Hat-Trick Hill
Damon could never be described as highly superstitious, the only mark of this being his father's St.Christopher and Graham's old racing colours on his helmet. But when it came to Damon's thirteenth Grand Prix, one would not expect any more trepidation than usual - but when practice for it started on Friday 13th, it was enough to make Hill wonder if maybe the Gods were against him. "After the last two races, my luck can't get much worse"! Still chasing his first win, the pursuit had moved to Hungary and the Hungaroring near Budapest. The race would be run over 77 laps of the meandering 2.47 mile circuit. All the teams appreciated the importance of getting a good start. To be in front on the exit of the first right-hander is acceptable collateral for a win, as overtaking is only less than impossible when both parties are consenting. Hill had beaten Prost away from the lights in six out of the ten races to date, although the Frenchman had secured pole in nine of them. The secret behind the starts, according to Hill is to floor the accelerator and let the traction control sort things out for you. Alain's mistake is being too gentle with the equipment, having learnt his skills in a different technical age. However, Prost had been practising his starts at Silverstone the previous week and could be expected to leave the grid with more confidence. "If you don't have a mechanical problem in the race, you can hold up other cars, even if they are a second a lap faster, because there's just nowhere to overtake. It's like a 100mph tightrope walk, get slightly off line and there is very fine dust on the edge of the track which will end your race for you. But it's great fun - very technical - just like a big go-kart circuit."
Qualifying was not straightforward, the talcum powder-type dust was swirling across the track at various points and caused a number of top drivers, Senna in particular, to spin off. He was determined to get the organisers to do something about it prior to the race. Hill himself had problems with locked brakes during the Friday morning session - he arrived back at the pits with them glowing red. "You could have made a cup of tea on them" said Damon, "the callipers were almost transparent and the uprights were completely destroyed. The mechanics did a brilliant job to get me out in the afternoon." The afternoon session brought problems in the guise of Katayama's Tyrell spinning just in front of him. "It was close" With the temperature in the nineties, Prost and Hill were once again the only two ever likely to win pole, fastest time flipping from one team-mate to the other. Eventually, the Frenchman secured the front of the grid with Damon alongside him, just two-tenths slower. The time arrived for Prost to lead the cars around the track on their parade lap, only when the green light glowed, his Williams-Renault stayed put. After all his practice starts, he had once again stalled the engine, wasting all his efforts to get pole. This effectively gave the front row to Hill, but as they lined up for the start for real, Damon must have been aware that Schumacher, third, behind him would have clean track ahead of him, whereas Hill would have to drive through dust to reach the first corner. "Fortunately, I made probably the best start I've had since I've been in Formula One, and it gave me the clearance I needed." Senna squeezed past Schumacher through that first corner, but Hill was already a long way down the road, pulling out two seconds by the end of the first lap.
Damon steadily extended his lead until on lap 17 Senna followed his team-mate Andretti out of the race, both with broken electronic throttles. Prost, having started from the back of the grid had by now flown his way back to fourth place only to called into the pits with a loose wing which took seven laps to fix - effectively finishing his race. When Michael Schumacher's engine expired on lap 26, the only cars in contention were Hill's Williams, Patrese's Benetton and Berger's Ferrari. That was the order they would finish the race. Damon eased up towards the end, having driven the perfect race, crossing the line with a monumental gap of one minute and twelve seconds between him and second place Patrese. With fourteen retirements, including most of the 'first rate' teams, some could say this was to be a hollow victory for Hill, but driving at the front for 77 laps in only his thirteenth grand prix without putting a foot wrong, Damon deserved the full ten championship points, placing him third. Keeping his cool, both physically and metaphorically, while in front was something that taxed Damon's mind with still more than twenty laps to go. "I just kept thinking about my dad and what he would have said to me in such a situation. It kept me on my toes. Dad could be a hard taskmaster, a good man - but with high standards. I imagined he was talking me, seeing me through. That was enough." "It wasn't easy though, believe me. I had to drive with lots of concentration - not too fast to stress the engine, not too slow to allow anyone to catch me and at just the right speed to avoid making a mistake. It was tricky because this is a tough circuit, it was a very long race and the track surface was very slippery.
The pressure on me came from having had such a big lead - 80 seconds at one time over Riccardo. Think how it would have been to make a mistake at that stage." "Frankly, I was glad when it was all over. Yes I had some luck. I was expecting a really hard race, so when Alain had his problem I was let off the hook. But after what happened to me at the last two races, I felt that was fair enough. I was thinking to myself, 'what am I going to say at the end of all this?' I kept telling myself it's never over until it's over." On the podium, Hill reserved a short bow to the crowd as if he had just finished a conjuring act on stage. Then it was back to Wandsworth and to celebrate with Georgie. "We have a bottle of champagne with a special label designed by a friend called Chateaux Hill - Victory Champagne. I've phoned Georgie to tell her to put it on ice. This win hasn't come a moment too soon and now I am going to enjoy the rest of the season." His win had however come twenty races sooner than his father's first win and it established Graham and Damon as the first father and son combination to win a world championship Grand Prix. Frank Williams, celebrating yet another team win, and one that stretched his constructors points lead to more than double that of his nearest rival, McLaren. In a reference to Nigel Mansell, Williams was heard to say: "Disconnect the phone lines to Florida, England has a new hero." Damon's boss went on to say "He has fully vindicated Patrick Head and the engineers who ganged up on me to get him into the team in the first place. He was not my first choice of driver and he was not at the top of my list. It was not a long list and he was on it, but it was Patrick and Adrian Newey who got their way."
The champagne bubbles had barely subsided when, with only another five races left, talk was rife as to Hill's future with Williams. Ayrton Senna, who had been desperate to get a drive with the top team and had been at the centre of the Mansell controversy a year earlier was pushing hard again to race with Williams in 1994. The irony would be that if Mansell had not left, Damon would not be driving for the team in 1993, but Senna could this time oust Hill. Frank Williams first gave Senna a Formula One test ten years previously and is known to be one of the Brazilians greatest admirers. Prost however, who had in his possession a contract with Williams for 1994 would be unlikely to let his arch-rival Senna race alongside him without a fight. So with just two weeks to go before the Belgian Grand Prix, it seemed that Damon's end of season enjoyment might be upset by a little local difficulty. Hill's first Grand Prix win was also his first win in any type of competitive racing since 1988, but Frank Williams made a prediction that he may go on to win the next race or perhaps two - "that's the way it goes in motor racing". For his part, Damon wanted to silence his dissenters and win a Grand Prix the hard way. "One win could be construed as lucky, another takes it away from that. One win is not enough, it is like scoring your first run in a cricket match. Once that is out of the way you can build an innings. From now on I expect to be a bit more aggressive. I feel quite relaxed, more comfortable."
Over the weekend 28-29 August, Spa-Francorchamps in the Ardennes of Belgian was the venue for Damon's real win. Qualifying was neatly disposed of by the two Williams. Friday's times were a whole second faster than the nearest rival and even Saturday's laps got no closer than half a second to Hill and Prost. The line-up for the race of Prost, Hill, Schumacher, Alesi and Senna was unusual for a couple of reasons. Firstly Alain managed get away at the green light while Schumacher failed to start the race at the same time as everybody else, finally trundling away from the grid in about eleventh place. Prost suggested afterwards that maybe he should give him lessons! The Frenchman was in fact into the first corner ahead of allcomers with Senna sneaking through second. Damon passed Ayrton decisively on lap two, making the Brazilians McLaren almost look as if it were going backwards. The Williams-Renault's showed about a two-second per lap advantage over the Ford-powered red and white cars. By lap twenty, even Schumacher had passed Senna, having hauled himself through the field. Hill kept his sights on Prost "I got an extra incentive every time I saw Alain held up by traffic and that made me press harder." The first tyre stops were completed without incident, but on their second visit for new rubber, Damon, changing first, hammered home an advantage when Prost dithered somewhat on the timing of his own stop. Both Hill and Schumacher screamed past the little Frenchman while he was on cold tyres. The German was now just under five seconds behind Hill with Prost chasing behind them. Over a period of a dozen laps, the lap record was broken by one of the front runners no less than nine times. All three cars were averaging about 140mph but Damon persevered and in a gritty performance, kept his car in front for the remaining laps to take the chequered flag Schumacher just three seconds behind him. "I had the brain out of gear and went like Hell. Compared to Hungary, this was just like five laps. It was so quick, it went past in a flash. Every lap was flat out." Schumacher, who won at Spa in 1992 drove an inspired race after such a dreadful start, but Damon showed that he could withstand the intense pressure of such close competition and still triumph. "I think I have proved myself as a true racer today. Hungary was more of a mental test than a test of driving skill. My first win was something I had to get over and done with, an albatross around my neck. But here, on every single lap, I was trying to go quicker than the lap before. When I realised how close Schumacher was, I just had to go flat out right to the end of the race. I went even quicker in some places where I didn't think it was possible to go quicker."
Damon's second win was also Renault's 50th Grand Prix win and the points gained by Hill and Prost took the Constructor's Championship out of the mathematical reach of Benetton. Frank Williams admitted; "He's no novice any more. We have won one Championship now. When we win the other one, we will look at the problem of who should partner Alain in the team next year." As the action moved on to Monza and the Italian grand prix, it looked like any chance Damon may have of completing a hat-trick of wins would be denied him as team orders would concentrate on Prost's title chase. "I do not want to have a situation where I am asked to relinquish a place in favour of Alain. But, in some ways, it would be in my interests for him to clinch the Championship here so that Frank can decide on next years drivers. But I have an almost unique opportunity to go for a hat-trick of wins here. If I win another Grand Prix, then Frank can sack me if he likes but I will be very happy with the three wins. I want to carry on giving people in England something to cheer about and it won't be the end of the world if I am not taken on by Williams for next year. I have not been looking for another team because I am very happy where I am and I firmly believe Williams will be the team to beat again next year."
Williams had an option on Hill's contract for both 1994 and 1995 and Damon was obviously going to take his chance and hope that somehow he would be signed up in detriment to either Senna or Prost. Damon however was too aware that disregarding team orders would taint his reputation and would affect his future employment opportunities. "It seems the best way to help Alain is for me to win the race." half-joked Hill. "If I win it, after all, that means that Senna won't win it - so that is sort of helping, isn't it? Front grid places went as usual to Prost and Hill, even though Damon had some engine problems. "It was losing some oil and we know the reason for it. The engine is okay and we shall use it again tomorrow. The car also had a little too much understeer at the chicanes, but otherwise, everything was fine." But on this power circuit, Alesi's Ferrari with it's V12 power, on home territory split Senna and Schumacher away from the Williams pair. Jean Alesi's celebration of third fastest qualifying time inadvertently caused a very nasty incident when Berger, in the other Ferrari, not realising the session was finished, mis-read his team-mate's intentions and swerved to avoid him, crashing at 200mph. Amazingly, no real harm done, Sunday's race started on schedule, under a blazing Italian sun. As the cars funnelled into the first chicane at the end of the start/finish straight, it was Prost followed by Alesi who made it through in front. Senna, trying to squeeze his way past Hill, ran over Damon's left rear wheel, causing the Williams to run off the track. Hill's damage limitation excursion left him eleven places down which by the end of the first lap he had reduced to nine. "After colliding with Ayrton, my main concern was that there was some damage to the car. That's the last thing you need on an ultra-fast circuit like this. But once I realised the car was handling all right, I really enjoyed myself." While Prost pulled out a reasonable lead at the head of the field, Damon smartly set about carving his way through the rest of it. Still trying to live up to their unflattering description of mobile chicanes, Berger's Ferrari feinted one way, then the other, but could not hold station against Hill's wit and Renault's power. Schumacher helped by parking his car on lap 22 when his engine expired. By two-thirds distance, after the tyre stops, Damon found himself second with just twenty seconds of road between his car and Prost's. Over the next ten laps, Hill pushed while Prost backed off so that with six laps to go the two Williams were running together. Then Damon's day turned to night as his team leaders engine burst in front of him smothering his visor with oil. By the time he wiped enough off to see his way, he was just five laps from his third victory.
"Alain's engine blew in a big way right in front of me, throwing tons of oil all over the track and me. My first emotion was fear because I could see nothing at all. I had used all the tear-off strips which keep the visor clear and it seemed a long time before I was able to wipe enough off with my glove to see where I was going." "I was delighted to get the lead although it was rough on Alain but it meant I was leading by a big margin very near the end. To win three races on the trot is really a dream come true and to do it at a place like Monza is something special. I was close to tears when I crossed the line. It was a very emotional moment because the win was against all the odds. It was a terrific race for me because there were loads of people to overtake, and that's what racing is all about." Having taken delivery of another ten points he leap-frogged past Senna (who had crashed into the back of Martin Brundle on lap eight) in the points table, to second in the Championship, 23 points behind Prost with a possible thirty points from the last three races.
Copyright 1994 & 2000 Mike Baldock