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Is Damon Hill A Worthy Champion?

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Is Damon Hill a worthy champion?

[The article is quite old (circa late 1996) and thus the stats are outdated e.g. Jacques Villeneuve

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I think he deserved it. The car was magnificent, and Damon was on top of his game, he didnt let Adelaide 1994 get to him that year.

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I think he deserved it. The car was magnificent, and Damon was on top of his game, he didnt let Adelaide 1994 get to him that year.

Damon beat Jacques ergo Damon deserved the title. I think the article makes a good point, if you are a world champion you have to be good even if the car is excellent as the FW18 most certainly was.

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Well the article also proves that Damon,having started late and having not experienced karting had something less than his rivals..the natural driving instinct.He had to learn when he was already 25...this is something that has a big influence on a driver's skills,expecially if you consider that the only drivers who have started late in modern f.1 like Damon did are none other than Sato,Monteiro and Karthikeyan.....

Furthemore his title rival in 1996, given the big advantage of their machinery, was his teammate, Jacques Villeneuve and he was..a rookie.

A driver first rival is his team mate...Damon did beat convincingly just three of his team mates: David Coulthard in his rookie season (1994),when the young scot was rushed in the car without enough experience and in difficult circumstances,another rookie in the shape of Jacques Villeneuve in 1996 and the all time greatest pay driver Pedro Paulo Diniz in 1997. In 1993 he was beaten by an old Alain Prost,well on the sliding phase of his career and after one season out of racing, in 1995 DC had the upper hand over Damon n qualifying,in 1998 the same happened with Ralf Schumacher who could have won at Spa if not for team orders.Then in 1999 Frentzen completely destroyed Damon and forced him to retirement

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The same could be said of his father. They were both in the right place at the right time and capitalised on that. I don't think HHF forced Damon into retirement. He retired because he simply didn't want to do it anymore. Just as James Hunt did, although James at least left as soon as he realised it was time to stop.

I don't think that there has been an unworthy champion. Some fortunate ones, perhaps, but all worthy nonetheless.

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He undoubtedly had the fastest car by far, but I would agree he did deserve it!

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Of course he deserved it. 8 wins is impressive, cristiano clearly doesnt know much about Hill's career

O Jem... So you also think Alonso deserved it with 7 wins then. I like it :clap3:

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O Jem... So you also think Alonso deserved it with 7 wins then. I like it :clap3:

Oh no...not again please! :P

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Well the article also proves that Damon,having started late and having not experienced karting had something less than his rivals..the natural driving instinct.He had to learn when he was already 25...this is something that has a big influence on a driver's skills,expecially if you consider that the only drivers who have started late in modern f.1 like Damon did are none other than Sato,Monteiro and Karthikeyan.....

Furthemore his title rival in 1996, given the big advantage of their machinery, was his teammate, Jacques Villeneuve and he was..a rookie.

A driver first rival is his team mate...Damon did beat convincingly just three of his team mates: David Coulthard in his rookie season (1994),when the young scot was rushed in the car without enough experience and in difficult circumstances,another rookie in the shape of Jacques Villeneuve in 1996 and the all time greatest pay driver Pedro Paulo Diniz in 1997. In 1993 he was beaten by an old Alain Prost,well on the sliding phase of his career and after one season out of racing, in 1995 DC had the upper hand over Damon n qualifying,in 1998 the same happened with Ralf Schumacher who could have won at Spa if not for team orders.Then in 1999 Frentzen completely destroyed Damon and forced him to retirement

I take issue with your comment that DH convincingly beat JV in 1996, if by that you mean he comprehensively beat the young Canadian in what was then only his rookie season.

JV took the race for the championship to the wire where DH only managed to secure the title in the last race of the season, despite having spent four more years in the Team (as both race and test driver) and countless thousands more miles in a Williams F1 car.

Despite that, JV set more fastest laps that year than DH (6-5), and would have faired even better in the final standings had it not been for a combination of mechanical problems (Australia - engine / Japan - wheel) and collisions caused by other drivers (San Marino - suspension failure after being hit by Alesi / Monaco - collision caused by Badoer).

Comparatively, of DH's four DNF(s) of 1996, two were as a result of driver errors - a spin in Spain and another at Monza, wheres JV only had one spin in his four DNF(s), and that in only his second race in F1 at Interlagos. DH's other DNF(s) were an engine failure while leading at the eventful 1996 Monaco race, and a wheel failure in Britain while trailing behind JV in fourth (JV, who had more than a 20 sec lead on DH at that point, went on to win, making it his second victory in F1).

Another interesting statistic is that despite having an equal number of race finishes (each had 12 finishes out of 16 races) JV finished on the podium in every event save one (Monza - where DH spun off), whereas DH missed the podium on two occassions (Nurburgring - DH finished a rather shabby 4th, whereas JV scored his first F1 win, and Spa - where JV finished 2nd to DH's 5th place - in fairness, although JV lead DH all day, they were both caught out by the confusion created by the other JV - Jos the Boss' accident and the ensuing pit lane scramble).

More importantly, all the pundits had thought Damon would have the measure of the young Cdn from the very start of the season, which he clearly did not.

"Jacques was mightily impressive right from the start. The young French-Canadian did everything right. He arrived in Australia with 9000 kilometres of testing behind him. In truth there was no pressure on him as he had nothing to lose. Expectations were not high, despite the fact that Jacques came to F1 from an Indycar title and an Indianapolis 500 win. The general feeling had been that it would take Jacques some time to be able to match Damon Hill lap for lap. It did not. And having been up with Damon throughout practice he took pole position with a late-session burst in qualifying....

"Jacques's
[race]
performance had the pundits jumping up and down with excitement. It was impressive. He led Hill early on, setting a string of fastest laps but never had more than a second or so in hand. The pair were pretty balanced in their pit stops although Damon emerged in the lead - by the skin of his teeth.

"He arrived in the first corner with new cold tyres while Jacques was in his shadow and hot to trot. Jacques did not sit and wait, he forced his way through. Damon responded as soon as his tyres were up to speed and clawed right back onto Jacques's tail. This time the pressure paid off. Jacques misjudged it at the first corner and went for a little lawn-mowing.

"I thought he'd lost it," said Hill. "I thought he might catch me when he came back onto the track so I was going to one side. Then he started coming across the track and I had to lift off. When I got back on the power again he had straightened it all out. It was a bit scary."

"A few laps later the white sections on Hill's Williams began to turn slightly brown and Villeneuve's car had the occasional puff of smoke. He was losing oil - and Damon was collecting it."

source:
.

From there we all know how the race ended, but it was, nevertheless, one of the most impressive debuts in F1 history, and a shocking wake-up call to DH.

Despite that, DH was chased by the young rookie all season, who clawed his way back from a 25 point deficit at the midpoint of the season (DH led JV 63-38 after the 9th round in France) to take the championship race to the final event in Japan. Despite scoring the fastest lap of the race, JV spun off with a wheel problem on lap 36, after which DH went on to cruise to an easy victory and the WDC.

So, in fairness both to DH and JV, it was a closely fought battle all season, with DH beating the rookie to the WDC, but not by the margin many on the forum believe.

Despite this, I am not one of those who say that DH didn't deserve his title. He was certainly instrumental in the development of the FW18 and did a good job of recovering from a few very rough seasons to come back and win the WDC, which is never easy under any circumstances, no matter what anyone might say.

Nevertheless, DH may very well have the notoriety of being (perhaps) the only WDC driver to have not been retained by his team to drive the year after winning the WDC. (I say perhaps because I am not entirely certain that he stands alone in that regard - I would very much appreciate if some of the other elder forum members could help determine if anyone else suffered the same ignominy - BTW, I'm talking to you Senna, Pumpdoc, and Monza Gorilla.......)

In any event, even if there have been others, it is a short list, and one that no WDC wants to be on. I don't know what that says about DH, but it certainly meant that neither Frank Williams or Patrick Head were particularly impressed by him in 1996.

Despite all this, to the extent that any WDC is a title worth having, it was DH's in 1996, and no-one can ever take that from him.

(how can you tell I'm home sick today with little else to do........)

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That was quite the recap. I was impressed by Damon Hill in 1996. As much as I hoped for JV to turn the F1 world upside and win the championship in his first year, I realized the Hill was indeed a very quick driver, and deserving of the WDC.

"In any event, even if there have been others, it is a short list, and one that no WDC wants to be on. I don't know what that says about DH, but it certainly meant that neither Frank Williams or Patrick Head were particularly impressed by him in 1996"

The list is longer then you think!!. Williams is known for his belief that all it takes is a good driver to win the WDC, when you build the best car. He has never been held ransom by a driver, and lets them know they are expendable any time they start asking for the moon

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That was quite the recap. I was impressed by Damon Hill in 1996. As much as I hoped for JV to turn the F1 world upside and win the championship in his first year, I realized the Hill was indeed a very quick driver, and deserving of the WDC.

"In any event, even if there have been others, it is a short list, and one that no WDC wants to be on. I don't know what that says about DH, but it certainly meant that neither Frank Williams or Patrick Head were particularly impressed by him in 1996"

The list is longer then you think!!. Williams is known for his belief that all it takes is a good driver to win the WDC, when you build the best car. He has never been held ransom by a driver, and lets them know they are expendable any time they start asking for the moon

you rock, you know it

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The list is longer then you think!!. Williams is known for his belief that all it takes is a good driver to win the WDC, when you build the best car. He has never been held ransom by a driver, and lets them know they are expendable any time they start asking for the moon

I totally agree YHR, but that's not what I was getting at - perhaps I didn't phrase it clearly enough.

What I was talking about was the fact that by the three quarter point of the season, FW and PH were so disillusioned with DH that they had already signed HHF for the following year, without even talking to DH about renewing his contract. It's not that Hill was asking too much, Williams simply didn't want him at any price, and didn't even bother discussing an extension of his contract with him.

We're all familiar with Williams' tenacity and the relatively minimal value he places on drivers, but historically he has at least attempted to negotiate an extension with the drivers that have won WDC(s) in his team. It may not always work out, but there has generally always been an attempt made to retain each Champion (with the exception of Hill).

A quick look at the history of each of the 7 drivers to win the WDC at Williams will help reveal the uniqueness of the situation faced by DH at the end of '96.

Alan Jones - won the '80 WDC at Williams and was kept on by the team for '81.

Keke Rosberg - won the '82 WDC at Williams and was kept on by the team for '83.

Nelson Piquet - won the '87 WDC at Williams and was offered a ride by Williams for '88, but chose to follow the money and go to Lotus.

Nigel Mansell - won the '92 WDC at Williams and left for CART in America in '93 after a disagreement with Williams over money.

Alain Prost - won the '93 WDC at Williams and chose to retire at the end of the year rather than partner Senna in '94, whom Williams was keen to sign.

Damon Hill - won the '96 WDC at Williams and switched to Arrows the following year as Williams had by then already signed the relatively less experienced HHF for '97.

Jacques Villeneuve - won the '97 WDC at Williams and was kept on by the team for '98.

Of these seven WDC, only Hill was faced without any option to continue with Williams after having won the Championship with the team. To make matters even worse, the decision not to offer him an extension (and sign someone else) had been taken well before he had won the Championship.

I'm not saying that DH didn't turn things around miraculously in '96, after some pretty rough times in the preceeding three years at Williams, but there's no getting around that he was treated pretty shabbily, much more so than any other WDC at Williams, either before him or after.

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Very true. Hill was not given the choice. HHF was nowhere near good enough, and in hindsight a JV, DH duo would have seemed far better. In the end they maximized their opportunites to win the WCC with the drivers they had, as the 98 car was a pig, and they really haven't been close since.

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Some cite Jacques Villeneuve's father as Gilles as the fastest driver ever.

I'm one of those people. He and Senna would run each other very close in the sheer speed category.

To the topic though, of course Hill is a worthy champion. No WDC isn't worthy of the honour. Interestingly, Hill and Jacques share something in common. Jacques also did not start his career in go-karts. He started his motor racing career in Italian Touring Cars at 17.

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I'm one of those people. He and Senna would run each other very close in the sheer speed category.

To the topic though, of course Hill is a worthy champion. No WDC isn't worthy of the honour. Interestingly, Hill and Jacques share something in common. Jacques also did not start his career in go-karts. He started his motor racing career in Italian Touring Cars at 17.

Gilles was very fast but he was on the hairy edge a lot of times and a bit dangerous. It certainly wouldn't fly today, he would have a lot of penalties. The FIA is much stricter. Also, he started as a kid on a snowmobile and that's all he really did until he drove that direct film car in the Atlantic series. Maybe ecapdeville has a picture for the occasion, that would be great.

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Any driver who does not win the championship in the best car on the grid is not a top driver. Damon is a luckier version of Coulthard, and beat JV just like DC beat KR in 2002. overrated by guess who - the british press..

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Any driver who does not win the championship in the best car on the grid is not a top driver.

Think about what you've just posted. Then you'll realise that it's as wrong as wrong can be.

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Think about what you've just posted. Then you'll realise that it's as wrong as wrong can be.

Indeed.

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Any driver who does not win the championship in the best car on the grid is not a top driver.

I think there may be some confusion over what you're trying to say Cavallino, perhaps you may want to rephrase it...... if your comment is to be taken literally, it would mean that (assuming the McLaren was the best car on the grid in '05 - which many believe it was) you think Kimi is not a top driver, which he certainly his.

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I think there may be some confusion over what you're trying to say Cavallino, perhaps you may want to rephrase it...... if your comment is to be taken literally, it would mean that (assuming the McLaren was the best car on the grid in '05 - which many believe it was) you think Kimi is not a top driver, which he certainly his.

I agree.......................

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There is difference of best vs fastest, but lets keep to Hill.

Fastest sets the lap record and lifts the crowd moments before blowing his engine 'unluckily', the Best becomes world champion!

Generally the Best does become WC (but not always).

In 1996 the Best won, as was the case last season ;)

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