How Hill lifted Williams

Damon Hill started 1994 with no serious aspirations of winning the world championship. He was Ayrton Senna's support act, a safe pair of hands capable of banking solid points and taking the odd win while the Williams team's star driver charged to a fourth drivers' title. Then, on that infamous afternoon at Imola on May 1, everything changed.

One of the hot topics in the aftermath of that race was who Williams would sign as its new spearhead. Few saw Hill as the man to galvanise the grief-stricken team. Yet six months later, he missed out on the world championship by just one point after a controversial collision with Michael Schumacher in Adelaide. How did that happen?

"The moment that Ayrton died, the sport changed and my life changed as well," says Hill. "There is no question, my career was not on that trajectory beforehand. But I got hurled into the void left by Ayrton.

"I don't think there was a realistic expectation that I could fill the vacancy. How do you replace Senna? But given the seriousness of the season, I became more focused and intense about what I was doing.

Hill was supposed to be the support act to Senna at Williams © LAT

"Remember, you are talking about a guy who was 33 years old. In today's terms, I was completely past it by that point! It was a really odd, unexpected situation for me even to be in F1. There was no strategy or career plan other than just to do the best I could in whatever I got my hands on. And I was lucky enough to get my hands on a good car and a good team."

Hill's start to the season was unspectacular. A distant second place in the Brazilian GP and sixth at Imola after losing time when he clipped the back of Schumacher's Benetton at the restart and damaged his front wing, combined with two retirements, meant he had just seven points after four races.

Then came the Spanish Grand Prix. There, Schumacher got stuck in fifth gear while leading and dropped to second, allowing Hill to take a vital victory.

"That was probably one of my most important races," says Hill. "It showed that I could be the lead driver. Ultimately, you have got to be able to win races and we got a win in quite early, only a couple of races after Imola. For morale, it was so important. And it also boosted my self-esteem and made me believe in myself as being able to carry the load."

He needed that self-belief. The question of who would become Hill's regular team-mate had been resolved in favour of test driver David Coulthard. But for the seventh race of the season at Magny-Cours, all eyes were on Williams returnee Nigel Mansell, who took over the second car.

In the closing stages of qualifying, he appeared to have pole sewn up, only for Hill to snatch it away by 0.077s on his final run. Point proved.

"I took that badly and a sign of lack of confidence," says Hill of Mansell's return. "But whatever I might have felt, every driver believes that they have got whatever is necessary to win, so I took it as a bit of a slight that Frank [Williams] felt the need to get 'Big Nige' back to boost the attack.

"But, actually, it was good for me because I had another great name as a team-mate, as a whetstone to sharpen myself on."

And he was getting ever-sharper, over and above the gains being made with the Williams-Renault FW16. Thanks to Schumacher's start, Hill finished second in the French GP and slipped to a massive 37 points off the championship lead. But this is when the fightback really started.

At Silverstone, after snatching pole from Schumacher by just three thousandths of a second, Hill was baffled to watch his rival blast past him on the formation lap. Doubly so when Schumacher did the same thing on the second formation lap after the start was aborted thanks to Coulthard stalling.

"It was very odd, very suspicious," says Hill. "Michael's calling card was that he would do things that other people hadn't really done before in the sport. Everyone understood the formation lap procedure, so it was curious that he did it again at the restart.

Schumacher's behaviour at Silverstone was 'odd' according to Hill © LAT

"You could forget the first one, maybe there was a reason, like his car was overheating, but the fact he did it twice got people thinking about what the hell it was about.

"I don't think it was an out-psyching thing, so the question is whether it had anything to do with the car's technical parameters. He certainly drew a lot of attention to himself. He ignored the penalty, so this was the beginning of the bad boy reputation that Benetton and Michael created for themselves."

At this point, there were serious doubts being raised about the legality of the Benetton. While investigations led to no serious penalties being levied, there were constant rumours about launch control and traction control. Hill is cautious when asked about the specification of the B194.

"There was a lot of smoke, so maybe there was a fire there," he said. "But I do not know. Some things were proved, other things weren't proved but as time goes by stuff leaks out that points to them having used something which might have made their car qualify for disqualification."

Schumacher was excluded from second place at Silverstone, then (after winning at the Hungaroring) was stripped of victory at Spa for excessive wear to the plank attached to the underfloor. With Schumacher also banned for two races - Monza and Estoril - for initially ignoring that black flag at Silverstone, here was the opportunity Hill needed. He admits he was "a bit lucky" to have that chance but he capitalised brilliantly.

Promoted to victory at Spa, he then won both of the two races Schumacher missed, slashing a 31-point lead to just one with three races remaining. In the European GP at Jerez, it seemed Hill and Williams were a busted flush, finishing 25 seconds behind Schumacher. But what wasn't apparent until later in the week after the race was that there was a problem.

"We got thrashed at Jerez, but there was a problem with the fuel-filler," says Hill. "I couldn't understand why we were beaten by such a large margin and it turned out my car had been refuelled with too much fuel, which I only found out a week later.

"I was a bit annoyed by that error. But I was still in with a shout and I definitely peaked in the last two races when the chips were down."

The Japanese GP was Hill's choice for the 'Race of my Life' feature in AUTOSPORT (see below). And it was the right choice. Hill prevailed after holding off Schumacher in the closing stages. This was no ordinary race, with a lengthy red flag interruption for heavy rain meaning that it was decided on aggregate times.

Schumacher didn't need to catch and pass, just get ahead on the stopwatch. He couldn't.

"Every person knows when they have reached a peak in their performance," says Hill. "There are times when the situation draws that out of you. Suzuka was probably that race for me because I had to dig really deep. And it rolled on to Adelaide, which was, in some ways, Suzuka part two."

The situation was perfectly poised. Schumacher led by one point heading into the race, with Mansell, who returned after his Magny-Cours cameo for the final three races, taking pole position ahead of the title protagonists. A slow start allowed Schumacher and Hill to pass him when the green lights came on, setting the scene for a tense duel.

Hill attacked an ailing Schumacher, but the German closed the door © LAT

Hill tracked Schumacher and looked faster. Then Schumacher cracked on lap 36, sliding wide and hitting the wall. Hill had not seen Schumacher go off, but did see the Benetton rejoining.

Hill went to the inside. Schumacher turned in on the Williams and as Hill tried to back out, the Benetton's right-rear wheel rode up over Hill's left front, flicking Schumacher briefly onto two wheels and then into the barrier.

"When you look back at it now on YouTube, it seems painfully slow and not very dramatic," he says of the resulting collision. "It's quite clear, and generally accepted, that Michael wasn't going any further in the race. But I wasn't to know that.

"I saw him coming back onto the track but I hadn't seen him hit the wall. I thought he was weaving a lot but his right-rear was practically hanging off, it turned out! Perhaps I was naive going for the pass. We hadn't factored in the possibility that he might do whatever he needed to stop me passing him."

So was it deliberate?

"I'd like to think I wouldn't have done the same thing," says Hill. "But you never know, you know what racing drivers are like..."

Hill was still moving, but with a clear kink in the left-front upper wishbone. He made it back to the pits, shaking his head as he watched the team powerless to fix the wishbone.

"I could see it hanging off," he adds. "I did meet someone the other day who thought that I was a bit spineless for not carrying on with three wheels though! Patrick tried to straighten it, but I knew it was all over."

But for all the disappointment, both Hill and the Williams team had cause to be proud of the way they responded, coming so close to taking an unlikely drivers' title and sealing the constructors' championship.

It was a fitting tribute to the memory of Ayrton Senna.

Damon Hill: Race of my life
Japanese GP, Suzuka, November 6 1994
Williams-Renault FW16B

There are lots of exciting races you have in a career in motor racing, but there are very few that have the same significance as 1994 at Suzuka had for me. With the death of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna, '94 was a highly stressful and dramatic year. Everything seemed to have much more emphasis.

To stay in the championship fight I had to win. There was a great deal of expectation on the part of Michael and Benetton that they were going to sew it up in Japan.

Most people thought it would end there. We'd had an absolutely crappy race the round before at Jerez - there was a screw-up with the fuel or something and we got trounced - so everyone was a bit down in the dumps.

It started off with a torrential downpour and I'll never forget the first corner. It just lit up with all these flashlights from the grandstands. The first corner is exciting anyway, but those lights on the track amplified it.

Off we went and Michael was in front of me. I just had to hang onto his gearbox - I had a really good view of his driving style in the wet. We were both driving at a very high level. It was incredibly hard.

The level of concentration needed in those conditions - it demands a lot. I love driving in the wet, even though it terrifies the shit out of me! When you do it, you test all your instincts - it's the most enjoyable, satisfying experience.

Schumacher congratulates Hill in parc ferme after their race with the clock © LAT

I just can't imagine doing it now - it's so incredibly otherworldish! It was a two-part race. I led the second part and we went from these two extremes: me seeing what he could do, to him being behind and closing me down. On the last lap, I had to pull out all the stops to maintain the advantage.

It was a really significant race because it was so difficult. Michael was an unknown quantity then, but the exceptional talent he had was clear in that race. To beat him in a straight fight was really satisfying.

I was really pleased to stop the rot and make the title fight go one more race to Australia. I felt I had justified myself as a driver in that race - to the outside world and myself. I had to go way beyond what I previously thought I was capable of. There was no turning back from that point.

Australia was like Japan part two - the race just carried on!

For more stories from the remarkable 1994 season, take a look at the special August 7 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine, guest edited by Damon Hill.

The rise of Schumacher and Benetton
How the controversial Enstone squad took on and defeated the might of Williams

Tech Focus: Williams FW16
The difficult and unloved machine that turned into a championship winner

Why were there so many crashes in 1994?
The challenge of the non-gizmo cars and their part in the run of crashes

Mansell on his last F1 hurrah
The 1992 world champion talks of his final return to Williams

Brundle and McLaren: missed opportunity
Martin Brundle on the trials and tribulations of his season with the F1 superteam

Too injured to race
Why 1994 ended the F1 careers of JJ Lehto and Karl Wendlinger

Separated at birth: Benetton B194 and Pacific PR01
The best and worst cars of 1994 were more closely related than you might think

The final days of Team Lotus
Johnny Herbert remembers the day he could have saved a famous name

Safety legacy
Max Mosley on how the FIA turned tragedy into life-saving triumph