Damon Hill OBE

The young Damon Hill preferred motorbikes to racing cars while his father was alive, but after Graham Hill was tragically killed in an air crash Damon had to ride one as a courier to help the devastated family make ends meet. He started racing cars aged 25 in 1985. After a few years in Formula Ford, Formula 3 and F3000, Williams noticed how hard Damon worked and hired him as a test driver. He had his first Formula 1 race for Brabham a year later, and when Nigel Mansell left Williams in 1993 Damon finally had his chance to shine – at 31, and with only two GP starts under his belt so far. There was a tense season in 1994 when he lost out to Michael Schumacher for the Championship by a single point. The ranking was the same a year later, but then in 1996 it all came good when he won eight of the 16 races to take the World title. After parting ways with Williams there were a couple more seasons with Jordan, and he then retired in 1999 having more than done justice to the famous family name with his 22 GP wins and, of course, the World Championship title itself.