Damon Hill is the son of Graham Hill, and, along with Nico Rosberg, one of two sons of a Formula One World Champion to win the title.
74 Facts About Damon Hill
2.
Damon Hill started racing on motorbikes in 1981, and after minor success moved on to single-seater racing cars.
3.
Damon Hill was promoted to the Williams race team the following year after Riccardo Patrese's departure and took the first of his 22 victories at the 1993 Hungarian Grand Prix.
4.
Damon Hill became champion in 1996 with eight wins, but was dropped by Williams for the following season.
5.
Damon Hill went on to drive for the less competitive Arrows and Jordan teams, and in 1998 gave Jordan their first win.
6.
Damon Hill retired from racing after being dropped by Jordan following the 1999 season.
7.
Damon Hill stepped down from the position in 2011 and was succeeded by Derek Warwick.
8.
Damon Hill presided over the securing of a 17-year contract for Silverstone to hold Formula One races, which enabled the circuit to see extensive renovation work.
9.
Damon Hill was born in Hampstead, London, to Graham and Bette Damon Hill.
10.
Graham Damon Hill was a racing driver in the international Formula One series.
11.
Damon Hill won the world Drivers' Championship in 1962 and 1968, and became a well-known personality in the United Kingdom.
12.
Damon Hill worked as a labourer and a motorcycle courier to support his further education.
13.
Damon Hill is married to Susan "Georgie" George and they have four children, including Joshua.
14.
In 2009, Damon Hill became the first patron of St Joseph's Specialist School and College, a school for children with severe learning disabilities and autism in Cranleigh, Surrey.
15.
Damon Hill is the Patron of the charity Disability Africa which runs inclusion projects for disabled children in African countries.
16.
Damon Hill started his motorsport career in motorcycle racing in 1981.
17.
Damon Hill used the same simple, easily identifiable helmet design as his father: eight white oar blades arranged vertically around the upper surface of a dark blue helmet.
18.
The device and colours represent the London Rowing Club for which Graham Damon Hill rowed in the early 1950s.
19.
Damon Hill worked as a dispatch rider for Apollo Despatch in London, then later Special Delivery, a London motorcycle dispatch company and was provided TZ350 racing bikes by them.
20.
Damon Hill graduated through British Formula Ford, winning six races driving a Van Diemen for Manadient Racing in 1985, his first full season in cars, and finishing third and fifth in the two UK national championships.
21.
Damon Hill took third place in the final of the 1985 Formula Ford Festival, helping the UK to win the team prize.
22.
For 1986, Damon Hill planned to move up to the British Formula Three Championship with title-winning team West Surrey Racing.
23.
However, Damon Hill did not have enough sponsorship available to fund a drive in F3000.
24.
Damon Hill competed in one race in the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, driving a Ford Sierra RS500.
25.
Damon Hill took three pole positions and led five races in 1990, but did not win a race during his Formula 3000 career.
26.
Damon Hill started his Grand Prix career during the 1991 season as a test driver with the championship-winning Williams team while still competing in the F3000 series.
27.
However, midway through 1992 Damon Hill broke into Grand Prix racing as a driver with the dying Brabham team.
28.
Damon Hill started the season only after three races, replacing Giovanna Amati after her sponsorship had failed to materialise.
29.
Amati had been unable to get the car through qualifying but Damon Hill matched his teammate, Eric van de Poele, by qualifying for two races, the mid-season British and Hungarian Grands Prix.
30.
Damon Hill continued to test for the Williams team that year and the British Grand Prix saw Nigel Mansell win the race for Williams, while he finished last in the Brabham.
31.
When Mansell's teammate Riccardo Patrese left Williams to drive for Benetton in 1993, Damon Hill was unexpectedly promoted to the race team alongside triple World Champion Alain Prost ahead of more experienced candidates such as Martin Brundle and Mika Hakkinen.
32.
Damon Hill continued to impress as the season went on, and in San Marino Hill took the lead at the start, though he was passed by Prost and Senna and ultimately retired with a spin due to a brake failure.
33.
Damon Hill looked set to win the British Grand Prix before another engine failure put him out and led the German Grand Prix comfortably only to suffer a puncture with two laps left, handing the win to Prost.
34.
At the Hungarian race, Damon Hill did take his first career win after leading from start to finish.
35.
At the Portuguese Grand Prix Damon Hill came from the back of the grid to third, having stalled on the warm up lap from pole.
36.
Damon Hill finished the season by finishing fourth in Japan and third in Australia, though he lost second in the Drivers' Championship to Ayrton Senna, who passed Hill by winning the last two races.
37.
Damon Hill represented Williams alone at the next race, the Monaco Grand Prix.
38.
Damon Hill's race ended early in a collision involving several cars on the opening lap of the race.
39.
Damon Hill came back into contention for the title after winning the British Grand Prix, a race his father had never won.
40.
At Schumacher's first race since his ban, the European Grand Prix, he suggested that Damon Hill was not a world-class driver.
41.
However, during the penultimate race at the Japanese Grand Prix, Damon Hill took victory ahead of Schumacher in a rain-soaked event.
42.
In 2007, Damon Hill explicitly accused Schumacher of causing the collision deliberately.
43.
Damon Hill's season earned him the 1994 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
44.
The Williams team were reigning Constructors' Champions, having beaten Benetton in 1994, and with young David Coulthard, who was embarking on his first full season in Formula One, as teammate, Damon Hill was the clear number one driver.
45.
Schumacher and Damon Hill had several on-track incidents during the season, two of which led to suspended one-race bans for both.
46.
Damon Hill's season finished positively when he won the Australian Grand Prix by finishing two laps ahead of the runner-up, Olivier Panis in a Ligier.
47.
In 1996 the Williams car was clearly the quickest in Formula One and Damon Hill went on to win the title ahead of his teammate, reigning Indycar champion Jacques Villeneuve, becoming the first son of a Formula One champion to win the championship himself.
48.
However, Damon Hill took the lead at the start and won both the race and the championship while the Canadian retired.
49.
Damon Hill equalled the record for starting all 16 races of the season from the front row, matching Ayrton Senna in 1989 and Alain Prost in 1993.
50.
Damon Hill left Williams as the team's second most successful driver in terms of race victories, with 21, second only to Mansell.
51.
Damon Hill was awarded the Segrave Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club.
52.
Damon Hill became the fourth driver in nine years to win the World Drivers' Championship for Williams and not drive for the team the following season, as occurred with Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost.
53.
Only after one year with Arrows, Damon Hill came close to signing a deal with Alain Prost's team, before deciding to instead sign up with the Jordan team for the 1998 season.
54.
Damon Hill then ran fourth after his only pit stop before retiring due to an electrical failure.
55.
At that race, Damon Hill was leading late in the race, with teammate Schumacher closing rapidly, when he asked the team whether they would be allowed to race each other.
56.
Damon Hill finished the season with a last lap pass on Frentzen at the Japanese Grand Prix, which earned him fourth place in the race and Jordan fourth position in that year's Constructors' Championship.
57.
Hopes were high for 1999, but Damon Hill did not enjoy a good season.
58.
In retirement Damon Hill has continued to be involved with cars and motorsport.
59.
Damon Hill founded the Prestige and Super Car Private Members Club P1 International with Michael Breen in 2000; Breen bought Hill out in October 2006.
60.
Damon Hill became involved in a BMW dealership, just outside Royal Leamington Spa, that bore his name and an Audi dealership in Exeter.
61.
Damon Hill made a UK television advert with F1 commentator Murray Walker for Pizza Hut, in which Walker commentated on Damon Hill's meal as if it were a race.
62.
Damon Hill has appeared on many British television programmes, including Top Gear, This is Your Life, TFI Friday, Shooting Stars and Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer.
63.
Damon Hill has raced both cars and motorcycles at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and in 2005 he tested the new GP2 Series car.
64.
Damon Hill had discussions to join the series limited to retired Formula One drivers who were aged 45 or over but these talks did not materialise in a drive.
65.
Damon Hill served as the driver representative on the stewards' panel at the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix which decided to penalize Damon Hill's former rival Michael Schumacher for overtaking under yellow flag conditions.
66.
On 7 October 2012, Damon Hill drove his father's BRM in celebration of the 50th anniversary of having won the 1962 F1 World Championship.
67.
In June 2018, Damon Hill became the President of the Brooklands Trust Members who are the support group for Brooklands Museum.
68.
Damon Hill published his autobiography, Watching the Wheels, in 2016, in which he revealed he had suffered with depression.
69.
Damon Hill again appeared on the programme in January 1995, marking the twentieth anniversary of the show.
70.
Damon Hill has contributed many articles to F1 Racing magazine and has twice appeared in ITV F1's commentary box, covering for Martin Brundle at the 2007 and 2008 Hungarian Grands Prix.
71.
British Sky Broadcasting signed Damon Hill to join their F1 presentation team on Sky Sports F1 as a British driver's pundit starting from the 2012 Formula One World Championship.
72.
Damon Hill was interested in music from an early age and formed the punk band the "Hormones" with some friends while at school.
73.
Damon Hill made a regular appearance at the British Grand Prix alongside other Formula One musicians such as Eddie Jordan.
74.
Damon Hill formed his own band, The Conrods, which was active between 1999 and 2003 and played cover versions of well-known songs from The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and The Kinks.