up Michael with pure shithousery and then the divebomb.
At 07:05 why does the Jordan have Bridgestone tyres on when the J198 ran on Goodyear's?
No clue.
Hill was my favorite in my 1st year of watching F1- 1995.
I think people who say he was a coward for quitting like he did really do not understand what it must take to be an F1 driver. Also, why was Damon quitting any worse than Hakkinen, Vettel, Schumacher or whoever else quitting? If they come out with the "he parked a perfectly good car" as their answer, well so did Niki Lauda when he thought his life was at risk. Damon knew he was no longer the driver he was because his heart was no longer in it. He did not want to put himself or others at risk.
Eddie Jordan has to take a lot of responsibility for the way it all ended. Yes Damon had a contract, but any team owner with any ounce of decency or just common sense would realise it is better to end the contract, instead of forcing their driver to stay or threaten legal action. Firstly because he should realise if a drivers heart isnt in it their is now risk, and also because it will affect that drivers performance. If Eddie had let Damon go and replaced him with another driver, ,maybe they could have taken second in the constructors championship which would mean more money.
It takes a lot lf courage to look in the mirror and say "I can't do this anymore".
Damon really is one hell of a person and a worthy Champion
I was talking to someone at a Star Trek convention of all places a few years ago and the subject of Damon came up. He said that the Jordan mechanics (he was a B&H rep) didn't like working with DH and felt he was there to get the money. i thought that was a bit unfair, esp if you read Damon's book and he was fighting depression at the time.
Another good job Aidan, Damon top racer alway's in my book's.
Great video, ‘bostin’ as you might say 👍
I would love to see a video about the Mclaren MP4-2, the most succesfull F1 chassis
Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada
Excellent, excellent video.
Cheers, m'dear.
I enjoyed that. 😊
Massively underrated driver
Damon did hold together the Williams in '94, when most drivers would have crumbled, and nearly won that championship, even though Schumacher had a huge headstart. Then in '97 he nearly won in an Arrows, which would be the same as Magnussen or Hulk winning in a Haas, and not in rain. Everyone was still on the track. He got into F1 at 32, not 17 or 18, or even 23. Some people retire from motorsport at 32.
Damon was a great racer. I was a Williams fan back in the days, and when they didn’t sign him up after his world title, I told myself Williams was going to go down, because, we all due respect to Sir Franck Williams, it was a sign of his inability to effectively balance the risks versus the rewards of any opportunity. He may have had it in the 70s and 80s, but by the early to mid 90s, he no longer had it. By choosing Frentzen over Hill, and as good as Frentzen was, he chose a maybe over a sure thing. You just never do that, especially when the stakes are that high. Williams had a good year with Villeneuve, but a year later or two after sacking Hill, Sir Franck chose to confirm his buddy Pat Head as technical director over giving the job to Newey, who then went on to McLaren, and we all know what happened next: The next great F1 battle could have been Williams vs Ferrari, but instead it was McLaren versus Ferrari. And Williams went down hill (no pun intended) from there. But the sacking of Hill was the first sign of the major mismanagement by Sir Franck Williams himself.
Damon Hill is my #1 favorite driver.
I named my cat after him.
I always thought Damon's 1997 & 1998 proved he was a worthy world champion
6:21 - That would have been a decent deal as it happened indeed ;) - Ron was one who really wanted you to buy into his vision without question. Remember he wanted something similar from Adrian Newey - when Adrian pointed out he wasn't going to wait forever for him to retire , they fell out also (hence matrix management).
I remember very well Damon's1999 as a nine year old watching his first full season of F1 and I felt he was a waste of a perfectly good seat especially later in the season (imagine if they still had Rubens Barrichello or Jean Alesi instead...). But reading his book years later , and with the stuff he's had to deal with it's quite bad that something wasn't sorted to let him go and put someone else in that Jordan.
Another incident - not mentioned in this video but I remember in Hockenheim (when Salo was leading for a while) he retired a healthy car because he couldn't get on with the feel of the brakes and was scared of them failing on an extremely high speed track (more so than Monza).
I'm stunned that he didn't go into sportscars after F1. Much safer cars, and I think it would have suited his driving style a lot more. Or even Touring Cars if he didn't want the 200mph speeds anymore.
He was done with racing completely. He could have easily have been injured at Le Mans or Thruxton
I would love to see you cover Piquet. Given that he is a 3 time WC, he feels very overlooked among his peers. Yes, he is a dick, but from the little I know he had an interesting career and was clearly very talanted
Early/mid 80es Piquet was a menance and from all the 3 times champions, he and Brabham are probably the ones talked about least. He got overshadowed by the Prost Senna rivalery and the laters death in the end, and being an absolute ass about everything certainly doesn't help.
@@Edelweiss1102 People don't remember that Piquet was regularly mentioned among the all-time greats (with Fangio and Clark) after his second championship win.
It is not talked about much that he had neurological problems after his accident at tamburello. He kept it a secret. He carried it for years.
Good call, he's probably the most underrated triple WC in any sport. Don't get me wrong, he talks some utter tosh, but he was one hell of a driver.
Mate, paying 17% on your mortgage in the late 70s and early 80s wwas a breeze compared to today. 17% of a small number is much less than 5% of a big number. 3:27
As a life long Williams fan - at least in their original guise - there has always been a certain level of criticism of how Frank and Patrick with 'driver selection'. Much I believe stems back to Alan Jones. For many Jones' was Williams and in Mid 1981, Jones was having thoughts of retiring, but eventually told the team and the factory that he would be staying... He didn't. Throwing Carlos' eventual retirement in the mix, I think Williams wanted to be in control and not be caught out again. Frank was generally the guy in charge of drivers and money, with Head in charge of the technical side.
The brilliant Keke Rosberg may be lauded upon now, but Frank tried to trade him to another team mid way through his Championship Year in 1982, though Frank never told him. Keke found out from a team member 18 months later and felt betrayed. That is the main reason why Keke left in '85 at the end of his contract. The team and driver has never been made public, other than Keke stating it would not do his reputation to say who this was.
Moving forward to Hill, Damon's massive underperformance was understandably a concern and where Frank went wrong is if they wanted to go with Heinz, he should have brought in for '96, not '97. Obviously the biggest mistake of all was losing Newey. Frank and Patrick had previously breached an agreement with Adrian regarding being consulted on drivers and engines. Mansell's contract had been torn up in favour of Coulthard - Newey said Nigel would have won the WDC in '95 - Jacques had also been signed without notifying him and then they did it again with Damon. It was the final straw for him and one the team never recovered from.
Not sure what you mean that 22 is quite old to start racing. I seem to recall some bloke who didn't even pass his driving test until he was 24.
Kinda like Ricardo 'Tosser' Rosset when he started his karting career
So i am working a little project, and i have had to do research on Cevert, Clark, Collins... It has been an utterly depressing few weeks... I love motorsport but when you get hit by - well just how many young people lose their lives in it.. it does leave you a little numb and sick.
What was Jordan's salary offer?
How is what Damon doing considered chickening out?! Look back at history! Many drivers, world champions in fact, chickens out or have the thought to.
Lauda got back for the fight with Hunt after his massive death stare at the Nurburgring and when the final race was at Fuji in Japan where he's just one podium away from the whole title against Hunt, he felt that it was just too stupid to relive all the pain he had received in the same conditions as before in Germany thus he bailed and let Hunt win, knowing for a fact that he can get it back next year and also, he gets to live another day. Senna prior to his death also had that situation and Senna one was much worse.
Senna saw Barrichello nearly losing his life before him during the qualifying session of that unfateful event during the San Marino GP in 1994 and then actually saw Roland Ratzenberger being killed the following next qualifying shook Senna alot as he was reported to have been crying uncontrollably by the chief medic of F1 at that time, Sid Watkins who then told Senna to leave the sport but Senna replied that he had that thought but he can't stop racing as he loved it too much despite the sheer danger it has. If he was to follow what Sid had proposed, he might not have died and the irony of it was he even got back on good terms with his rival, Alain Prost who at this point had retired, to talk about setting up a new safety organization to push for a more safer environment and equipment for drivers in the sport towards the FIA. This proved he too was sacred as he was known to be ballsy as fuck and having no qualms at all at taking others and himself out just to retain points and if he has to set a group up like that, you know he's suddenly turning weak after watching one near death and an actual death right infront of him.
What Damon did was justified. Not all drivers are fearless and if you're not ahead, time to get out and not kill yourself and anyone else.
Wanted to read but too expensive but i keep an eye on the bookstore
I saw Damon at Magny Cours in 199?, at the hairpin he had a haze off his tyres, no locking, no letting it open up and get wide. I just when "that is skill"
There is a problem in that "fear theory" because i remember few times when Damon Hill was really fast, aggressive and didn't hesitate to take risks. More like sometimes the other drivers feard him.
I wonder if Hill has ever talked to Kevin Harvick in any detail - Harvick being the one who had to take over Dale Earnhardt's car after he died. Nascar and F1 are very different, but I bet they could relate to each other in some ways.
I've thought this for a while but never commented. You have the most British sounding name I've ever heard
And I've seen Graham Hill drive at Indianapolis
Up there with the replacement of 'Our Nige with that slippery Alain Prost
Damon Hill's most famous scene in Hungary was when Laci Palik exclaimed in his iconic voice: "Where did Damon Hill go?" Of course he said that in Hungarian.
What happened is that the cameras didn't watch Damon when he finished at 2nd place.
Wurz: comes into F1, finishes third, leaves.