Formula One legend Damon Hill has admitted that the manner in which he lost the 1994 driver’s championship to Michael Schumacher ‘still cuts deep’.
The Brit battled the then-rising Benetton star during an emotionally fraught season that began with the death of Ayrton Senna following a high-speed crash at the San Marino Grand Prix.
Ahead of the finale, Schumacher and Hill were separated by a single point and for a moment in Adelaide it looked as though the Brit would snatch the title from the German.
But, with precious few laps of the race remaining, with Hill threatening to overtake as Schumacher returned the track after hitting the wall, the future five-time world champion steered into his opponents’ Williams, ending both of their races and securing him his maiden title.
Thirty-one years later, and despite winning the driver’s championship in 1996, Hill has admitted that the incident it still difficult accept.
‘I never really got it out of my system,’ he told the Mirror. ‘Sure, it teed up other battles nicely and later I crashed into him a few times – always by mistake, there was no revenge intended. It had been a tragic year with the loss of Ayrton, so 1994 was full-on drama, but the way it ended still annoys people.
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Damon Hill has admitted that the manner in which he lost the 1994 driver’s championship to Michael Schumacher ‘still cuts deep’
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Ahead of the 1994 season finale in Australia, Schumacher and Hill were separated by a single point
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Schumacher (left) steered into his opponents’ Williams, ending both of their races and securing him his maiden title
‘I wasn’t expected to be in that situation, and we had a good fight for the title, but the way it was settled still cuts deep.’
Hill’s 1996 triumph entered him into one of the most exclusive groups in world sport, while his victory at the British GP in 1994, means he is one of only 12 British drivers to claim victory at the event.
But the most private club, he shares with his dad Graham, as well as Keke and Nice Rosberg as the only father-son pairings to both win the world championship.
Ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix at Silverstone, Hill tipped McLaren’s Lando Norris to follow up his win in Austria with another in front of the home fans in Northamptonshire.
‘If I had to stick my neck out at Silverstone, it’s got to be Lando,’ added Hill. ‘It feels like this is his time, I’m sure he’ll be desperate to win it.’
