Recently, JOE managed to sit down with the 1996 F1 Champion and former Jordan driver Damon Hill for a chat on the upcoming season.
Most of you will probably remember Damon Hill crossing the line at the Japanese Grand Prix in his Williams back in 1996, securing his first and only F1 Championship title. The younger folk out there will probably better remember him from his Jordan F1 days – Jordan F1 was then owned by the Irishman and notorious fashion criminal Eddie Jordan.
We managed to get a few words in with the ex-champ on the upcoming F1 season, his thoughts on the new car technology and whether we’ll see his son Josh racing in F1 like his father?
Damon, in Japan in ‘96 one of the pit crew asked if it was one of the best days of your life and you said ‘I can’t think of anywhere I’d rather be or anything else I’d rather be doing,’. Has anything ever gotten close to that?
DH: I think in terms of one’s career that has got to be the summit. I think it was definitely the point that I had been trying to get to and it’s such a fantastic and difficult thing to achieve and I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything as intense as that, or achieved anything quite like it. It’s difficult to compare really.
Your son Josh has been doing quite well, does he have the unbelievable racing DNA like you and your dad?
DH: I don’t know what it is with the Hill family, but there does seem to be some sort of competitive gene in there. My mum was actually a very competitive rower when my parents met, and she won what would have been the equivalent of an Olympic medal in rowing back in the ’50s. Josh is certainly showing he’s a fighter and that he’s got talent.
But I don’t know if he’ll go to F1… There are so many other drivers there and it depends on so many different variables, not least of course, that you need vast amounts of money these days. You’ve got to get there on your ability, and not on the money. These days drivers who are really good have to show it and bring something to their teams to prove their worth.
Lewis Hamilton vs. Nico Rosberg – how do you think those two are going to fend off each other this year?
DH: Well, I think it will be very, very interesting. I’m sure that Nico will be relishing the opportunity to show how competitive he is against a guy that’s highly regarded as being the fastest, at least over one lap, and one of the fastest drivers in F1. So I think Nico has quite a lot to do.
What was your favourite grand prix as a driver and what now as a commentator/spectator?
DH: Well, it’s quite a different experience being a driver and being a race commentator. You tend to notice things like, you know, paddock facilities when you’re on the other side. Obviously, as a driver you want to experience the thrill of driving, you want to be excited by a race track, you want to have challenges, like Austin which seemed like a pretty good track, as new ones go.
But places like Monaco where they’re absurd really, in terms of safety, you’d never convince someone to have a race around there if you’d started F1 today. There are incredibly exciting tracks to go around and I think Singapore is one of the biggest challenges now, as it’s one of the toughest ones to win. Having said that, I’m not sure I’d like to have done the Singapore grand prix – it looks brutal.
Do you think the audience is growing, in terms of all the marketing and promotion? Is it drawing in more female fans and new people into the sport?
DH: Possibly. What we’re seeing with everything is that the world is joining in in lots of ways, like India, China are getting involved in a lot more of what we’re doing. We have one race in the US and one in Canada. F1 is definitely becoming established; we’re in Russia now as well. Once you have a race in those countries an interest grows and it becomes one of the things in people’s lives that they have a view on.
You’ve got historical ties with Williams. How will Williams get on this season and will they win again, or perhaps they can win more than one race this year?
DH: I’m not too sure how Williams are shaping up this season. I think they’re strong but I think the problem is the front running teams have consolidated their positions and I think Williams will be hard pushed to displace teams like, Lotus, for example.
I think they’d have to see their championship in terms of fighting for the contender positions for the championship outside Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren… and maybe Mercedes.
Do you think they could win again this season?
DH: I think it will be more difficult for them to win this year. Not because they’ve lost competitiveness, but because the other teams have become more competitive.
Just a quick one on DRS, do you think it’s been a success?
DH: Yeah, I think so. I think it’s an interesting device because when someone gets in that DRS zone and they shoot passed a driver, it’s great to watch. We haven’t seen enough people retaking their place, so I would say what DRS has done is it means when a car is in striking distance it’s enabling cars to cut through the field, rather than increasing the dicing that we used to see.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Damon.
DH: Cheers, lads.
Damon Hill is an expert analyst on Sky Sports F1 HD. Watch every practice session, qualifying session and race live on TV and on the go via Sky Go.
