Damon Hill almost didn't follow dad Graham's F1 footsteps despite title success

21 February 2023 , 17:59

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Damon Hill's passion for motor racing began on two wheels rather than four (Image: Fuelling Around)

Damon Hill wrote his name into the Formula 1 history books with his 1996 title success with Williams.

What made it extra special was that he had followed in the footsteps of his legendary father Graham, who himself was a double world champion from the 1960s. Hill Sr sadly died in a November 1975 plane crash when his son was only 15 year old, but still Damon inherited his dad's love of speed.

At first, though, cars were a secondary concern. Despite growing up in the F1 paddock during the height of his father's career, Damon developed a passion for motorbike racing and, at first, pursued that path.

Now a regular Sky Sports F1 pundit, he told Adrian Flux's Fuelling Around podcast: "I saw two brothers riding this monkey bike round and, obviously, part of my brain is going: 'That looks fun'. I must have had 'Can I have a go?' written on my face or something, because they let me have a go.

"I used to go off with my mates at home in Mill Hill and we'd go on adventures on our bicycles. Being on two wheels, I understood. This thing, you didn't have to pedal it – you just needed to turn the little thing on the handlebar and off it went. It was like, massive lightbulb moment goes off.

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"My dad actually started off on motorbikes. He also did scrambling, and broke his leg quite badly. He had a bad limp because of a crash on a motorbike. My grandma rode a motorbike. My grandad – my dad's dad – never drove a car in his life. He didn't have a driving licence and I do think my grandma passed on some experience through genetics."

Damon Hill summitted the F1 world in 1996 with Williams (Allsport)

Hill went on to enjoy some success in motorbike racing but, eventually, made the switch which put him on the path towards that F1 success. The 62-year-old added: "I won a lot of races and actually that happened at roughly the same time that I took up car racing – or my mum met a person who said: 'He ought to get off that bike and try cars because he's going to hurt himself'.

"That's how I got off two wheels and into four. I have to say I didn't like it at first. I just didn't like being strapped into a cockpit. It felt very claustrophobic and a car didn't accelerate like a motorbike did – It had no oomph. Until you get more power, you can't drive it like a motorbike because a motorbike has got way more power than a contact patch.

"It wasn't until you get more power in a racing car, or it was wet, that I could actually do something with the damn thing because they're like a dead weight."

Daniel Moxon