After stepping away from Sky Sports’ coverage of Formula 1 at the end of 2024, fans will be seeing a whole lot less of 1996 champion Damon Hill.
Hill claimed his one and only drivers’ championship at the age of 36, after waiting until the age of 32 to start his career at the highest level.
He found a home at Williams and could have been a multiple champion if not for a questionable incident at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix between himself and Michael Schumacher.
Hill’s two-word message to Schumacher after the crash showed just how much respect he had for his rival despite being on the wrong side of his actions.
After claiming his first Formula 1 title, he was dropped for 1997 and forced to make a move to the backmarker Arrows team.
A monster drive at the Hungarian Grand Prix would see him agonisingly denied a win by a late mechanical failure in what was a very poor car. It would’ve been a miracle by the standards of those days, and he had to settle for second instead.
Two more years at Jordan Grand Prix followed before he decided to retire before turning 40 at the end of the 1999 season. Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have proven that is young by today’s standards…
Damon Hill doesn’t believe his F1 career was ‘long enough’ after premature retirement
Hill’s ‘error of judgement’ cost him a championship-winning car, he revealed, after Williams dropped him for demanding too much money.
His agent was leading talks and he had little idea what was going on. Otherwise, he may have been able to defend his title in 1997.
With recent improvements in diets and training regimes, drivers can perform at a very high level even into their 40s.
READ MORE: Damon Hill has just made a three-word McLaren prediction after seeing their 2025 F1 car for the first time
Hill has now admitted that he regrets opting to retire and is frustrated that he will never get to know how long he could have continued.
“It wasn’t long enough. I didn’t start young enough. I’ll never know whether I could have had a longer career,” he said.
“I started when I was 32, very, very late, and I decided to stop when I was 39. I didn’t want to be a 40-year-old racing driver. Nowadays, that’s not seen as an obstacle.”
Damon Hill says ‘scary’ F1 circuit used to leave him terrified
Hill visited a variety of tracks during his Formula 1 career, many of which are no longer on the calendar over 25 years on.
Hill named one ‘scary’ F1 circuit that terrified him and it happens to be one which carries fond memories from his days in the car.
READ MORE: Gary Anderson has told Lewis Hamilton not to copy one Damon Hill mistake during his debut Ferrari season
Back in 1996, he claimed his only title at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix after teammate Jacques Villeneuve retired.
The sport has come a long way in safety since Hill’s driving days. F1 and the FIA made safety improvements after Ayrton Senna’s fatal crash in 1994 – Hill’s teammate at the time.
Nowadays, Suzuka is a favourite for many of the current drivers and its unique layout, including a figure of eight, creates a fantastic spectacle to watch.
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